Commissioner O'Rielly Remarks Before the 2018 Radio Show

Thank you for the opportunity to join your esteemed industry in Orlando (FL) to discuss radio policy issues. As we head into our next Quadrennial Review, more work remains, which I would like to spend my time discussing with you today:

Updating Our Media Market Definition: All relevant participants must be included in any media market definition. When I talk to existing providers in this space, they explain quite clearly how they compete directly against all of those operating in the market, especially given the development and scale of two large Internet companies: Facebook and Google. 

AM/FM Subcaps: [We] need to both raise the overall radio ownership caps within a market and eliminate the current AM/FM subcaps. 

Incubator Program: I want to commend Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for his leadership in both proposing and carrying out this ideaI...Unfortunately, it appears that some are still trying to alter our comparable markets algorithm to disallow comparability more than five market rank sizes removed in either direction from the incubated station’s market. As I stated in August, this is an overly complex alternative that I fear will restrict participation in our program. I will continue to object to any changes in this area.