I know of an FM NCE that runs "regular" spots that you would hear on a commercial station on their internet stream while the OTA signal is airing an underwriting announcement for the same supporter/advertiser. Although it seems suspect, I believe this is permitted, am I correct?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
NCE running ad spots on streaming
- Thread starter RadioGuy1864
- Start date
Yes. NCE rules only apply to broadcast.
This does, however, raise the issue of "enhanced" underwriting for NCE/LPFM stations. According to the FCC "…we relaxed our noncommercial policy to allow public broadcasters to expand or "enhance" the scope of donor and underwriter acknowledgements to include (1) logograms or slogans which identify and do not promote, (2) location information, (3) value neutral descriptions of a product line or service, and (4) brand and trade names and product or service listings. The purpose was to "offer significant potential benefits to public broadcasting in terms of attracting additional business support and would thereby improve the financial self-sufficiency of the service without threatening its underlying noncommercial nature."
www.fcc.gov
It would be interesting to explore just how far a noncommercial station can go with enhanced underwriting. I notice, for example, that PBS stations will show beauty shots of different destinations with some VO about the countries shown. At the end, you see a shot of a cruise ship with the cruise ship logo. Nothing is said to tie the images together or urge someone to take a cruise, but the implication is obvious. Clever.
Commission Policy on the Noncommercial Nature of Educational Broadcasting
Commission Policy on the Noncommercial Nature of Educational Broadcasting
It would be interesting to explore just how far a noncommercial station can go with enhanced underwriting. I notice, for example, that PBS stations will show beauty shots of different destinations with some VO about the countries shown. At the end, you see a shot of a cruise ship with the cruise ship logo. Nothing is said to tie the images together or urge someone to take a cruise, but the implication is obvious. Clever.
Very simple: There is no violation, red flags or anything of the sort about a non-commercial FM running full fledged commercials on their stream. The FCC only regulates the content of the enhanced underwriting aired over the airwaves. The FCC does not care about what is not broadcast over the licensed frequency you are on.
It would be very unwise to see what you might get away with on enhanced underwriting. The reason is simple: interpretation of the rules. Underwriting Rules are written to give as much leeway as possible to stations. The FCC, however, can interpret the rules by their standard and generally, no matter what you say, their interpretation stands. Whether you win or not costs you plenty of money with your communications attorney responding to the FCC. ZebraRadio makes a fine point.
Best to review recent interpretations to figure it all out. Just because you saw it or heard it doesn't mean it's legal. It might take a year before you'd learn something violated the rules.
Best to stick with 20 seconds or less and not more than 7 'items' including address, phone, website all being an item. Don't want to get caught for 'menu items'. It seems 8 items can trigger a fine, or it has at various points. Communications attorneys dealing with Underwriting seem uniform in suggesting 20 seconds or less and '7 items or less'.
No ruling on if music can go under produced underwriting. No rule says you can't have the client voice it. If you do either, you might not trigger a fine for that but you can bet the FCC frowns on this (big ol' frown). You'll surely be admonished for your underwriting being too similar to a commercial in sound. A client's voice on Underwriting is for what purpose? Obviously it is to create a 'bond' between the owner and listener so the FCC will analyze this carefully and admonish at a minimum. Admonishment is no fine but it is a paper trail, so to speak, and not a positive one.
You have to consider every word in Underwriting and ask why it is there. Here's an example: "Attorney John Deaux, in business in the same office on the square since 1987". By giving the year you intend to give a competitive advantage because it implies this attorney has more 'experience' than other attorneys in the area. And you say it is legal to say when the business started. It is. What might be legal on one end might violate another underwriting rule. Look at everything you say over the air from all angles. Weigh that on how much of a fund you have to defend your decision. That big public station might be in a better financial condition to take a chance and defend it.
It would be very unwise to see what you might get away with on enhanced underwriting. The reason is simple: interpretation of the rules. Underwriting Rules are written to give as much leeway as possible to stations. The FCC, however, can interpret the rules by their standard and generally, no matter what you say, their interpretation stands. Whether you win or not costs you plenty of money with your communications attorney responding to the FCC. ZebraRadio makes a fine point.
Best to review recent interpretations to figure it all out. Just because you saw it or heard it doesn't mean it's legal. It might take a year before you'd learn something violated the rules.
Best to stick with 20 seconds or less and not more than 7 'items' including address, phone, website all being an item. Don't want to get caught for 'menu items'. It seems 8 items can trigger a fine, or it has at various points. Communications attorneys dealing with Underwriting seem uniform in suggesting 20 seconds or less and '7 items or less'.
No ruling on if music can go under produced underwriting. No rule says you can't have the client voice it. If you do either, you might not trigger a fine for that but you can bet the FCC frowns on this (big ol' frown). You'll surely be admonished for your underwriting being too similar to a commercial in sound. A client's voice on Underwriting is for what purpose? Obviously it is to create a 'bond' between the owner and listener so the FCC will analyze this carefully and admonish at a minimum. Admonishment is no fine but it is a paper trail, so to speak, and not a positive one.
