Alphonse writes:

"Dear Dr. FCC: We have a listener supported non-profit FM station in our small city, but we're having a hard time getting subscribers. Some of our board members think we should start running advertisements. Is that ok? —”Alphonse"

Dear Alphonse:

Sorry, but your listener supported, non-profit station can't run "commercials" or "advertisements." But I put those words in quotes because, as you'll soon see, you can run on-air spots that pretty much look, walk, and quack like ads, they just have to stay within certain bounds

Section 399B(b)(2) of the Communications Act makes the policy clear: "No public broadcast station may make its facilities available to any person for the broadcasting of any advertisement." The statute defines "advertisement" as a message or program that is broadcast in exchange for remuneration and that promotes

• "any service, facility, or product offered by any person who is engaged in such offering for profit"
• or advocates the views of a given person on some matter of public interest
• or takes a stand on a candidate for public office

The FCC enforces these rules, sometimes. Here are two recent cases:

In 2004 the hammer came down on Christian non-commercial station WCVZ(FM) in South Zanesville, Ohio. A year earlier the station received remuneration to run announcements on behalf of a station underwriter. The underwriter, Barnes Advertising, promoted the station on local billboards in exchange for the on-air notices.

The Commission took particular exception to the spots because they tried to distinguish the advertised service from the competition "by directly stating or implying that they offer superior service or products." The announcements also urged listeners to patronize the business, a major naughty to the FCC.

Plus the agency estimated that WCVZ ran the spots over 3,000 times over a 15 month period, "indicating an utter failure of licensee practice and policy concerning its underwriting compliance responsibilities," the FCC's December 6, 2004 Notice of Apparent Liability concluded.

The Commission fined WCVZ $20,000 for the violations.

More recently, a party complained about illegal advertising on low power non-profit FM station KFLO in Jonesboro, Arkansas. KFLO had filed for an FCC construction permit, and the complainant asked that the permit be blocked.

The FCC reviewed the complaint and found valid some of the concerns. Announcements on behalf of three companies — S&T, C.J. Watkins Construction, and EchoQuest — ”included references that encouraged business patronage, referred to prices, and portrayed the underwriter "in a comparative and qualitative manner:"

"The C.J. Watkins Construction Company announcement impermissibly induces patronage of the underwriter's business by advertising that 'all completed work comes with a full warranty.' Finally, the Echoquest announcement extols the 'The Fresh Air' as an 'advanced air system' which utilizes 'state-of-the-art technology to create a more efficient way to keep you free of smoke and odor'."

But the FCC's November 2005 decision on the matter commended KFLO management for quickly rectifying the problem by removing the offending ads and taking further steps to ensure future compliance. The Commission let the station off with an admonishment, and authorized the construction permit to go ahead.

In addition, the FCC noted that most of KFLO's underwriting spots stayed within acceptable limits. "Specifically, the announcements briefly describe their underwriters' products or services in generic, value-neutral terms, and list business addresses and telephone numbers, consistent with the identification-only purpose of underwriting announcements," the Commission wrote.

When did these sort of spots become acceptable? Quite a while ago, actually. In March of 1984 the FCC relaxed its non-commercial policies regarding public radio stations to "enhance the scope of donor and underwriting acknowledgements," as the agency put it. Stations could now include on-air thank yous that include:

• slogans and logos that "identify and do not promote"
• the location of the underwriter
• "value neutral" descriptions of products and services
• brands and product services and trade names

It appears that, for the FCC, the three big violations of Section 399B are announcements that include pricing information (eg, "Just 49.99! Buy now!"), calls to action ("Come on down and take a test drive!"), and special inducements to buy ("Subprime loans available for a limited time only!").

On their advisory page, the FCC lists the following underwriting notice as objectionable:

Production [of the program] has been made possible by grants from: A&J Luxury Limo Service. For a fabulous night on the town, spoil yourself or a client with a relaxing and comfortable evening in one of A&J's luxurious limousines featuring a retractable moon roof, color television, stereo, cellular telephone, intercom and wet bar. For the perfect way to enjoy a perfect and safe evening, call us at .

This acknowledgement clearly violates the "call to action" prohibition and probably goes over the line on the "inducement" no-no. But I'll bet that you wouldn't get into any trouble if you just shortened the blurb to "Production [of the program] has been made possible by grants from: A&J Luxury Service, bringing posh transportation to the Anytown community since 1977 . . . "

So welcome to the wonderful world of "enhanced underwriting." But remember the words of the Bard, "to thine own self be true."

Whatever you may call them, for all practical purposes you are now running commercials. That means that you are taking the same editorial risks that commercial radio stations take. You are exposing yourself to pressure not to run controversial programming in order to avoid the risk of offending your new and improved funding base.

When a news or public affairs story comes up involving one of your underwriters, don't think that your staff won't think twice or three times before running it.

Times are tough for public broadcasting, to be sure. And lots of media, like this blog, run ads because they have no other source of revenue. But remember why you started your non-profit station in the first place. Was it really to offer "value neutral" advertising to a limo service?

Got a question about the FCC that needs answering? and he'll offer his unqualified opinionated opinion on the subject!