Report: FCC May Downsize Field Offices

The FCC is apparently proposing to close or significantly reduce assets at approximately half of its field offices.

RadioWorld reports a memo from the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc and Managing Director Jon Wilkins to the bureau staff that outside sources shared with Radio World.

In the memo, they state that the current field office model was adopted 20 years ago “and while field operations have served a vital part of the agency’s mission, significant technological changes and increasing resource limitations require a fresh look at this operating model.”

The FCC would reduce the number of field agents from 63 to 33, reduce the number of director positions from 21 to five and cut support staff as well under the plan.

The agency would shrink the number of field offices from 24 to eight. The field offices to remain open would be in or near New York City, Columbia, Md., Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Some markets would have “prepositioned equipment” with an emphasis “on population/spectrum use density,” according to the memo, including Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Seattle, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Anchorage, Alaska, Honolulu and Billings, Mont.

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