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WJZM-DB Clarksville's Oldies 14 in a Row!

615 FM

615 FM

As many of you are aware, we have been playing musical call signs for quite some time to restore the WJZM Call Signs to Clarksville. We were successful in doing so several months ago.

We are proud to make the Radio Professionals, especially you fun-loving, boss jocks aware that we have added 14JZM | WJZM-DB 1 to our channels.

It's obviously a DB (Digital Broadcast)/Online/App Only Station and we have been very pleased so far with response. It comes complete with music all the way back to the late 1950's, Original WJZM Jingles, Original WJZM Logo, Brand new Sonovox Assets, Local Clarksville News, Weather, Sports Updates, Live Concert Cuts and a heavy dose of reverb!

The station is available at 14JZM and already available on several Directory Apps by searching 14JZM (or WJZM-DB) and will be made available on our Primary Station App.

A big thank you to John Michaels, for taking great care of much of the WJZM Branding Assets throughout the decades and for making them available to us when we finally rested on the WJZM Call Signs.

If Oldies is your thing, we hope you'll check it out and give it a listen! It is being offered as a Digital Product in our Sales Offerings so if you like what you hear, feel free to share it with people you know!

Thank you, Everyone and Have a great day!

14JZM WJZM-DB.png
 
kevtronics said:
Just a reminder that -DB call signs are unofficial and have nothing to do with the FCC or any current or former FCC-licensed broadcast stations using the same call letters.

Internet Radio Uniform Callsign FAQ - Internet Radio Station Callsign Information - Standardised Digital Radio Directory

iruc.org iruc.org
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and ive never understood why people pay some dude to "register them" when the money is likely going to just his pocket... cuse these calls hold no weight anywhere
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
and ive never understood why people pay some dude to "register them" when the money is likely going to just his pocket... cuse these calls hold no weight anywhere
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The people selling -DB call letters are as close to a scam as anything could be.

I mean I can start a similar service with -IM call letters and grant WJZM to them as well. At least @ClarksvilleRadioBroker does have the official calls on 105.1 Waverly TN so he does have full usage of them, unlike many others who do pay for the -DB calls, which he does not specify he's done there.
 
lanceventa said:
The people selling -DB call letters are as close to a scam as anything could be.

I mean I can start a similar service with -IM call letters and grant WJZM to them as well. At least @ClarksvilleRadioBroker does have the official calls on 105.1 Waverly TN so he does have full usage of them, unlike many others who do pay for the -DB calls, which he does not specify he's done there.
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My apologies, i didn't see the name that signed the post. .so i didnt realize who he was.

What further confuzzles me is people who start internet stations because they dont like modern day radio, then do everything to sound like a terrestrial radio station, including calls. but I digress
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
and ive never understood why people pay some dude to "register them" when the money is likely going to just his pocket... cuse these calls hold no weight anywhere
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It's the equivalent of all of those "Yellow Pages" that send you an official-looking bill for a listing, even though they have nothing to do with any actual phone company, don't actually print and distribute anything, and just put your information on a web site that nobody ever goes to or cares about. (This includes the slogan "Let your fingers do the walking" and its associated logo, which have lapsed into the public domain.)
 
gr8oldies said:
I never understood attaching "frequencies" to online stations.
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If it is a "tribune" station which had the frequency in the branding it sort of make sense. If I was doing WLS back when it was top 40 "89 WLS". WCFL was "Big 10", WHAS had jingless "84 WHAS" in they were full service AC. I guess one has to be careful of registered trademarks but whatever brings the out out money demo folks to listen to your site works.
 
secondchoice said:
If it is a "tribune" station which had the frequency in the branding it sort of make sense. If I was doing WLS back when it was top 40 "89 WLS". WCFL was "Big 10", WHAS had jingless "84 WHAS" in they were full service AC. I guess one has to be careful of registered trademarks but whatever brings the out out money demo folks to listen to your site works.
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Sure, understood if you're a tribute station like the aforementioned or Big 8 Radio (CKLW tribute). A random online "Big Hits 92.1" with no connection to any radio station, past or present is what I'm questioning.
 
The only way I see your example (Big Hits 92.1) as being viable is it started as some kind of part 15 station on 92.1

Even then I personally would not use a frequency number because how many "real" stations are on 92.1. Use a non copyrighted name instead. If I had time I would start a station called "Old Fart" for my music tastes and all of my "out of money demo" friends
 
Let's face it, many of these small online radio streams are really just run for personal enjoyment, either from an old pro trying to relive their glory days, or from a hobbyist trying to recreate one of their favorite stations they listened to as a kid. Paying someone to give you a fake license with fake call letters and put your "station" on a web site listing helps make it feel more like the real thing. Whether or not they actually get any listeners is of secondary importance.
 
