donorships

["Bob Nelson...WMWM" <bobonradio@yahoo.com>]

On yesterday's Let's Talk about Radio, guest Joe
Ross mentioned hearing the phrase "UMass Football
is brought to you by..." on WMUA.
College/non-commercial stations are allowed to run
"donorships",
which are basically acknowledgments of donations given
to the station by private individuals or companies.

In some cases you'll hear, "(station) is supported by
contributions from..." followed by a list of donors.
In other cases, you'll hear what may sound like a
commercial. It's supposed to be phrased in a certain
way (for example, it's not supposed to say something
like, "WMWM is brought to you in part by Honeydew
Donuts, the best donuts around"...but it can say
"...by Honeydew Donuts, with locations in Lynn and
Salem"-- in other words, you can't imply that they're
better than anybody else).

Some past donorship announcements on WMWM, for
example,
were for a record store, a gym, a restaurant, and a
sci-fi comics store, all relatively near Salem
State. We were allowed to say a "tag line"; such as
"why pay for 'Gold' when Iron Works" for Iron Works
Gym.

I have heard support announcements on public radio
stations which sounded a lot like ads. For WBUR's
"Marketplace", you'd hear a donorship acknowledgement
for General Electric, and the show's theme song
suddenly went into a rendition of G.E.'s jingle,
"We Bring Good Things To Life". Public Radio
International's "Whad Ya Know" will mention (veggie)
Boca Burgers, complete with the tagline "Vegetarians
celebrate, Meat Lovers salivate". Sound like an ad?

And watch some shows on public TV (as was mentioned on
LTAR) and you'll see what looks like ads. A kids' show
will thank Kellogg's for their support of the show,
and you'll see what looks like the same sort of
slickly produced ads that Kellogg's would run on
commercial TV.

Bob Nelson
WMWM
"only a DJ,
I don't run the
place" 

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