• Become an On-Air Sponsor (contact form)
• On-Air Copy Points
• Information about Web Sponsorship

Consider this: Over 250,000 adults in central North Carolina and southern Virginia spend time each week listening to programs on WUNC-FM. They are affluent, influential, highly educated, well traveled--and they are intensely loyal to public radio.

According to Audience 98's public radio re-contact survey of Arbitron diary keepers, 88% say, "My opinion of a company is more positive when I find out that it supports public radio."

Does this sound like a desirable target audience for your business, corporation or professional group?

Each time your support is acknowledged on the air you are brought into a circle of shared commitment with thousands of individual contributors. No other medium gives you the equivalent high-end market exposure along with the recognition that comes from supporting a respected public service.

North Carolina Public Radio- WUNC Copy Points For On-air and Web Sponsorships

Download these copy points as a pdf file

These guidelines seek to preserve the non-commercial nature of North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC.  We are governed by regulations and policies pertaining to non-commercial broadcasts adopted by the Federal Communications Commission and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  In addition, our listeners value this characteristic as part of what makes public radio unique in sound and substance.  It is critical that, in addition to providing exceptional programming, we maintain a non-commercial, uncluttered and intelligent environment, keep listeners engaged during breaks and air underwriting announcements and serve web sponsorships in keeping with our programming values, as well as with FCC requirements.  Your underwriting support represents a partnership between your organization and WUNC, and demonstrates your commitment to community service and quality programming.

An announcement or web sponsorship must identify, but may not promote, the underwriter, its services, facilities or products.  It may not express the underwriter's views on any matter of public interest or importance.  It may not support or oppose any political candidate.  And it must be scheduled so as not to interrupt a station's programs.  In addition to these legal requirements, underwriting announcements and web sponsorship or must be in keeping with the non-commercial nature of our station.  To maintain the consistency of our sound, all messages are live reads or are prerecorded by a station voice.

WUNC Underwriting Announcements and Web Sponsorship may:

• Describe your business.
• Identify facilities, services, products or product lines (no more than a total of three mentions per announcement).
• Describe your organization's mission.  In some cases, this may be the mission statement.  However, if the language of a mission statement conflicts with the station policies outlined above, we will suggest alternative wording describing your organization's mission.
• Inform the public of events you sponsor.
• Include a corporate slogan, as long as is meets guidelines and is not promotional.
• Include a street address and a web address or telephone number.
• Indicate the number of years you have been in business.
• Include the name of a non-profit organization you support, although it must be clear that you are providing the funding for the announcement, and the announcement cannot describe the activities of the sponsored non-profit organization.

WUNC Underwriting Announcements and Web Sponsorship may NOT include:

• Qualitative language (e.g., award winning, leading,  Pulitzer Prize Winner, etc.) or state facts that cannot be proven.
• Comparative language (e.g., better, best, oldest, largest, etc.)
• A call to action ("Visit our store…"Call xxx…etc.)
• An inducement to buy, sell, rent or lease.
• References to price or value.
• Personal pronouns (you, yours, we, ours, etc.)
• Contain language advocating political, religious or social causes.
• Contain dramatic, shocking or disturbing language.

The length of the announcement may not exceed 24 words plus the name of the business or organization.  Each word in a web address counts as one word including "dot".  A telephone number counts as three words.

Underwriting Organizations
To respect the FCC prohibition against accepting payment for the expression of any "views", WUNC does not accept underwriting from political organizations, nor will it accept a message advocating a position with respect to a controversial issue, a political party or a candidate for office.  WUNC reserves the right to determine that an underwriter or the content of a proposed announcement are inconsistent with the station's mission or would undermine community support for the station.  In these cases sponsorship may be declined.

Advocacy Groups
Underwriting by organizations that, as their primary business, seek to influence matters of public concern, either through public outreach on a matter or through affecting the legislative process, is permitted under appropriate circumstances and under appropriate conditions.  Underwriting by such groups will be taken on a case-by-case basis, applying a reasonable listener standard.  While there is no prohibition in these rules against underwriting by advocacy groups, in no circumstances will the language of an underwriting announcement express an opinion on matters of public concern or otherwise advocate positions on controversial matters.  All announcements and web sponsorship are subject to approval by WUNC's station management and/or legal counsel.

Religiously Affiliated Organizations
Underwriting by churches or other religiously affiliated groups is acceptable.  However, given that most listeners will be of different religions, care should be given to ensure that underwriting messages are appropriate to the context of public radio, consistent with our publicly-supported mission and funding profile, and not unacceptable to those listeners who may not share the underwriters' religious perspective.  A reasonable listener test will be applied under these circumstances.  The previous rule concerning advocacy groups would also apply to these organizations.  In addition, this rule prohibits proselytizing language or other language intended to draw distinctions between different religions. 

Lotteries and Casinos
The University does not accept sponsorships from lottery or casino organizations.

Editorial Control
As a publicly funded station, WUNC exercises absolute editorial control over underwriting announcement copy and reserves the right to edit copy to conform to station and FCC guidelines.

Web Sponsorships

WUNC offers business sponsors the oportunity to reach WUNC listeners directly through web sponsorships. Web sponsorships are accepted with the same restrictions as on air sponsorships.

For more information, contact Our Development Department or fill out this online form.

As a publicly funded station, WUNC-FM reserves the right of full editorial control over the content of underwriting credits in order to ensure that they adhere to the standards that WUNC FM’s listeners and supporters expect from all our broadcast material. Wording for acknowledgments is worked out by the contributing company or their representative agency and the Development staff of WUNC-FM. This wording is also subject to approval by WUNC FM's station management.