By policy, REC Networks takes no partisan political positions nor do we endorse any candidates. By applying these nonpartisan policies, we can analyze claims that are made from either side of an issue and apply those principles to clarify claims that are made to prevent rumors and other false or misinformed information that tends to spread through the internet like wildfire.
Claim
Project 2025 calls for the next President to eliminate the reservation of the 20 channels in the 88.1~91.9 MHz "reserved band" and make the entire FM broadcast band (88.1~107.9 MHz) available for commercial broadcasters.
Background
In a recent Q&A session with National Public Radio (NPR) President Katherine Maher, a well-known community radio activist suggested that the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" playbook may suggest the de-reservation of the 20 channels in the "reserved band" (88.1~91.9, Channels 201~220), which are channels that are reserved for noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcast stations, thus permitting commercial operations in this spectrum.
Analysis
On pages 247 and 248 of the "Project 2025" playbook, the document addresses the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This section was led by Mike Gonzalez. Specifically, the document states:
Being an NCE comes with benefits. The Federal Communications Commission, for example, reserves the 20 stations at the lower end of the radio frequency (between 88 and 108 MHz on the FM band) for NCEs. The FCC says that “only noncommercial educational radio stations are licensed in the 88–92 MHz ‘reserved’ band,” while both commercial and noncommercial educational stations may operate in the “non-reserved” band. This confers advantages, as lower-frequency stations can be heard farther away and are easier to find as they lie on the left end of the radio dial (figuratively as well as ideologically).
The FCC also exempts NCE stations from licensing fees. It says that “Noncommercial educational (NCE) FM station licensees and full service NCE television broadcast station licensees are exempt from paying regulatory fees, provided that these stations operate solely on an NCE basis.”
NPR and PBS stations are in reality no longer noncommercial, as they run ads in everything but name for their sponsors. They are also noneducational. The next President should instruct the FCC to exclude the stations affiliated with PBS and NPR from the NCE denomination and the privileges that come with it.
The specific issue at hand is the funding of CPB, which has historically been a target of conservatives due to claims that NPR and other public broadcasting providers runs programming that mainly appeals to those who consider themselves somewhere on the liberal side of the political spectrum. They state that "PBS and NPR does not even bother to run programming that attracts conservatives" citing a Pew Research study conducted in 2014 (page 246).
Long before FM radio was even in the 88~108 MHz band, the FCC's then-Broadcast Division issued their very first order in 1934, pursuant to §307(c) of the Communications Act, which at the time read:
The Commission shall study the proposal that Congress by statute allocate fixed percentages of radio broadcasting facilities of particular types or kinds of non-profit radio programs or to persons identified with particular types of non-profit activities, and shall report to Congress, not later than February 1, 1935, its recommendations together with the reasons for the same.
(Broadcast Division Order No. 1, Order, 1 FCC 25 (1934) citing 47 USC §307(c) (1934)).
There has been a long standing track record, both at the Commission and in Congress to support reserved spectrum for what would eventually be known as NCE broadcasting.
The statements made in Project 2025 only state the fact that the 20 channels in the reserved band are reserved for NCE stations. This includes stations that carry programming from NPR as well as Pacifica and American Public Media (APM), which are called-out elsewhere in the document. It is important to realize that there are a very large number of NCE stations in the reserved band, operated by both secular and faith-based interests that do not carry any programming from NPR, Pacifica or APM.
The section of Project 2025 directly related to the FCC, which was authored by current Commissioner Brendan Carr mainly deals with broadband infrastructure and competition in that market as well as other issues such as Section 230 and China's threat to national security. Carr does briefly bring up the media ownership rules, portraying them as restricting investment and competition. (Page 857)
The brunt of Project 2025's argument in relationship to NPR and PBS specifically, is that the underwriting acknowledgement messages that are carried are advertising and that programming on the stations are what they consider to be "non-educational". This appears to be more of an attack on the FCC's Policy Regarding the Noncommercial Nature of Educational Broadcasting and §73.503(b) of the Commission's Rules:
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.
§73.503(b)'s language can be traced to a history of various cases over the years where the qualifications of NCE broadcasters and the programming that they carry come into question. At one time in the early days, only the first part of §73.503(b) was effective. NCE stations were required to be licensed only to school systems and reserved NCE spectrum was intended to be used solely for the purpose of delivering classroom instruction (which today, we would call distance learning) and administrative material. It was the religious broadcasters that questioned the qualifications and programming content. This is why today, §73.503(a) requires that NCE stations will only be licensed to nonprofit educational organizations "and upon a showing that the station will be used for the advancement of an educational program."
In 1984, the Commission introduced what is known today as "enhanced underwriting", which extended the scope of the content of messages that can be broadcast by an NCE station to acknowledge a corporate donation. REC gets into substantial detail about the currently effective underwriting guidelines in our Compliance Guide. Over the years, there have been multiple incidents where NCE broadcast stations (full-service and LPFM) have received forfeitures or entered into consent decrees over violations of the Nature of Educational Broadcasting policies.
Our findings
Project 2025 puts into question that are relevant to this discussion: (1) the educational nature of NCE programming, (2) the content of underwriting acknowledgements and (3) the fact that NCE broadcasters are exempt from application and regulatory fees.
While the document does threaten the NCE status of certain broadcast stations based on their program content, nowhere in this document does it specifically call for the de-reservation of the 20 channels that comprise what is known as the "reserved band" and to permit commercial operations on those channels.
Conclusion
The specific claim that Project 2025 calls for the de-reservation of Channels 201~220 (88.1~91.9 MHz) and thus permitting commercial operations in this spectrum is considered False.
