The NCSA/PEP program run by the WBA offers your stations and the association many benefits. If your station is not airing the NCSA/PEP spots we send you, we hope that you will consider doing so. Your WBA, and your broadcast colleagues, would welcome your participation and support.
A non-commercial sustaining/public education partnership announcement (NCSA/PEP) is an announcement that is sponsored by a nontraditional advertiser (typically a non-profit or governmental organization) whose resources are not sufficient to ensure the placement and frequency of a normal commercial buy, but whose broadcast coverage needs cannot be met solely by public service announcements. NCSA/PEP announcements are broadcast using air time donated by stations to the NCSA/PEP program of a state broadcasters association.
The NCSA/PEP program provides the association with funds to provide benefits to WBA members and the entire broadcast industry. The funds are used for a variety of WBA programs, including educational seminars, conferences and conventions, and its scholarship program. The NCSA/PEP program has the added benefit of allowing non-profit entities and government organizations who are not normally broadcast advertisers to see the benefits of broadcasting, and the program allows them to get their important messages out to the public in a cost-effective way. We think that this is a win-win proposition, helping broadcasters, the association and the organizations running the PEP spots. The program clearly serves the public interest.
The NCSA/PEP program is not a substitute for a licensee’s general obligation to be responsive to the local needs and interests of the station’s service area. Broadcasters need to continue to serve their community with issue-responsive programming. As part of that community-oriented programming, all Wisconsin radio and television stations are encouraged to continue their strong commitment to airing PSAs free of charge. The PEP program supplements that service while also providing support to WBA programs.
NCSA/PEP announcements should not be logged as a “commercial” or “PSA,” but rather simply as “NCSA.” This characterization promotes consistency among all of the state broadcasters associations as well as among all participating stations while affording each station broad flexibility to characterize, for accounting or other purposes, the NCSA/PEP announcements in the most appropriate way.
In a 1988 ruling, the Federal Communications Commission held that NCSA/PEP Programs, and the announcements carried by stations under them, do not affect a station’s lowest unit charge or otherwise factor into any political broadcasting analysis. The program has been established and is administered by the WBA in a way that is substantially related to the Association’s tax-exempt purposes.
