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So "The Breeze" isn't just an iHeart brand?
- Thread starter Route 222
- Start date
I'm not 100% sure of how Trademark law or something like that works... but companies can own the trademark to certain Brands. When 96.5 the Point flipped to "Wild 96.5" (then) Clear Channel sent a cease and desist saying "we own the Wild brand for radio stations in any market we are in, regardless if we use it or not" (or something to that effect.) So that's why Wild became Wired.
But not all station names are trademarked. There was 107.1 the Breeze in Monmouth/Ocean for a while. In Albany, NY there are currently two stations calling themselves "Alt". So it may be that iHeart hadn't trademarked the "Breeze" name for radio stations.
I know that "The Breeze" has its origins at KISQ 98.1 FM San Francisco though and now Iheart has been mentioned for expanding the Breeze Name for AC Stations in Sacramento and Philadelphia Today
Who was the Owner of the Portland edition of the Breeze in 1988?
As far as I know most of the Iheart Owned stations with the Breeze name will point to KISQ-FM San Francisco as their reference for the AC format or KOST Los Angeles. But the Detroit Edition of the Breeze by Entercom would cite the 2018 edition of 94.7 The Wave in Los Angeles as their reference to the AC format though.
Hmm. I would think they would cite their Seattle station which has surfaced in the top 5, KSWD "The Sound". Both Seattle and Detroit have played Elton John & Kiki Dee's one hit this morning. It does look like Detroit is playing a little more soul and a little less 80s pop. I don't see any of the WHAM! or Michael Jackson tunes in Detroit, but I do see Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight.
The Breeze in Detroit doesn't seem to have a lot in common, playlist wise, with The Wave. Definitely no Drake, Fergie or Mariah Carey in Detroit.
I would think also that Entercom would make the Breeze sound like 94.1 The Sound in Seattle. Also what was the reason Entercom didn't call 98.7 The Sound and went with The Breeze which I heart Radio uses?
Because the station is localized paying homage to the Puget Sound with the name "sound". Otherwise "The Sound" has a more AAA feel to the name. THe Breeze is ok but I like the Aussie name for these type of station much better...Smooth 95.3 and Smooth 91.5. I guess that name has baggage in America because of Smooth Jazz, shame because it sounds (no pun intended) much better than the Breeze. Then again now that I think about it, if they are going to play bad 70s songs like "laughter in the rain" that could be described as a "warm" breeze from down below.
The Wave in LA is really a slightly rhythmic urban AC hybrid. It is not mainstream AC.
The Breeze had been a Smooth Jazz/New Age syndicated format in the 1980s. Subscribing stations called themselves "The Breeze." It went on the air shortly after KTWV Los Angeles had found success and a different syndicator offered a national version of "The Wave."
One affiliate of The Breeze was 93.3 WBBO-FM in Forest City NC, part of the Greenville-Spartenburg market (now WTPT). Another was 97.9 WBZN Ogden UT, part of the Salt Lake City market. Those call letters are still on the station to this day, even though it's been decades since it was "The Breeze."
One affiliate of The Breeze was 93.3 WBBO-FM in Forest City NC, part of the Greenville-Spartenburg market (now WTPT). Another was 97.9 WBZN Ogden UT, part of the Salt Lake City market. Those call letters are still on the station to this day, even though it's been decades since it was "The Breeze."
Most radio station names have not been nationally trademarked or even used for the same format. For example, "Kiss FM" is Top 40/CHR in most markets, except NYC where it was Urban AC. Los Angeles has two "K-Love" stations, one being Spanish AC and the other being the syndicated Contemporary Christian music format. And the dozens of "Cat Country" and "Froggy" stations across the country have different owners.
Other good names that can be used; Sunny, Easy, Lite. (I know Sunny been used before in Philly)
The Lite name has been removed from a few AC stations 2 come to mind are 101.9 lite fm Baltimore - Today's 101.9
Lite 98.1 Richmond - Mix 98.1
The Lite name has been removed from a few AC stations 2 come to mind are 101.9 lite fm Baltimore - Today's 101.9
Lite 98.1 Richmond - Mix 98.1
Without getting into a complex legal discussion, what we have is an issue of service marks combined with the rights of prior usage.
When Clear Channel got a national mark for Kiss, it had to "grandfather" the stations that had prior usage, such as rock KISS in San Antonio which dates back to the late 1940's. Now, they license names that iHeart owns to others, such as The Beat in San Antonio that did not have prior usage; those stations lease the brand.
K-love is an EMF brand, but HBC had prior usage in LA, San Diego and Houston and CBS had it in Dallas. Now, EMF has back-licensed the K-love name in Los Angeles from the sucessors to HBC!
What brought this to a head was a series of legal steps stations that had state service marks that began streaming, making the brand national. At that point, there were cases and negotiations as to rights, prior usage and prior claims. So now, when a station wants to use a brand, it has to check for national usage and research the availability of the brand.
"The Wave" was service marked by the original KTWV owners and licensed to other stations. "Smooth Jazz" came about as a way of branding the format without paying fees to the owners of The Wave.
Is there a way to find out what stations are licensed their brand by another party?
Specifically I'm wondering how this applies to local stations WWAV Wave 102.1 and WSBZ 106.3 The Sea Breeze.
The way a station searching for a name would do it is to do a trademark search at the state and national level, and see if anyone has a name registered.
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