The FCC is telling noncommercial broadcasters that it's willing to ease fundraising limitations to help tsunami victims.
John Broomall of Christian Community Broadcasters told 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 Michael Wagner. TV stations should send to Barbara Kreisman.
The request should provide specifics of the fundraising activity, i.e., the nature of the fundraising effort; how long will it go on and how funds will be channeled to those affected by the tsunami.
"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."
(Radio World)
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