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Revenue models
In the United States, religious broadcasters can be subdivided between non-commercial and commercial licenses. This distinction is necessary both for taxation reasons and FCC licensing restrictions. While the reasoning is similar, the restrictions are different.
From a taxation standpoint, only qualified tax exempt organizations can accept donations and the donor is able write off their contributions as a tax deduction.
From the FCC perspective, the world is broken into non-commercial and commercial broadcasters. This especially applies to FM radio, where the area from 88 to 92 megahertz is set aside exclusively for non-commercial broadcasters. This group primarily consists of religious broadcasters and educational institutions like colleges and public radio networks. While non-commercial stations can ask you for money or can accept money for "sponsorships", non-commercial stations cannot have overt advertisements.
Several religious broadcasters own a significant number of their own stations. In the U.S., non-commercial radio stations are exempt from certain rules requiring radio stations to have a local presence, that allows for satellite or internet-fed networks of transmitters covering large portions of the country. Also, non-commercial broadcasters are not subject to market-based ownership limits.
Brokered programming is a significant portion of most U.S. Christian radio stations' revenue, with stations selling blocks of airtime to evangelists seeking an audience. This applies to both commercial and non-commercial broadcasters.
Solicitation of donations come from evangelists who buy the air time or non-commercial stations can solicit funds directly.
In order to encourage donations, certain evangelists emphasize the prosperity gospel, in which they assert that tithing and donations to the ministry will result in financial blessings from God.
Others have special days of the year dedicated to fundraising, similar to many NPR stations.
Although the solicitation of donations and the sale of airtime may resemble a commercial enterprise, such actions by a non-commercial licensee do not necessarily constitute a call to action that would jeopardize their license.
A minority of stations, typically music stations, use the traditional model for music radio and allow traditional commercial advertising.[1]