-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Why do radio stations use the handle V
- Thread starter HLeae
- Start date
Often it is one of the call letters.
But in some cases, the station gets call letters with one of the more attractive letters in the alphabet, often letters that are no used to start many words and which sound "positive and attractive." V, Q, Z, and X are the most commonly used for this sort of purpose, such as Z-93 or 13-Q or X-100 or the "V" option you mentioned.
In the Nielsen (or Arbitron in the past) diary, those letters were clear, and not confused with others like M and N or B, and C and D and even E. So they helped get ratings credit.
Single letters were very popular in the 70's as stations moved away from straight call letters. Usually, the combination of the letter and a number, like 13-Q or Z-93 was used. At the same time, the U.S. caught up with the rest of the world giving stations names, such as Easy 103 or "Coast" or "Lake" or "Peach" as Beautiful Music stations adopted them.
They often, but by no means always, rhyme as well. So you're more likely to come across a Q-92 or U-92, and then a B-93, V-93, Z-101.3, etc. Sometimes, it's as simple as someone going "that sounds good".
Generally, the rhyme was not the primary motivator. The original uses of single letters were cases like the early 13-Q in Pittsburgh or Y-100 in Miami. And only "2" and "3" seem to rhyme and then only in English.
I am trying to remember any "Letter only" station names prior to the two mentioned which came in the very early 70, both under Cecil Heftel. Some of the early Q's like KCBQ in San Diego used the letter alone a lot with PSA's being called "Q-Tips". But I can't pin down the first case of a transition to a single-letter name where the call letters were not used at all except for the legal ID.
V and B are hard to distinguish from each other. In the Top 40 heyday of WVBF Framingham/Boston, I'd swear that half the contest winners, when asked what their favorite radio station was, would shout "WBBF!" when the DJ would put them on the air. Surely WBBF (or WVVF or WBVF) would make an occasional diary appearance, no?
No doubt about that... diary entries can be very confused.
That is why, back then, Arbitron had standard procedures for the attribution of "confused" diary entries. Similar letters were easy, and automatic unless the confusion meant two different stations could get credit. There are pages of procedures for that (and today the decisions are made by an adaptation of "artificial intelligence" based on reality vs. probability).
But "B-93" being written instead of "Z-93" was an automatic correct credit. Or "Wixxie" for WIXY. Or "Coit" for "KOIT"
- Status