PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations suggested the FCC’s proposed rule...
PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations suggested the FCC’s proposed rule change to allow fundraising for nonprofit organizations on noncommercial educational stations should be limited to licensees that don’t receive a community service grant, or any successor grant…
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thereto, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The groups filed joint comments in docket 12-106 (http://xrl.us/bnh3fd). Comments were due Monday (CD July 24 p11). If the commission concludes it can’t draw this distinction, “then the commission ought to maintain the current rules,” PBS and APTS said. The unique public role of CPB-qualified stations would be undermined if they were allowed to raise funds for third parties over the air, they said. Such stations “have found the waiver process to work well where exigent circumstances present themselves,” they said. Given that some noncommercial broadcasters advocated for increased flexibility to raise funds on-air for other nonprofits, PBS and APTS proposed that “in lieu of replacing the waiver process, the criteria the commission uses for evaluating waiver requests could be updated and expanded as circumstances present themselves.” The current rule “represents a careful balance between the financial needs of local stations and their mission to operate an essentially noncommercial service,” NPR said (http://xrl.us/bnh3fj). The radio programmer urged the FCC not to undermine this balance, “especially in light of the existing flexibility afforded to stations by the current rule, and the presence of serious concerns about the impact of the proposal on local station service.” The proposal would impose an increased administrative burden on station staff “by requiring them to develop and implement internal guidelines for dealing with requests for third-party fundraising,” NPR said. “Already scarce resources should not be diverted from community service.” The University of North Carolina Center for Public Television supports relaxing the current rule. It said the agency should allow an individual NCE station to decide whether it participates at all, “how much of its programming time will be allotted ... and whether or not it merely produces and airs fundraising programs and activities or also collects and remits funds deriving from such programming and activities (http://xrl.us/bnh3fm).