Illinois News Broadcasters Association (INBA)

The Association provides members with legislative analysis and representation including regulatory matters before the Illinois General Assembly, other Illinois governmental bodies, Congress, and other federal agencies.

The Association makes contributions to broadcasting museums and other organizations to further the interests of the broadcasting industry.

Education workshops & other member services - The Association also provides several other member services including Equal Employment Opportunity compliance workshops, and T.V. and radio sales seminars.

Multicultural workshops - The Association holds workshops for multicultural high school students to promote their interest and generate diversity in the broadcasting industry.

NCSA/PEP - The Association has long maintained a Noncommercial Sustaining Announcement/Public Education Partnership Program ("NCSA/PEP Program") through which member and nonmember radio and television stations in Illinois voluntarily donate airtime to the Association so that the airtime can be made available to governmental and not-for-profit entities to achieve state-wide coverage of their activities, events and programs which benefit the public at large. The monies received from such NCSA sponsors are used by the Association for tax-exempt purposes of the organization. The fair market value of the donated airtime could only be estimated. However, it is known that the contract fees received under the NCSA Program represent only a fraction of the fair value of the donated airtime, had that time been sold by the individual stations at their normal commercial rates. Approximately 90 stations participated in these NCSA Programs.

ABIP Inspections - The Association provides information and guidance to broadcasters to assist them in meeting their FCC-related and other applicable legal responsibilities. For example, the Association provides regulatory-related seminars and sponsors an Alternative Broadcast Inspection Program (the ABIP Program) with the Federal Communications Commission. Under the ABIP Program, stations are inspected by qualified, nongovernmental inspectors to determine compliance with certain FCC regulations and IBA issues certificates of compliance to participating stations which have passed the inspection. The ABIP Program, as a public/private partnership with the FCC, has the effect of raising the level of compliance overall as well as allowing the FCC to more efficiently allocate its limited resources.