You have to consider every word in Underwriting and ask why it is there. Here's an example: "Attorney John Deaux, in business in the same office on the square since 1987". By giving the year you intend to give a competitive advantage because it implies this attorney has more 'experience' than other attorneys in the area. And you say it is legal to say when the business started. It is. What might be legal on one end might violate another underwriting rule. Look at everything you say over the air from all angles. Weigh that on how much of a fund you have to defend your decision. That big public station might be in a better financial condition to take a chance and defend it.
You can probably get away with a lot. The number of fines issued by the Commission on enhanced underwriting grounds over the last 10 years can be counted on one hand. The most likely way a station would get caught is if a competitor (or plausibly, I suppose, a listener outside the industry) notified the Commission of violations.
As Clint Eastwood would say: "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
Most fines result from commercial broadcasters filing complaints with recordings.
I would say the number of stations fined is more than PTBoardOp93 states. Even if you are admonished, you won't like the results of building a complaint manual, documenting all staff read and understand it and filing bi-annual reports of compliance for generally 5 years.
There are two stations I am aware of where the FCC took away the license. In both instances, the stations were pretty much ignoring underwriting rules, got caught and admonished versus fined (since the were low power FMs). The stations went right back to what they were doing and were caught again!
I would say the number of stations fined is more than PTBoardOp93 states. Even if you are admonished, you won't like the results of building a complaint manual, documenting all staff read and understand it and filing bi-annual reports of compliance for generally 5 years.
There are two stations I am aware of where the FCC took away the license. In both instances, the stations were pretty much ignoring underwriting rules, got caught and admonished versus fined (since the were low power FMs). The stations went right back to what they were doing and were caught again!
The FCC needs to hear a violation over the air in order to take action. But they certainly would listen to the stream to see if there is a possible violation that they could take action on. If they get a complaint about advertising on an LPFM, then check the stream and hear that it doesn’t sound like advertising, they probably won’t send a field agent to the LPFM. It costs money to send people out, but checking the stream is free.
correct... an fcc staffer told me this once directly when i found a non comm running spots online
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
So make recordings and file a complaint with the FCC, including same. If you are in the stations' protected contour, you have standing to file as a listener.
Michi has a good tutorial on her site. I link it here:
There has been no specific action on music under an acknowledgement. Music should not be used to deliver a subliminal message. The FCC has taken concern in the past for sound effects.
Technically, that would turn the announcement into a time purchase. It would be in violation of 47 USC 399B(a)(2):
'"to express the views of any person with respect to any matter of public importance or interest"
Underwriting acknowledgement should always be the station voice.
Remember, it's the station talking to the listener to thank the underwriter.
A majority of the stations that get dinged for underwriting have two things in common:
(1) They are in a smaller market and
(2) They are running a format that is not common for noncommercial radio but instead, they run a commercially viable mainstream format that can or potentially compete with commercial stations.
NPR type public stations are normally left alone because they don't encroach on the formats of commercial stations. This is a huge mistake made by LPFMs and then they push the envelope on underwriting and that's what gets the LPFMs in trouble. Look at the Charlottesville 5.. Look at both of WAWL's run-ins with the FCC. These are small and medium market areas and stations that were running commercial formats.
I can definitely file a complaint on the next renewal of all of the NPR stations near me (WYPR, WAMU, WESM, etc.) because of the content.
The late Donna D'Bianco was right... start with a business card and slowly work out.
See Underwriting Compliance Guide | REC Networks
Stations that run hybrid (opt out for the stream) need to keep really good traffic logs. Keep in mind, for every 60 spot on an opt out, you will need to squeeze in three underwriting acknowledgements on FM. Opt out is not the best way to go. Get people to the station website and advertise the hell of the donors on the website.
I suggest stations using my fishing analogy: the on air underwriting is the worm on the hook of the fishing pole you dangle in the water. It is the station website that reels in the 'fish'. In other words, the Underwriting is simply a pointer to where you can learn more about a supporter. Too many LPFMs think Underwriting only, not the value of their website and how most people learn about a business these days. If they do think website, it's just a link to the business, not details. We need to realize in commercial and non-commercial radio, radio is just one of the tools to build awareness for a business and not the only one available to us.
When I was trying to get a LPFM going, I knew the research showing phone numbers were useless since nobody could write them down unless it spells out something. I also saw research that we were reaching 'overkill' on websites. In other words, so many websites mentioned on air that people could not remember them all. Inspired by KCME's Business Directory (Sponsor Directory – KCME), we offered a combination of on air 8 second messages and 'anything the business wants to say' and even a photo in the station business directory online. Our plan was to suggest businesses use "for more information go to (station website) and find them on the Business Directory page". If they specifically wanted their website, fine, but the thinking was it was easier to recall one website than 20 or 30 they heard all day while they worked.
