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PSA Guidelines

All public service announcements (PSAs) aired on KDLG must meet federal and local rules. PSAs that do not meet these guidelines will not be accepted. KDLG holds final editorial approval and reserves the right to decline any PSA request.

Federal rules and regulations are strict in nature and violations carry heavy fines.

Local policies regarding PSA content and language are designed to promote consistency of sound. Consistency of sound is a critical component of KDLG's overall on air presentation. It is important to remember that we are a non-commercial broadcast outlet and we must always take steps to maintain a non-commercial sound.


SUBMITTING A PSA

Requests not made in a timely fashion may not be fulfilled. They may be submitted by email to info@kdlg.org or by fax at (907) 842-5645. Please allow at least 3 days for a response.  To schedule an appointment, please call KDLG at (907) 842-5281. The length of each PSA must not exceed 30 seconds.

SUBMITTING AN EPSA (Enhanced PSA)

If you are interested in paying for an Enhanced PSA to be broadcast on KDLG, please contact Rob Carpenter (General Manager) at 907-842-5281 or rob@kdlg.org.


FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND LOCAL RULES AND REGULATIONS

The FCC has installed stricter rules and regulations for non-commercial radio language and content than for our commercial counterparts. This has been true since the inception of public broadcasting.

Requirements for PSAs on KDLG
A PSA on KDLG cannot be a solicitation for funds, a solicitation for volunteers to solicit funds, or for promoting a "members only" event. KDLG does not mention event sponsors within the body of any PSA. At no time will a PSA be accepted from any for-profit organization.

Pricing Information:
You cannot mention prices or refer to discounts or sales of any kind. You may tell listeners where tickets are available for an event. Words such as "free," "sale," "discount," and other references to prices and values are absolutely not allowed. If an event is free you may say it's open to the public.

Value Neutral Descriptions:
You cannot qualify a product, service or event as something that may be more or better in some way than another event, service or product. The FCC disallows public broadcast outlets from comparative language in describing products, services, or events. Commercial broadcasters can say that something is the best, or number one, or one of kind, but we cannot. We can't even use language suggesting this.

When describing something in value neutral terms you will be describing the actual event, product or service exactly as it is without embellishing language. Here's an example of what is allowable:

"The ________ organization will present their annual spring concert this Saturday at 6 PM, and will feature the music of Grammy winning artist, _______. Lawn chairs, coolers and blankets will keep you comfortable under the night sky. Information at 555-1234."

Here's an example of a similar script that is not allowable:

"The ________ organization, one of the leading organizations of it's kind, will present their fantastic annual spring concert this Saturday at 6 PM, featuring the country's favorite artist, Grammy winning ______. Lawn chairs, coolers and blankets will keep you comfortable under the night sky. Information at 555-1234."

Promoting local organization fundraisers:
At no time will KDLG promote an organizations' fundraiser unless it can be promoted strictly as an event. A concert to raise money for a service organization can be promoted as a concert  with a brief statement in the body of the announcement that states who will benefit. An example is

" …proceeds benefit _______ organization."

This is the only statement allowable in a PSA to acknowledge a beneficiary. Words such as "fundraiser" are not allowable. There are some fundraising activities that we simply cannot promote, no matter how worthy the cause because the language cannot be modified.

Calls to Action:
Calls to Action are, perhaps, the most common offense made in PSAs. The FCC disallows calls to action on public broadcasting stations. A Call to Action is a statement or phrase that commands or invites someone to action. The best way to explain this is to give some examples.

Example 1)"Bring lawn chairs and blankets."
The word "bring" is a call to action, you are telling a listener to "bring" something with them. The compliant manner of stating this would be "Lawn chairs and blankets welcomed." You are not telling the listener to do something; you are merely stating that the events organizers will allow people to have these items with them at the event. 

Example 2) "Come to tonight's presentation of ________." 
In this statement you are telling the listener to take action by coming to the event. The compliant version of this statement would be "The ________ organization will present ________ tonight." This simply says that the event is tonight and does not instruct a listener to be there.

Example 3) "Don't forget to get your tickets." 
"Don't forget" and "get" are both instructions to the listener to take action, in this case, get tickets. To be compliant you would say "Tickets available by pre-order only." You can see that it is the same message, which is to get your tickets ahead of time, but the language falls within the parameters of what the FCC and KDLG does permit.

Example 4) "For more information call 555-1234." 
The word "call" is clearly an inducement for a listener to take action, in this case to pick up their phone and "call." The same message is communicated by changing the language to "Information at 555-1234."