Underwriting announcements that ran on a quintet of FM stations licensed to the Regents of the University of New Mexico may or may not have strayed over the line into commercial message territory. However, the FCC and the regents have decided that is in the interest of both to just settle the matter via the consent decree route.
The decree was short on details of the offending announcements, but they were close enough to the line that they drew at least one complaint.
Non-commercial entities can run underwriting announcements identifying entities that have contributed money to the station or licensee, but they cannot say anything that in any way promotes the underwriting entity, like it offers fair deals or is conveniently located. Not anything.
Under terms of the consent decree, the Regents admit no wrong-doing, will train staff on the compliance, and will be on reporting conditions. They will also make a small $6.5K contribution to the US Treasury to assist in settling the national debt.
The stations implicated in the complaint included:
* KUNM-FM Albuquerque NM
* KBOM-FM Socorro NM
* KRRT-FM Arroyo Seco NM
* KRRE-FM Las Vegas NM
* KRAR-FM Espanola NM
