July 24, 1996





                             CONCURRING STATEMENT OF
     COMMISSIONER RACHELLE B. CHONG IN WHICH 
COMMISSIONER JAMES H. QUELLO JOINS



Re:  Deletion of Noncommercial Reservation of Channel *16, 482-488 MHz, Pittsburgh,
     Pennsylvania, FCC No. 96-314

     I reluctantly concur in the Commission's decision in this case.  WQED Pittsburgh, the
licensee of noncommercial educational television stations WQED(TV), Channel *13 and
WQEX(TV), Channel *16 in Pittsburgh, like many other public television stations, is in
serious financial trouble.  WQED thought it had devised a creative way to solve its financial
trouble.  Its solution, to sell Channel *16 as a commercial station, would have allowed WQED
to become financially healthy now and help it stay financially viable well into the future.  It
would have allowed WQED to continue to produce the quality educational programming for
which it is known.   In addition, this solution would have permitted Pittsburgh, a city with
fewer commercial TV allocations than comparably-sized markets, to have a new commercial
competitor and more diversity in commercial programming.  In my view, these could have been
compelling reasons to support a grant of WQED's petition to dereserve Channel *16 so that
Channel 16 could be sold as a commercial station.  

     I concur in the denial of WQED's petition, however, because the record shows that
WQED has another alternative to relieve its current financial distress without dereservation of 
Channel *16.  I understand that WQED has an option to swap Channel *16 for commercial
Channel 40 and divide any proceeds from the subsequent sale of Channel 40 with the Channel
40 licensee.  The public expressions we received from the citizens of Pittsburgh make it unclear
whether this alternative would better serve the development of public broadcasting in that city. 
Nonetheless, given the public interest considerations that led the FCC to reserve
noncommercial channels and the Commission's strong precedent disfavoring dereservations, the
presence of this alternative leads me to conclude that we cannot grant the petition on this
record.