Early public stations were operated by state colleges and universities, and were often run as part of the schools' cooperative extension services. Stations in this era were internally funded, and did not rely on listener contributions to operate; some accepted advertising. Networks such as Iowa Public Radio, South Dakota Public Radio, and Wisconsin Public Radio began under this structure. The concept of a "non-commercial, educational" station "per se" did not show up in U.S. law until 1941, when the FM band was authorized to begin normal broadcasting. Houston's KUHT was the nation's first public television station, and signed on the air on May 25, 1953 from the campus of the University of Houston. In rural areas, it was not uncommon for colleges to operate commercial stations instead (e.g., the University of Missouri's KOMU, an NBC-affiliated television station in Columbia). The FCC had reserved almost 250 broadcast frequencies for use as educational television stations in 1953, though by 1960, only 44 stations allocated for educational use had begun operations.