Re: Commercial facility names on non-commercial stations

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 08:13 PM 3/1/2003 -0500, Sean Smyth wrote:
>May be an off-the-wall question, but just came to mind today ...
>
>Say a college non-commercial college station is broadcasting a sporting
>event from a commercially-named facility, such as the Fleet Center. Are
>there any regulations governing how often the facility name can be used, or
>how the facility's name can be presented on the broadcast? I know Fleet
>wouldn't be underwriting the program on the non-com, nonetheless it does
>exist as an element of sponsorship (on the building).


I'm shooting from the hip a little here, but since the station isn't 
receiving any compensation from Fleet (I'm using your example) then I don't 
think it matters that they're saying "the FleetCenter".   Even so, I think 
it'd be allowed since it's "value neutral" mentions of Fleet (unless your 
DJ's are screaming "the FleetCenter sucks!!!"...which even then I doubt 
anyone would consider that a breach of non-commercial status  :-)

Here's a good summary of the rules regarding underwriting and similar 
restrictions of non-comm stations:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/nature.html



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA