Noncoms Get a Break in Tsunami Fundraising

The FCC is telling noncom stations it’s willing to ease fundraising limitations to help tsunami victims.
John Broomall of Christian Community Broadcasters tells RW Online he got the word from Michael Wagner in the Audio Division of the Media Bureau.
“The Media Bureau is amenable to granting ‘short-term’ waiver requests to permit noncommercial educational television and radio stations to engage in fundraising efforts to benefit victims of the recent tsunami off the coast of Indonesia,” Wagner wrote to Broomall.
“In order to expedite the review and approval process, we will — as we did in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City — accept the request in e-mail form.”
The FCC told Broomall that radio stations should send requests to Wagner at [email protected]; TV stations should send to Barbara Kreisman at [email protected].
The request should provide specifics of the fundraising activity: what will the nature of the fundraising effort be, how long will it last and what, specifically, will be done with any funds raised, i.e., how will they be channeled to the victims?
“Additionally, the request should indicate whether or not the tsunami victim fundraiser is to be part of the licensee’s regularly scheduled pledge drive or station fundraising effort,” Wagner wrote.
“The tsunami victim fundraising effort need not be made part of a station’s regularly scheduled pledge drive for us to grant the waiver request, but that’s a fact that should be mentioned. The majority of the requests for waiver in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks were to be done as part of scheduled pledge drives, and we referenced this in our approval statements.”