A Call Letter Record ???? WIBC on 93.1

[radio-outsider]

I heard the first day of WNAP back in 1968, abandoning the WIBC-FM call. Although I haven't lived in Indianapolis for years, I'll be there for XMAS and will hear that call return. THIRTY-NINE years later!!!!

Has any other station reverted back to it's ORIGINAL call letters after that that long a period. I know, officially it was WIBC-FM and now in will be simply WIBC, but just the same....

Correct me if I missed anything: WIBC-FM > WNAP > WEAG > WKLR > WNAP-FM > WNOU > WEXM > WIBC

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Re: A Call Letter Record ????

A Real Record is WGBF. Same call letters since 1923.

Anyone else with the same calls (in Indiana) that long?

 

[history]

Re: A Call Letter Record ????

I thought 1280 used WWOK for a time.

A Real Record is WGBF. Same call letters since 1923.

Anyone else with the same calls (in Indiana) that long?

 

[MacOConnor]

WBAA since April 4, 1922.

No I wasn't there that day...

 

[IndyDan]

The only one I can think of in Indy with the longest record is WICR, which began back in 1962. I am thinking WIBC-FM began in 1961.

 

[RDO]

Two of the oldest stations in the state are WBAA and WSBT. They both have the same calls from the 20s.

 

[radio-outsider]

YOU ALL MISSED THE QUESTION !!!

It wasn't who had the same call letters the longest, but the station who had the longest VACATION from their original (or legacy) call letters.

 

[fybush]

It's way over there in East Indiana - but WTAM 1100 in Cleveland changed calls to KYW in 1956, then to WRCV in 1965 and to WWWE in the early seventies. It didn't return to the WTAM calls until 1996, a 40-year gap.

Within Indiana proper, WKJG 1380 in Fort Wayne would have to be a candidate. It became WMEE in what, 1971? It didn't return to the WKJG calls until 2003.

 

[justalurker]

The FCC has that as:
Call Sign Begin Date
WKJG 10/22/2003
WONO 10/19/1999
WHWD 03/26/1996
WQHK 08/02/1979
WMEE

It looks like their records don't go back far enough.

 

[radio-outsider]

I actually thought about WTAM > KYW > WKYC > WWWE > WTAM. Miss anything ??? Any other contenders ??? If anybody knows, it would be Mr. Fybush !!!!

 

[RDO]

YOU ALL MISSED THE QUESTION !!!

Calm down. No need to yell at us.

 

[fybush]

The FCC has that as:
Call Sign Begin Date
WKJG 10/22/2003
WONO 10/19/1999
WHWD 03/26/1996
WQHK 08/02/1979
WMEE

It looks like their records don't go back far enough.

Correct...the callsign database in the FCC's CDBS system only goes back to the late 70s. It's also missing a few months' worth of records from around 2002, or at least it was the last time I checked.

That's what the bookcase full of old Broadcasting Yearbooks is good for...

 

[mouseman]

Back off on the tangent; WHBU-AM 1240 in Anderson Indiana has had the same calls since it's inception in the early 1920's. ;D

 

[PTBoardOp94]

It's pretty rare for a station to return to its former callsign, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Buzzard does hold this record, at least in Indiana.

WOWO has had the same callsign since it signed on (1925), and so have WIBC (1938), WTTS (1963?), WTHI-FM (early 60s?), WIKY (well, since FMs stopped having channel numbers in their call signs...I picked them up in Terre Haute yesterday ), WAMW (AM only - mid 1950s) ... I could go on.

 

[ten_four]

Back off on the tangent; WHBU-AM 1240 in Anderson Indiana has had the same calls since it's inception in the early 1920's. ;D

WSBT, South Bend was Indiana's first radio station, and still broadcasts from that great Michiana city.

 

[KeithE4]

WOWO has had the same callsign since it signed on (1925), and so have WIBC (1938), WTTS (1963?), WTHI-FM (early 60s?), WIKY (well, since FMs stopped having channel numbers in their call signs...I picked them up in Terre Haute yesterday ), WAMW (AM only - mid 1950s) ... I could go on.

92.3 was originally WTTV-FM when it signed on in 1960, becoming WGTC sometime in the late '70s. It didn't become WTTS until 1984.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Keith, You're right of course. Don't know what I was thinking of ...