And we were going to allow any business or person playing the station/regular listener to do a station liner with person's name and if a business, add the name of that business. Example: This is Joe Blow at Joe's Cafe and we spend our days on The Lake 92-9; This is Lisa Jones and I spend my day on The Lake 92-9. These were free with no strings attached and open to anyone that listened. This was a small market and my objective was to have local people ID the station to give the illusion we were the station everybody listened to. The objective was within an hour you'd hear somebody you knew. Given I was joining a country FM with high school sports and local news with a history in the community, I felt local IDs might help The Lake build audience. And we were in music during their commercial breaks even though we weren't country.
Finally, on underwriting, I have told people the best marketing is keeping your name out there because the business thought of first usually gets the customer. Underwriting is simply top of mind awareness. For a skeptic I point out the leader or best in their field never has to say they're the best. Only the ones wanting to become the leader have to. By saying nothing, you convey you are the best, the leader. All the best needs to do is maintain top of mind awareness. Case in point. I'm calling on clients and walk in to an office where they need to make copies but the copier is down. It's an old copier and the maintenance contract expired some time back. They need to call somebody. The secretary asks the 10 or so in the office. One mentions a company. A few seconds later, another person says "I've heard of them". The secretary finds the phone number and calls the company the first person mentioned. Why? Because of top of mind awareness. They knew nothing about the company but because of recall it was assumed they were among the best.
I am a huge proponent of shorter underwriting. I think 40 words plus opening is a maximum I'd personally consider but I much prefer 5 to 10 seconds of about 15 or 30 words with opening. I push convey one thought and that's it. (ie: Bluebonnet Pest Control, pest control services include include once a year fire ant control. Details in the Business Directory at the lake 9-2-9 dot com).
When I was trying to get a LPFM going, I knew the research showing phone numbers were useless since nobody could write them down unless it spells out something. I also saw research that we were reaching 'overkill' on websites. In other words, so many websites mentioned on air that people could not remember them all. Inspired by KCME's Business Directory (Sponsor Directory – KCME), we offered a combination of on air 8 second messages and 'anything the business wants to say' and even a photo in the station business directory online. Our plan was to suggest businesses use "for more information go to (station website) and find them on the Business Directory page". If they specifically wanted their website, fine, but the thinking was it was easier to recall one website than 20 or 30 they heard all day while they worked.
And we were going to allow any business or person playing the station/regular listener to do a station liner with person's name and if a business, add the name of that business. Example: This is Joe Blow at Joe's Cafe and we spend our days on The Lake 92-9; This is Lisa Jones and I spend my day on The Lake 92-9. These were free with no strings attached and open to anyone that listened. This was a small market and my objective was to have local people ID the station to give the illusion we were the station everybody listened to. The objective was within an hour you'd hear somebody you knew. Given I was joining a country FM with high school sports and local news with a history in the community, I felt local IDs might help The Lake build audience. And we were in music during their commercial breaks even though we weren't country.
Finally, on underwriting, I have told people the best marketing is keeping your name out there because the business thought of first usually gets the customer. Underwriting is simply top of mind awareness. For a skeptic I point out the leader or best in their field never has to say they're the best. Only the ones wanting to become the leader have to. By saying nothing, you convey you are the best, the leader. All the best needs to do is maintain top of mind awareness. Case in point. I'm calling on clients and walk in to an office where they need to make copies but the copier is down. It's an old copier and the maintenance contract expired some time back. They need to call somebody. The secretary asks the 10 or so in the office. One mentions a company. A few seconds later, another person says "I've heard of them". The secretary finds the phone number and calls the company the first person mentioned. Why? Because of top of mind awareness. They knew nothing about the company but because of recall it was assumed they were among the best.
I am a huge proponent of shorter underwriting. I think 40 words plus opening is a maximum I'd personally consider but I much prefer 5 to 10 seconds of about 15 or 30 words with opening. I push convey one thought and that's it. (ie: Bluebonnet Pest Control, pest control services include include once a year fire ant control. Details in the Business Directory at the lake 9-2-9 dot com).
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I'm not in any way an expert on underwriting for any NCEs, I do know enough to express a concern that "details in the Business Directory" comes dangerously close to the "call for action" which is often the basis for the FCC to issue a NAV.
I will therefore be interested to hear @Michi's take on that. She is the expert.
"More information in the business directory at ___.com" - OK - No call to action. (No different than saying, more information at 818 867-5309.)
"Get more information at the business directory at ___.com" - Not OK. Solution suggestion.
"For more information, check out the business directory at ___>com" - Not OK. Call to action.
"Get more information at the business directory at ___.com" - Not OK. Solution suggestion.
"For more information, check out the business directory at ___>com" - Not OK. Call to action.
I would avoid it. Especially if you are what I consider a high risk station (a) small or medium market and/or (b) a format not becoming of stereotypical noncommercial radio.
- Status