§ 73.503   Licensing requirements and service.

   The operation of, and the service furnished by noncommercial
   educational FM broadcast stations shall be governed by the following:

   (a) A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station will be licensed
   only to a nonprofit educational organization and upon showing that the
   station will be used for the advancement of an educational program.

   (1) In determining the eligibility of publicly supported educational
   organizations, the accreditation of their respective state departments
   of education shall be taken into consideration.

   (2) In determining the eligibility of privately controlled educational
   organizations, the accreditation of state departments of education
   and/or recognized regional and national educational accrediting
   organizations shall be taken into consideration.

   (b) Each station may transmit programs directed to specific schools in
   a system or systems for use in connection with the regular courses as
   well as routine and administrative material pertaining thereto and may
   transmit educational, cultural, and entertainment programs to the
   public.

   (c) A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station may broadcast
   programs produced by, or at the expense of, or furnished by persons
   other than the licensee, if no other consideration than the furnishing
   of the program and the costs incidental to its production and broadcast
   are received by the licensee. The payment of line charges by another
   station network, or someone other than the licensee of a noncommercial
   educational FM broadcast station, or general contributions to the
   operating costs of a station, shall not be considered as being
   prohibited by this paragraph.

   (d) Each station shall furnish a nonprofit and noncommercial broadcast
   service. Noncommercial educational FM broadcast stations are subject to
   the provisions of § 73.1212 to the extent they are applicable to the
   broadcast of programs produced by, or at the expense of, or furnished
   by others. No promotional announcement on behalf of for profit entities
   shall be broadcast at any time in exchange for the receipt, in whole or
   in part, of consideration to the licensee, its principals, or
   employees. However, acknowledgements of contributions can be made. The
   scheduling of any announcements and acknowledgements may not interrupt
   regular programming, except as permitted under paragraph (e) of this
   section.

   (e) A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station may interrupt
   regular programming to conduct fundraising activities on behalf of a
   third-party non-profit organization, provided that all such fundraising
   activities conducted during any given year do not exceed one percent of
   the station's total annual airtime. A station may use the prior year's
   total airtime for purposes of determining how many hours constitute one
   percent of its total annual airtime. With respect to stations that
   multicast programming on two or more separate channels, the one-percent
   annual limit will apply separately to each individual programming
   stream. For purposes of this paragraph, a non-profit organization is an
   entity that qualifies as a non-profit organization under 26 U.S.C.
   501(c)(3).

   (1) Audience disclosure. A noncommercial educational FM broadcast
   station that interrupts regular programming to conduct fundraising
   activities on behalf of a third-party non-profit organization must air
   a disclosure during such activities clearly stating that the fundraiser
   is not for the benefit of the station itself and identifying the entity
   for which it is fundraising. The station must air the audience
   disclosure at the beginning and the end of each fundraising program and
   at least once during each hour in which the program is on the air.

   (2) Reimbursement. A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station
   that interrupts regular programming to conduct fundraising activities
   on behalf of a third-party non-profit organization may accept
   reimbursement of expenses incurred in conducting third-party
   fundraising activities or airing third-party fundraising programs.

   (3) Exemption. No noncommercial educational FM broadcast station that
   receives funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting shall
   have the authority to interrupt regular programming to conduct
   fundraising activities on behalf of a third-party non-profit
   organization.

   (f) Mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial educational radio
   stations operating on reserved channels will be resolved pursuant to
   the point system in subpart K.

   Note to § 73.503: Commission interpretation on this rule, including the
   acceptable form of acknowledgements, may be found in the Second Report
   and Order in Docket No. 21136 (Commission Policy Concerning the
   Noncommercial Nature of Educational Broadcast Stations), 86 FCC 2d 141
   (1981); the Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket No. 21136, 90 FCC 2d
   895 (1982); the Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket 21136, 97 FCC 2d
   255 (1984); and the Report and Order in Docket No. 12-106
   (Noncommercial Educational Station Fundraising for Third-Party
   Non-Profit Organizations), FCC 17-41, April 20, 2017. See also
   Commission Policy Concerning the Noncommercial Nature of Educational
   Broadcast Stations, Public Notice, 7 FCC Rcd 827 (1992), which can be
   retrieved through the Internet at
   http://www.fcc.gov/mmb/asd/nature.html.

   (Secs. 4, 5, 303, 48 Stat., as amended, 1066, 1068, 1082 (47 U.S.C.
   154, 155, 303))

   [ 28 FR 13651 , Dec. 14, 1963, as amended at  35 FR 7558 , May 15, 1970;  47 FR 36178 , Aug. 19, 1982;  49 FR 29069 , July 18, 1984;  63 FR 33877 , June
   22, 1998;  65 FR 36378 , June 8, 2000;  82 FR 21135 , May 5, 2017]

   return arrow Back to Top