The rule allows the ID at whenever the station believes to be a natural break in programming. As long as that is a station decision, there are no broken rules.
Are there still rules against insertion of "in" between call letters and city of license? I remember listening to a jazz DJ (community volunteer, not a radio pro) on WPKN Bridgeport who would insert "right here in" between "WPKN" and "Bridgeport." This was several years ago. Has the FCC ever fined a station for something like this? Or is it accepted as improvisation because, after all, we're talking about jazz here?
Here are a couple of station IDs from the 1980s.Or is it accepted as improvisation because, after all, we're talking about jazz here?
You can insert the owner name or dial position between calls and COL. Saying “Mutual” if not owned by thw web is not correct, I believe.
Mutual Broadcasting System was the owner of WHN at the time.
Thanks for checking. Then the ID was legal.
And the community station DJ who said "right here in Bridgeport" instead of just the COL after the call?
That station apparently ID'd only by its frequency, with no call or city at all. Still, the rule cited does specify call "followed immediately" by the COL, with no room for jazzy improvisation. Or the memorable TOH ID I remember from WTBS's days as a 10-watt college FM at MIT: They had a soul request show with a smooth-talking DJ who would inform listeners that they were tuned to "WTBS, 88.1 on the FM side of your radio slide!"
No. This is a really simple problem to solve, and you want to put the onus on the backs of listeners instead of the offenders. It's not the listeners who own the station, who have invested in the license, facilities, transmitter, etc. It's the licensee. It takes five seconds an hour to speak or play a legal ID, call letters + city of license. Maybe 10 seconds if the station has complicated ID, with a simulcast, an HD1 and a hyphenated COL. That's the length of an average fart. The requirement is once an hour, at the appropriate time. You can keep rationalizing this all you want, but if an owner is serious about protecting their investment, let them do what's required, in the way the rule dictates. Otherwise, sell the station or give it away to someone who will be a serious licensee, or return the license to the FCC and shutter the facility.
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It’s just stupid to even require a legal ID. Just let every station use FSK. DXers identify stations using the format and slogan. Why not just require stations to keep their format and slogan updated in the FCC database within a day of a format change?
The DXers are the ones who identify stations the most. And they don’t depend on the legal ID to add a station to their log.
In the case of translators, IIRC, the legal ID can be "broadcast" using frequency-shift keying. (Correct me if I'm misremembering.) You may not be able to hear it, but it's there. Much like the hidden tones that the Nielsen encoder inserts into the musical programming so PPMs can ID a station. So isn't there an alternate way to do a non-audible legal ID of an HD stream? IIRC, it's legal to ID an HD via the text display on all HD-equipped radios, as long as it also meets the legal ID requirement (calls + COL, once an hour).
PPM coding is inserted into all audio, not just musical programming. The burst is about 4" long and just needs enough masking audio to be triggered.