Maybe I didn't clarify it well enough. We are the licensee of the FCC Call signs, already. (WJZM) While it may not make sense, in our case it's simple of why I do it. We always register the DB or previously IR call signs for all terrestrial properties we have owned. It keeps a potential conflict or problem from happening in the future with someone such as you have mentioned. Additionally, for stations such as mine that are not in Markets large enough to really warrant an HD upgrade, every online directory will accept additional DB stations to compliment your first signal and treat them like HD channels. So, it allows us to have unlimited DB channels/streams that are actually published nationwide and allows us to pull large enough numbers, digitally to monetize them. Additionally, the Radio Directories do a wonderful job with SEO performance on Google/Bing. The cost to register these DB call signs are next to nothing. We can pull enough digital numbers to equal a terrestrial station and make money from it. We do it to make money or we don't engage in it.
 
ClarksvilleRadioBroker said:
We are the licensee of the FCC Call signs, already. (WJZM) While it may not make sense, in our case it's simple of why I do it. We always register the DB or previously IR call signs for all terrestrial properties we have owned. It keeps a potential conflict or problem from happening in the future with someone such as you have mentioned.
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So you're basically being extorted into paying for a fake license in order to protect your branding. Wouldn't it be more ethical for the owner of this web site to block anyone from trying to register the call letters of an existing radio station, if they're not the actual owner of the station?

I did some quick searches and found several "-DB" registrations that obviously had nothing to do with the current, legal owners of the same call letters, such as "WBLS-DB" registered to "blastradio.fm", not the actual WBLS owned by MediaCo in New York City, and "WBBR-DB" registered to "BigBoxRadio" in Indiana, not the actual WBBR owned by Bloomberg in NYC.
 
It would be nice if they would verify, but they do not. For me, as an owner, It's worth $30 every two years to "keep someone from getting their feelings hurt" and to add unlimited stations to our online directories. $30 every two years is much less expensive than HD fees and conversion.
 
kevtronics said:
So you're basically being extorted into paying for a fake license in order to protect your branding. Wouldn't it be more ethical for the owner of this web site to block anyone from trying to register the call letters of an existing radio station, if they're not the actual owner of the station?

I did some quick searches and found several "-DB" registrations that obviously had nothing to do with the current, legal owners of the same call letters, such as "WBLS-DB" registered to "blastradio.fm", not the actual WBLS owned by MediaCo in New York City, and "WBBR-DB" registered to "BigBoxRadio" in Indiana, not the actual WBBR owned by Bloomberg in NYC.
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It would be nice if they would verify, but they do not. For me, as an owner, It's worth $30 every two years to "keep someone from getting their feelings hurt" and to add unlimited stations to our online directories. $30 every two years is much less expensive than HD fees and conversion.
 
I looked into it and IRUC says they will block call letters that are registered as trademarks, and at least Audacy is doing that with their major-market stations; many of them show up as "[Reserved]" on IRUC. But a trademark registration costs $350... So that's a great racket they have going there: "You can pay us $30 to keep away the cybersquatters, or you can pay the government $350 to force us to block them."
 
ClarksvilleRadioBroker said:
It would be nice if they would verify, but they do not. For me, as an owner, It's worth $30 every two years to "keep someone from getting their feelings hurt" and to add unlimited stations to our online directories. $30 every two years is much less expensive than HD fees and conversion.
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At least the HD fees would give you reduced music royalty payments.

I'm not sure how it keeps someone from getting their feelings hurt? As long as you have the FCC issued WJZM you'd be covered if someone else tried to use your branding as first to market. The -DB calls do nothing from a legal standpoint nor have any bearing anywhere. They won't help you in any other way.

A couple years ago ,the owner of WABC New York forced WLIR.fm (which was a tribute to the former Long Island Alternative station) to rebrand as WDARE as he owned 107.1 WLIR-FM and could claim brand confusion. I got a press release earlier this week from an outfit claiming to be a Los Angeles station called "Power 97.5". I doubt they're even aware of their existence, but if I was Meruelo Media, who own "Power 106" or Entravision, which owns "Jose 97.5" KLYY I would be C&D'ing them with causing brand confusion.
 
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