Lost in the Clutter

Since broadcast deregulation, the FCC has allowed stations to count "sponsored" public service announcements as non-commercial time. That means a private company can pay to sponsor a not-for-profit project, can pay for ancillary materials for the event, or for television programming surrounding the project. The company can even pay for the production of the "public service" spot for the project and the money goes directly to the station. Then, even with the company logo and mentions of the company sponsorship, the spot counts as a public service announcement. The station has done a favor for the company — often one that has rarely advertised on local television — and the station loses nothing from its commercial inventory. To viewers, however, the spot looks like a commercial. That's just one reason that the commercial load of television programming seems to have so dramatically increased.

So, although a television or radio spot mentions a commercial sponsor, it is not necessarily a commercial. For example, the nationally marketed public service campaign "Beautiful Babies: had a component that rewarded teenage mothers-to-be for keeping doctor appointments.3 The reward was a coupon package redeemable by participating retailers. The television stations that took part in these packages, such as KIRO-TV in Seattle, ran announcements about the program which listed some of the coupon contributors. Those announcements were counted — legally — as non-commercial time. Radio and television stations, then, can "partner" with other businesses to do a theme "campaign" for a not-for-profit entity or, more recently, for a community service "concept" such as safe streets or healthy babies which may not be related to any specific not-for-profit organization.

Many local stations conduct an informal kind of community ascertainment jointly, but it is far less intensive than those conducted prior to deregulation. Their decisions on which causes to get behind are often just as likely to be rooted in how such activities will contribute to the station's business success as they are to be rooted in the intention of building social capital. Media, just like many other businesses, regard the decision to get behind a community cause to be as much about marketing as it is about public service, maybe even more so. "A station asks itself: How important is it that we give back — to our image? — to the bottom line? If we align with this cause will we get better visibility (for ourselves)?" explained Sue Trask, a former television community affairs director turned independent communication consultant. Trask worked in television 17 years.

That kind of thinking on the part of the stations led to a communication strategy for not-for-profits seeking public service support. If a not-for-profit enters a three-way partnership with a corporate sponsor and a broadcast station, its chances for visibility go way up. Not-for-profits are more attractive to potential corporate sponsors if they already have media on board because that increases the likelihood of valuable exposure. A not-for-profit's attractiveness to the media depends, in part, on whether the corporate sponsor could be of business value to the media. Again, some critical questions get asked, said Trask: "Will the partnership give the station an entree to a company it might not know? Could it help the station build a relationship that will be of value for future business?"

While Trask insists few corporations are brought on board to pay the production costs of public service announcements, they may be asked to underwrite the costs of collateral materials such as flyers and posters needed to promote a community event or a television program. Other stations may indeed have had cash requirements. When KIRO-TV eliminated its community service group, one staff member asked Good News/Good Deeds, "Why would they close such a money-maker?"

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