Sec. 73.503  Licensing requirements and service.

    The operation of, and the service furnished by noncommercial 
educational FM broadcast stations shall be governed by the following:
    (a) A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station will be 
licensed only to a nonprofit educational organization and upon showing 
that the station will be used for the advancement of an educational 
program.
    (1) In determining the eligibility of publicly supported educational 
organizations, the accreditation of their respective state departments 
of education shall be taken into consideration.
    (2) In determining the eligibility of privately controlled 
educational organizations, the accreditation of state departments of 
education and/or recognized regional and national educational 
accrediting organizations shall be taken into consideration.
    (b) Each station may transmit programs directed to specific schools 
in a system or systems for use in connection with the regular courses as 
well as routine and administrative material pertaining thereto and may 
transmit educational, cultural, and entertainment programs to the 
public.
    (c) A noncommercial educational FM broadcast station may broadcast 
programs produced by, or at the expense of, or furnished by persons 
other than the licensee, if no other consideration than the furnishing 
of the program and the costs incidental to its production and broadcast 
are received by the licensee. The payment of line charges by another 
station network, or someone other than the licensee of a noncommercial 
educational FM broadcast station, or general contributions to the 
operating costs of a station, shall not

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be considered as being prohibited by this paragraph.
    (d) Each station shall furnish a nonprofit and noncommercial 
broadcast service. Noncommercial educational FM broadcast stations are 
subject to the provisions of Sec. 73.1212 to the extent they are 
applicable to the broadcast of programs produced by, or at the expense 
of, or furnished by others. No promotional announcement on behalf of for 
profit entities shall be broadcast at any time in exchange for the 
receipt, in whole or in part, of consideration to the licensee, its 
principals, or employees. However, acknowledgements of contributions can 
be made. The scheduling of any announcements and acknowledgements may 
not interrupt regular programming.

    Note: Commission interpretation of this rule, including the 
acceptable form of acknowledgements, may be found in the Second Report 
and Order in Docket No. 21136 (Commission Policy Concerning the 
Noncommercial Nature of Educational Broadcast Stations), 86 F.C.C. 2d 
141 (1981); the Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket No. 21136, 90 FCC 
2d 895 (1982), and the Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket 21136,  49 FR 13534 , April 5, 1984.

(Secs. 4, 5, 303, 48 Stat., as amended, 1066, 1068, 1082 (47 U.S.C. 154, 
155, ))

[28 303 FR 13651 , Dec. 14, 1963, as amended at  35 FR 7558 , May 15, 1970;  47 FR 36178 , Aug. 19, 1982;  49 FR 29069 , July 18, 1984]