The WEMP calls were in Milwaukee (AM 1250) for over 50 years until 2004. I remember listening to a discussion of the call letters on a sports talk show on WEMP in 1976. The host claimed the calls stood for "We Enjoy Milwaukee People". Later I discovered the real reason behind the call letters is that WEMP originally was broadcasting from a building called the Empire.
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101.9 Is Now WEMP
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
I interviewed at WRXP 3 times. 2 times before Leslie got there. I was upset when I did not get the gig but looking back, I cannot be happier that I am not working in radio as a personality. Yes, I miss it. But, If I got the job, I would be out of a job! Done chasing the dream after 19 years in Radio. It is the end of my radio career.....and I feel fine!
FMNJ- You are just the smart ones! Your very right. Radio as we knew it is OVER. It will never be the same, came to terms with that too.... and I feel fiiiiine!
Wow.What happen to the WYNY calls.They could not buy them off from that AM CP.WEMP. We get EMPloyment for everyone.
The WYNY calls were for 1400 AM station Middletown, NY...could not be used for FM...
WPPCProductions said:
MusicRadioUSA said:
Thanks for the info.
didn't realize the AM call letters could be used for FM...thanks for clearing that up...
doublex said:
Maybe Randy didn't want the WYNY or WYNY FM calls in the first place but wanted us to think he Did. Then again WEMP Empire Radio might be temp calls that may change after AUg. 1st. Randy is up to something.
Speaking of this Stunting Period.
I heard an old News sounder last evening like the old Bill Drake WOR-FM 20/20 News intro. It played between two songs I was waiting for some news headlines but nothing. back to music. I did hear an entertainment report during one of the weather traffic breaks Friday Evening voiced by someone other than the traffic reporter and I noticed there are weather and traffic reports every 10 minutes throughout the day. The Midday reporter this Saturday is John Brim Meyer. It seems there are more informational items being added as the stunting continues but still a very short play list on the music. They are using "1019 FM New, Chocolate F...M" before a lot of the breaks. It's interesting as there was a link on another post to two radio formats that Walt Sabos company makes available to Radio stations outside of the US and one of the music formats was Chocolate Radio. And the Stunting Continues.
Speaking of this Stunting Period.
I heard an old News sounder last evening like the old Bill Drake WOR-FM 20/20 News intro. It played between two songs I was waiting for some news headlines but nothing. back to music. I did hear an entertainment report during one of the weather traffic breaks Friday Evening voiced by someone other than the traffic reporter and I noticed there are weather and traffic reports every 10 minutes throughout the day. The Midday reporter this Saturday is John Brim Meyer. It seems there are more informational items being added as the stunting continues but still a very short play list on the music. They are using "1019 FM New, Chocolate F...M" before a lot of the breaks. It's interesting as there was a link on another post to two radio formats that Walt Sabos company makes available to Radio stations outside of the US and one of the music formats was Chocolate Radio. And the Stunting Continues.
Since we don't know the terms of the contract, it is reasonable to assume, since the intellectual property stayed with Emmis, the WRXP calls may surface elsewhere on an Emmis property, so WEMP may be intrim calls.jvn said:
Maybe, keep them and use slogan, "News from the Empire of the World."
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
Yes I thought the calls are treated seperately.like said.Of course you stations calls that are retired and cant be reused again.I know WHN is retired ,but is WNBC AM retired.This will be interesting to see how this station will be.I'll be in the city in late August to tune in.When I'm in NJ I probably tune in Jersey 101.5.
Danfm said:
I bet they could find a way, those two stations did. KKHJ going back to KHJ was a pretty weak argument and it worked. I also found it interesting that when CBS Radio started their FM sports talk in Boston, they were able to assign the calls WBZ-FM. Of course, they already had WBZ, but it was a new call, and only three letters.
WhatEver Michaels Programs?
Abandoned three-letter calls are all retired just because the FCC doesn't issue them anymore for new stations. In the case of WBZ-FM, WLS-FM, WWL-FM and others, those are grandfathered in, and it's merely the station owner picking up the similar FM calls for a local sister station on another band with those calls. That's allowed.
In the case of KHJ, with the KKHJ calls on a Spanish-language station, the TOH ID was a bit awkward (as "KK" in Spanish is pronounced "Kah Kah", and I won't tell you what that word means in that language). The station's owner asked to bring back the well-known KHJ calls. Some other situations (like WJW) are case-by-case. What likely happened was the TV station's owner struck a deal to bring back the calls when the AM station decided to abandon them.
The FCC does not 'retire' call letters. At all. Not even for historic reasons. There are way too many historic call signs out there to do that. Every market seemingly has a historic station. If, say, Disney and Citadel both decided to drop the WABC calls altogether to go with something else (ain't gonna happen, but let's be hypothetical), any station could pick up the abandoned calls.
And the only reason WNBC won't ever be back on AM is because the call sign belongs to WNBC-TV, and NBC/Comcast no longer owns radio stations, and they certainly won't let another station use them.
If a call sign is currently being used on any AM, FM or TV outlet, the same calls can only be used on another broadcast band by the present owner, or by permission by another party. And 3-letter calls are no longer issued for new stations, except for the scenario mentioned earlier.
In the case of KHJ, with the KKHJ calls on a Spanish-language station, the TOH ID was a bit awkward (as "KK" in Spanish is pronounced "Kah Kah", and I won't tell you what that word means in that language). The station's owner asked to bring back the well-known KHJ calls. Some other situations (like WJW) are case-by-case. What likely happened was the TV station's owner struck a deal to bring back the calls when the AM station decided to abandon them.
The FCC does not 'retire' call letters. At all. Not even for historic reasons. There are way too many historic call signs out there to do that. Every market seemingly has a historic station. If, say, Disney and Citadel both decided to drop the WABC calls altogether to go with something else (ain't gonna happen, but let's be hypothetical), any station could pick up the abandoned calls.
And the only reason WNBC won't ever be back on AM is because the call sign belongs to WNBC-TV, and NBC/Comcast no longer owns radio stations, and they certainly won't let another station use them.
If a call sign is currently being used on any AM, FM or TV outlet, the same calls can only be used on another broadcast band by the present owner, or by permission by another party. And 3-letter calls are no longer issued for new stations, except for the scenario mentioned earlier.
FightingIrish said:
Which was a lame argument, because legally the TOH ID has to be done in English. There was no legal requirement for KKHJ to ever say their call letters in Spanish. Crisis averted. All that happened was they lucked out on a lame argument, and I don't think there'd be anything preventing a creative individual to come up with another lame excuse to need a 3-letter call.
The only reason the 3-letter call came into being was short-sightedness from the FRC/FCC. (Government thing, you know.) they realized very quickly they were going to run out of combinations. It is why we have "K" and "W".
K is west of the Mississippi. W is west of the Mississippi. But when Group W wanted to bring the KYW back to Philly from Cleveland, the FCC granted the request.
Airports were the same way. Originally assigned 2 letter designations, the letters "X" and "Q" were added. As a result LA became LAX. Here, SR became SRQ.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
K is west of the Mississippi. W is west of the Mississippi. But when Group W wanted to bring the KYW back to Philly from Cleveland, the FCC granted the request.
Airports were the same way. Originally assigned 2 letter designations, the letters "X" and "Q" were added. As a result LA became LAX. Here, SR became SRQ.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
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