Underwriting and Advertising
What's the Difference?
Thank you for your interest in sponsoring Black Hills State University’s award winning, student-produced radio programming. KBHU-FM and KJKT-FM are each licensed to BHSU as noncommercial educational (NCE) radio stations. This means that any underwriting support you provide is considered a tax-deductible contribution (check with your tax advisor for details)
Federal law prohibits our stations from broadcasting any form of advertising over the air. This rule does not apply to our print or online materials, however. These include station posters, billboards, our website or our live audio stream. If you are interested in advertising with The Buzz in this way, please contact our sales office. If you would like to sponsor either of our stations' over the air broadcasts, the Federal Communications Commission allows us to run announcements acknowledging your support -- provided we follow very specific guidelines for producing these spots. We have summarized these guidelines in the next column.
For more detailed information, please visit the FCC's website. To sponsor KBHU-FM and/or KJKT-FM, please contact our underwriting office.
Please note that the NCE underwriting restrictions do not apply to announcements produced for registered nonprofit organizations. Nor do they apply to advertising materials not used on the air, other than political candidates and tobacco products. Therefore, we are free to produce any type of advertising you like for our print or online materials (see above).
We are happy to produce underwriting announcements for broadcast (on the air) and regular advertisements for our web stream (online). Our software will replace your broadcast announcement with the online advertisement, seamlessly and automatically. We will also place your logo on our website, complete with a link to your site. For more details about our underwriting or advertising, please call 605-642-6265 or email us. Thank you for your support of The Buzz!
NCE Stations May…
- Acknowledge the contribution of funds by for-profit entities.
- Announce “value neutral” descriptions of a sponsor’s products or services.
- Announce a sponsor’s slogan, provided it does not violate the restrictions listed below.
- Use brand or trade names in product descriptions, provided they do not violate the restrictions below.
- Announce a sponsor’s location and contact information.
NCE Stations May NOT…
- Editorialize or support any candidate for political office.
- Broadcast any programming “in exchange for remuneration” of any kind.
- “Promote any service, facility, or product" of for-profit entities.
- Use comparative or qualitative language when describing a company, its products or services.
- Announce any price or rate information (including the words “price” or “free”).
- Announce any calls for listeners to take any type of action (such as “come in”, “act now”, “hurry”, etc.).
- Announce any inducements for listeners to buy, sell, rent or lease a product or service (such as “student rates”, “happy hour”, “early bird specials”, etc.).
The following rules apply to all broadcast stations, whether NCE or commercial:
All Broadcast Stations Must NOT…
- Accept underwriting support from tobacco companies or make any announcements regarding tobacco products.
- Operate or make any announcements for lotteries.
- Make any announcements regarding gaming activities at casinos.
The FCC also prefers shorter underwriting announcements (30 seconds or less), although it has no formal length requirement.
Here is an example of the type of underwriting announcement that KBHU/KJKT can produce for use on-air:
“The Buzz thanks ABC Insurance for its underwriting support. ABC offers auto, home and life insurance. ABC is located at 123 Main Street in Spearfish. Call 605-642-0000 or visit abcinsurance.com for more information. ABC Insurance, ‘Peace of Mind’ [company slogan].”
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