Noncommercial Broadcasting

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The days when noncommercial broadcasters could count on being treated by the FCC with a lighter regulatory touch are over.
Continue Reading FCC Gives No Special Consideration to Noncommercial Broadcasters Who Violate the Rules – Colleges Pay Attention to Your Radio Station!

The FCC today issued a long-awaited public notice, clarifying the relationship between FM educational stations and the analog Channel 6 TV stations that have or will be disappearing after the digital transition.  As we’ve written before, the question of whether noncommercial FM stations could seek improvements in their facilities based on the imminent disappearance…

Last week, the FCC issued several fines to noncommercial broadcasters who had underwriting announcements that sounded too commercial.  In these decisions, the Commission found that the stations had broadcast promotional announcements for commercial businesses – and those announcements did not conform to the FCC’s rules requiring that announcements acknowledging contributions to noncommercial stations cannot contain qualitative claims about the sponsor, nor can they contain "calls to action" suggesting that listeners patronize the sponsor.  These cases also raised an interesting issue in that the promotional announcements that exceeded FCC limits were not in programming produced by the station, but instead in programs produced by outside parties who received the compensation that led to the announcement.  The FCC found that there was liability for the spots that were too promotional even though the station itself had received no compensation for the airing of that spot.

The rules for underwriting announcements on noncommercial stations (including Low Power FM stations) limit these announcements to ones that identify sponsors, but do not overtly promote their businesses.   Underwriting announcements can identify the sponsor, say what the business of the sponsor is, and give a location (seemingly including a website address).  But the announcements cannot do anything that would specifically encourage patronage of the sponsor’s business.  They cannot contain a "call to action" (e.g. they cannot say "visit Joe’s hardware on Main Street" or "Call Mary’s Insurance Company today").  They cannot contain any qualitative statements about the sponsors products or services (e.g. they cannot say "delicious food", "the best service", or "a friendly and knowledgeable staff" ).  The underwriting announcements cannot contain price information about products sold by a sponsor.  In one of the cases decided this week, the Commission also stated that the announcements cannot be too long, as that in and of itself makes the spot seem overly promotional and was more than was necessary to identify the sponsor and the business that the sponsor was in.  The spot that was criticized was approximately 60 seconds in length. Continue Reading FCC Fines for Noncommercial Stations Having Underwriting Announcements That Were Too Commercial – Even Where the Station Received No Money

The FCC’s staff today issued an Order resolving 26 Groups of mutually exclusive FM applications submitted last year in the filing window for new noncommercial FM stations. We wrote about a previous order in August, processing a smaller group of such applicants.  In each of these groups, the Commission analyzed the coverage proposed by the applicants…

An FCC decision in a case involving two applicants for a construction permit to construct a new noncommercial television station in Tulsa illustrated an interesting dilemma that can arise from the application of the "point" system that is used to decide comparative cases for new noncommercial stations. We wrote about the point system, here.  In this…

The FCC has begun the process of resolving the groups of mutually exclusive noncommercial FM radio applications. In an Order released today, the FCC decided 12 groups of mutually exclusive applications ("MX Groups") by analyzing only one decisional factor – the question of "fair distribution" of noncommercial service.  As we wrote when we set out the criteria for FCC decision making , when the FCC chooses between mutually exclusive groups of applications for new Noncommercial Educational ("NCE") stations, the initial level of analysis is a consideration of whether the application serves extensive areas where there is little other noncommercial radio service.  If a station covers any area that currently has fewer than 2 noncommercial radio services, and that area exceeds 10% of the proposed service area of the applicant covering more than 2000 people, a conclusive preference will be awarded over another applicant who does not meet that threshold.   All of today’s decisions were made based on this criteria.

One interesting aspect of the decisions was how many cases were essentially won by default – as a number of applicants did not bother to compute the areas and the populations that they served.  Where that information was not provided in the initial application as submitted by the applicant, the Commission gave the applicant no credit for any service. So even if an applicant submitted an application that would in reality serve underserved areas, if they did not claim that service in their initial application, they got no credit for the service.  The FCC did not fill in any blanks in the applications.  So, if you are planning to claim credit for anything in an application – be sure to do it up front when the application is filed, or you’ll get no credit.Continue Reading FCC Begins to Resolve Mutually Exclusive Noncommercial FM Radio Applications

The processing of the applications for new noncommercial FM stations marches on.  This week, the FCC released a list of groups of Mutually Exclusive applications (commonly known by those who regularly deal with the FCC as "MX groups"), i.e. applications that are linked together in that, because of interference concerns, not all can be granted. …

In a decision released late on Friday, the FCC upheld a $9,000 fine on a noncommercial television operator who broadcast underwriting announcements which, in the opinion of the Commission, were too much like commercials and thus were impermissible on a noncommercial station.  Under the Commission’s policies governing the noncommercial nature of noncommercial stations, it is permissible to air an underwriting announcement acknowledging a commercial entity that makes a financial contribution to the station.  And it is permissible to state the nature of the business, where it is located, and to air the slogan of the company.  What is not permissible is when the underwriting announcement contains "calls to action," qualitative or comparative claims, price information, or other inducements to do business with this particular company.  In this case, the Commission felt that the announcements crossed some or all of these lines.

In the initial Notice of Apparent Liability in this case, released in late 2004, the text of the announcements at issue are set out.  In last week’s order, phrases such as "planning a special occasion?" as the intro line to an announcement about an Ice cream store were deemed to be calls to action, and the description of the ice cream cakes that the store made as "tastefully decorated" were deemed to be qualitative.  Similarly, statements about a real estate company that "we’re all about family" and "we love selling real estate" were deemed to be comparative in nature, trying to distinguish this particular agent from other competitors.  In only one of ten ads, one for a school supply store, did the Commission overturn its previous determination, finding that an announcement for "creative learning materials" was arguably descriptive and not qualitative.Continue Reading FCC Fines Noncommercial Station for Enhanced Underwriting Announcments that Were too Commercial

Channel 6 of the television band is immediately adjacent to the lower end of the FM band.  Noncommercial FM radio stations, located at the lower end of the FM band (88.1 FM to 91.9), have the potential to interfere with television stations on that channel.  Thus, FCC rules require that noncommercial FM stations protect…