The term non-commercial educational (NCE) applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum. Stations which are almost always operated as NCE include Public broadcasting, community radio, and college radio, as well as many religious broadcasting stations.
On the FM broadcast band, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reserved the lowest 20 channels, 201~220 (88.1~91.9 MHz) for NCE stations only. This is known as the reserved band. It also includes channel 200 (87.9 MHz), but only for class D NCE stations. This is only for "full-service" stations forced to move by a full-power station (KSFH being the only one as of 2008[update]), however one broadcast translator (K200AA, parented to KAWZ) has been allowed to use this channel anyway.
On the TV band, individual channels are reserved, such that there is at least one in every area, and almost always two or three in each metropolitan area. This is also the case for FM along international boundary zones, within 320 kilometers (just under 200 miles) of the U.S.-Mexican border and the U.S.-Canadian border. This is because many of the reserved-band channels are used by stations in the other country, such as with broadcasting in the San Diego/Tijuana metropolitan area. Additionally, neither the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission nor CoFeTel have such a reserved band in Canada or Mexico, respectively.