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Anon-commercial educational station (NCE station) is aradio station ortelevision station that does not accept on-airadvertisements (TV ads orradio ads), as defined in the United States by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) and was originally intended to offer educational programming as part, or whole, of its programming. NCE stations do not paybroadcast license fees for theirnon-profit uses of theradio spectrum. Stations which are almost always operated as NCE includepublic broadcasting,community radio, andcollege radio, as well as manyreligious broadcasting stations.[1]Nearly all non-commercial radio stations derive their support from listener support, grants and endowments, such as theCorporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that distributes supporting funds provided by Congress to support public radio.
Organized radio broadcasting was introduced in the United States in the early 1920s.[2] Although from the start there were stations operated by educational institutions,[3] initially there was not a separate license classification or reserved frequencies for them.[4]
By the 1930s, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) began to issue licenses for higher transmitting frequencies between roughly 25 and 44MHz. These stations were informally known as"Apex" stations, due to the tall height of their transmitter antennas, which were needed because coverage was primarily limited to local line-of-sight distances. Like standard broadcasting stations, Apex stations usedamplitude modulation (AM) transmissions.[5] In October 1937, the FCC announced a sweeping allocation of frequency assignments, that included a broadcast band consisting of 75 channels with 40 kHz separations, and spanning from 41.02 to 43.98 MHz.[6] This was also the first allocation where the FCC formally designated non-commercial stations. In January 1938 the band's first 25 channels, from 41.02 to 41.98 MHz, were reserved for non-commercial educational stations.[7] Three Apex educational stations were ultimately licensed:WBOE in Cleveland, Ohio,WBKY in Beattyville, Kentucky, andWCNY in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1941, the Apex stations were replaced by the establishment of the original FM band, which initially consisted of 40 channels spanning 42–50 MHz.,[8] with the first 5 channels reserved for educational stations. The currentFM broadcast band was established in 1945 and it reserves the lowest 20 channels, 201–220 (88.1–91.9MHz) for NCE stations only. This is known as thereserved band, sometimes known by the term "left of the dial" (taken from theReplacements' song of the same name), which refers to thecollege and other non-commercial stations that broadcast from those frequencies.[9] It also includes channel 200 (87.9 MHz), but only forclass D NCE stations unable to find another frequency; the frequency has been unused for its intended purpose in the United States sinceKSFH shut down in 2021.
Many of the reserved-band channels are used by stations bordering the United States, such as withbroadcasting in the San Diego/Tijuana metropolitan area. Additionally, neither theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission nor Mexico'sFederal Telecommunications Institute have such a reserved band. (In Mexico, individual stations belonging to state and federal governments, educational institutions, and non-profit groups are licensed under permits orpermisos, which are non-commercial, non-profit licenses that do not permit advertising. Canada, in practice, generally keeps most of the U.S. NCE band as noncommercial or with limited advertising based on each individual license, but there are exceptions, such asCIXL, a fully commercial station that operates on 91.7.)
NCE stations may also operate on a non-reserved channel. However this was rare in the United States due to the high cost of buying acommercial broadcasting station, and because for years the FCC failed to maintain a process that would ensure that non-commercial applicants would have a chance against those who could afford tobid atspectrum auctions. Two such stations areWGPB FM inRome, Georgia andWNGH-FM inChatsworth, Georgia, former commercial stations purchased in 2007 and 2008 and operated byGeorgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), serving themountains northwest ofAtlanta which previously had no GPB radio service. In addition, there were at least four stations with commercial licenses that formerly operated asPBS member stations (WNYC-TV inNew York City,WMHX inAlbany, New York,KAUT-TV inOklahoma City, andKCPQ-TV inSeattle are a few examples of this); most of those stations now broadcast as affiliates of commercially owned networks. This is also rare in Mexico, thoughXEIMT-TV, a cultural channel in Mexico City, andXEWH-TV, the main station of the state network of Sonora, operate under commercial concessions and not permits. A number of new low power FM (LPFM) NCE stations operating in the non-reserved part of the spectrum have been licensed by the FCC since theLocal Community Radio Act was enacted in 2010.
The FCC defines several different activities as being commercial in nature.Sponsorship of NCE stations is calledunderwriting, and stations may makeannouncements of thesegrants on-air. However, they may not acceptmoney for such mentions, onlygoods and services, unless the sponsor itself is anon-profit, such as acharitable organization orpublic college. Money can be accepted if there is no on-air mention of the sponsor. NCE stations may also not mention prices or qualities of commercial products or services in any situation which would be construed aspromoting orendorsing any company, regardless of whether it sponsors the station.[citation needed]
Underwriting spots are brief and to-the-point, as they must not be disruptive to programming. Additionally, underwriting spots on public TV are at the beginning or end of theTV show rather than in the middle, as they have increasingly become on commercial stations.[citation needed]
Retransmission consent has often been chosen over must-carry by the major commercial television networks.[citation needed] Under the present rules, a new agreement is negotiated every three years, and stations must choose must-carry or retransmission consent for each cable system they wish their signal to be carried on. Non-commercial stations (such as local PBS stations) may not seek retransmission consent and may only invokemust-carry status.[10]
Like commercial stations, NCE stations are allowed toleasesubcarriers in exchange formoney, essentially making the station acommon carrier. This may be for acommercialaudio,video, ordata service, or a non-commercial one like aradio reading service for theblind.
NCE stations broadcasting indigital TV orHD Radio may lease part of theirbandwidth (actuallybitrate) in a similar manner, however, the commercial use is limited. The main program must always be non-commercial, and must not have its quality diminished excessively by increasedlossy compression done in order to fit the auxiliary service within the allowablebit rate. NCEdigital television (DTV) stations do not pay the FCC a percentage of theirrevenue from these leases as commercial DTV stations do. No suchdatacasting fee is levied on any analog or FM/AM station, whether commercial or NCE.
Left of the Dial takes its name from the Replacements song of the same name, and is a reference to the position of the radio dial on which non-commercial radio stations are typically located.
