§ 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.

   (e) 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), and
   the Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket 21136, 97 FCC 2d 255 (1984). 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]

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