Forgive me if this has already been asked, but was the the KLUV brand trademarked and was that the reason that EMF had to purchase the intellectual property from them before K-Love could be introduced in DFW?
And what makes this different from Urban One/Radio One’s Majic 94.5 and iHeart’s new Magic 102.1 HD2?
Yes. EMF owned the K-Love trademark nationally everywhere except Southern California and parts of Texas. Univision owns the trademark in the areas surrounding Los Angeles and Houston, while Audacy held it in Dallas until EMF bought it last year. EMF has a licensing deal with Univision where in Los Angeles they call the station in its ID as "Southern California's K-Love For Christian Music" but all billboards only show the 100.3 frequency and not the name, as to lessen brand confusion with Univision's 107.5 KLVE. As Univision does not use the brand anymore in Houston, EMF simply calls 97.1 KLVH "K-Love".
The difference with the Majic's is that "Magic" is not federally trademarked as it is generic and its usage in many areas goes back to many companies. Greater Media was one of the first companies to use "Magic" as a brand in the 1970s on their then Beautiful Music stations in Boston (now and Audacy owned AC WMJX),Detroit (94.7 WMJC no longer using the calls) Long Island (94.3 WMJC inherited from Detroit and no longer in use), Central New Jersey (Now Beasley AC 98.3 WMGQ), and Philadelphia (Now Beasley Classic Rock 102.9 WMGK). "Majic 102" KMJQ Houston's usage also dates back to the 70s, 105.9 KMGG Los Angeles was using the name in the early 1980s. KMGI Seattle launched in 1985. All of these were under different owners.
It is similar to "Kiss-FM". While you might think iHeartMedia has a federal trademark, they cannot due to 99.5 KISS-FM San Antonio. They do on KIIS, but what they do have in MANY states are state servicemarks. This is how they forced 94.1 KISV Bakersfield to drop its longtime "Kiss 94.1" brand in the early 2000s and then launched a "Kiss-FM" across town.
Texas doesn't have an online public servicemark database that I'm aware of, but while Radio-One owns Majic in Dallas and Houston, that didn't stop Cox's 105.3 KSMG San Antonio from using Magic from 1985 until last December. Or from "Majic 95.5" KKMJ launching in Austin in 1987. Or "Magic" branded stations currently existing in Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Waco and probably elsewhere in the state.
What has also changed in Dallas is PPM. In diary markets, usually stations don't share brands so that there is no confusion if a listener puts down "Magic" in a ratings diary as to who should get the credit. In PPM that doesn't matter since the meter is simply monitoring the station's encoding.
