Title 18
Fiduciaries

Chapter 4.1
The Public Radio Conversions Act

§ 18-4.1-4. Definitions.

As used in this chapter:

(1) “Acquiree” means the person or persons that lose(s) any ownership or control, including programming control, of a public radio station, as the terms “public radio station” and “person(s)” are defined within this chapter;

(2) “Acquirer” means the person or persons which gain(s) an ownership or control, including programming control, in a public radio station, as the terms “public radio station” and “person(s)” are defined within this chapter;

(3) “Affected community” means any city or town within the state from which an existing public radio station produces, records or otherwise originates programming or broadcasts its signal, and/or those cities and towns whose inhabitants are regularly served by the existing public radio station;

(4) “Community benefit” means:

(i) Whether the conversion furthers the findings and purposes of §§ 18-4.1-2 and 18-4.1-3 above, and in particular: retains or expands public radio programming;

(ii) Is consistent with the intent of prior donors to the existing public radio station;

(iii) Affords substantial opportunity to provided noncommercial radio programming produced in Rhode Island;

(iv) Provides programming that is not already prevalent among Rhode Island commercial radio broadcasters at the time of the conversion;

(v) Promotes responsible news, information, arts and cultural programming to help listeners better understand the world around them; and

(vi) Preserves a substantive governing role for the Rhode Island volunteers, for example, a community board of directors.

(5) “Conversion” means any:

(i) Transfer or assignment by a person or persons of an ownership or membership interest or authority in a public radio station, or the assets of a public radio station, whether by purchase, merger, consolidation, lease, gift, joint venture, sale, or otherwise;

(ii) Agreement, such as a local management agreement or programming agreement, the implementation of which would require a change in the public radio station’s broadcast license to permit commercial operations;

(iii) Transfer, assignment or issuance of twenty percent (20%) or greater of the membership or voting rights or interests of the public radio station or of the assets of the public radio station or pursuant to which, by virtue of the transfer, a person, together with all persons affiliated with the person, holds or owns, in the aggregate, twenty percent (20%) or greater of the membership or voting rights or interests of the public radio station or of the assets of the public radio station;

(iv) The removal, addition or substitution of a partner that results in a new partner gaining or acquiring a controlling interest in the public radio station; or

(v) Any change in membership that results in a new person gaining or acquiring a controlling vote in the public radio station.

(6) “Conversion Fee” means the amount the department of attorney general orders an acquirer to pay pursuant to subsection 18-4.1-5(a);

(7) “Existing public radio station” means a public radio station as it exists prior to the conversion;

(8) “Public radio station” means a radio station possessing a United States Federal Communications Commission noncommercial license, to broadcast on a frequency that is not reserved by the FCC for noncommercial use, assigned to a community of license located in Rhode Island and which is operated by an entity that may not lawfully distribute operating surpluses or other retained earnings to individual persons or which would cease to qualify as an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code were the organization to do so;

(9) “New radio station” means the radio station as it exists after the completion of a conversion;

(10) “Person” means any individual, trust or estate, partnership, corporation (including associations, joint stock companies and insurance companies,) state or political subdivision or instrumentality of the state; and

(11) “Transacting parties” means any person or persons who seeks either to transfer or acquire ownership or a controlling interest or controlling authority, including programming authority, in a public radio station which would result in a change of ownership, control or authority of twenty percent (20%) or greater.