Citing financial issues, Network of Glory, licensee of 5 NCEs in AR, GA, NE, OK and TN had requested a waiver from the FCC to broadcast commercial advertisements on the station.
In their request, they justify their waiver by claiming that they serve rural and underserved areas and that due to the "present economic climate in the United States" that has "placed a dire financial strain on many private and government funding agencies".
Their request asked for the following:
(1) Commercial advertisements would only be operated at the top of the hour,
(2) Commercial advertisements would not interrupt regular station programming, and
(3) any commercial announcements and their scheduling will be retained in the station's public inspection files for review and scrutiny.
The FCC has flat out denied this waiver stating that the FCC's interest in creating a noncommercial service has been to remove the programming decisions by public broadcasters from the "normal kinds of commercial market pressures under which broadcasters in the unreserved spectrum operate." In addition, the FCC is required by statute to maintain the NCE service in this manner. The FCC notes that even if they were not required by statute to maintain the NCE service this way, the concept of airing commercials would undermine the development of a public broadcasting system free of commercial influence.
The FCC reminds the petitioner that many NCE stations are facing similar situations at this time and by allowing them to air commercials at times when donations are low would "eviscerate the underwriting rules."
While we sympathize with NCE full power and LPFM station operators in these hard times, REC agrees with the FCC's decision in this case. In order to maintain the objectivity and community focus of the NCE service, we must not allow it to be influenced by commercial interests beyond the point of corporate underwriting.
However, REC would like to see codified in the rules (and not just refer to orders that are not easily accessible), the "ground rules" for underwriting announcements on NCE stations. Too many stations have been in trouble in the past and we feel a portion of the problem is due to the lack of clear guidance from the FCC on what is and what isn't allowed.
Organizations like Network of Glory could potentially build on their existing underwriting message policies and remain within the letter of the law if they were given a clear road map of what NCE stations can and can't do.
FCC's letter at this URL:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-11-1684A1.pdf
