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A Legal ID poking fun at the fact they're required!

SomeRadioGuy

SomeRadioGuy

I manage the daily programming and technical operations for an NPR member station just east of the middle of east jesus gods creation nowhere and like to make our station stand out as being just a bit different so I occasionally have imaging friends do stuff for me.

I have a buddy who does some imaging stuff from me from time to time. Quite often, I have the full script, tell him what style/mood I want and I get it. For this particular legal ID, i told him I wanted a legal ID poking fun at the fact we need one and this is what he wrote and produced.

KSKO LEGAL BECAUSE WE NEED ONE APPARENTLY 1.mp3
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
I manage the daily programming and technical operations for an NPR member station just east of the middle of east jesus gods creation nowhere and like to make our station stand out as being just a bit different so I occasionally have imaging friends do stuff for me.

I have a buddy who does some imaging stuff from me from time to time. Quite often, I have the full script, tell him what style/mood I want and I get it. For this particular legal ID, i told him I wanted a legal ID poking fun at the fact we need one and this is what he wrote and produced.

KSKO LEGAL BECAUSE WE NEED ONE APPARENTLY 1.mp3
Click to expand...

Question: Are you using this ID on the air? If so, because KSKO-FM has a number of satellite stations in the area, have you used the same TOH ID with the callsigns and COLs of the other stations inserted at the proper spot?
 
ted chittenden said:
Question: Are you using this ID on the air? If so, because KSKO-FM has a number of satellite stations in the area, have you used the same TOH ID with the callsigns and COLs of the other stations inserted at the proper spot?
Click to expand...
legal id's are done when required and i have many different versions of the ID's cut for various reasons.. to double as a liner, to keep the id short when im short on time... etc.
 
One of my favorites back in the 1990s was KEZR 106.5 San Jose.

I don't remember the exact wording since it has been more than 30 years, but it was along the lines of "Federal bureaucrats in Washington call us KEZR. San Jose knows us as Mix 106.5." Legal since "KEZR San Jose" are said together...
 
txchipk said:
One of my favorites back in the 1990s was KEZR 106.5 San Jose.

I don't remember the exact wording since it has been more than 30 years, but it was along the lines of "Federal bureaucrats in Washington call us KEZR. San Jose knows us as Mix 106.5." Legal since "KEZR San Jose" are said together...
Click to expand...
Mentioned before, but there was an FM in Eaton, OH, that was adjacent to Dayton. It wanted to be known as a Dayton station, so, as Wikipedia says,

The catchy legal ID was "WGTZ Eaton, Dayton And Springfield alive!" It first caught the attention of listeners that same year when there was no contemporary hit radio (CHR/Top 40) station in Dayton at the time. The phrase was coined by Z-93 creator/PD/Morning DJ John King as an attempt to position Z-93 as a Dayton station and minimize its Eaton location.
Reportedly, they first said "WGTZ Eaton Dayton alive" and later added Springfield

If you don't get it, it was said as "W-G-T-Z... eatin' Dayton alive!"

1761876125277.png
 
ted chittenden said:
Question: Are you using this ID on the air? If so, because KSKO-FM has a number of satellite stations in the area, have you used the same TOH ID with the callsigns and COLs of the other stations inserted at the proper spot?
Click to expand...

IIRC, only some of KSKO's programming is carried by two of the stations (an AM in Yukon and a FM in Fairbanks) so that doesn't qualify as "satellites" and I expect those stations' automation systems insert their own legal IDs.

But I am also unclear as to how the various full-time Class D simulcasts handle that. I'm sure Paul knows (he probably set up whatever method is used).
 
davideduardo said:
Reportedly, they first said "WGTZ Eaton Dayton alive" and later added Springfield

If you don't get it, it was said as "W-G-T-Z... eatin' Dayton alive!"
Click to expand...

I can confirm hearing that ID personally in 1987 when I was visiting Dayton. (Don't ask, long story.)

A couple of my personal favorites ...

"KFM, BFM, San Diego ... B100"
"KHTY, Santa Barbara's Hot FM, Y97"

And the one I was responsible for, where the legal ID was buried in the weather report at the end of every TOH newscast:

"Current area temperatures from KAAP AM & FM: Santa Paula 68, 64 in Oxnard, and in Ventura 65 degrees."
 
K.M. Richards said:
I can confirm hearing that ID personally in 1987 when I was visiting Dayton. (Don't ask, long story.)

A couple of my personal favorites ...

"KFM, BFM, San Diego ... B100"
"KHTY, Santa Barbara's Hot FM, Y97"

And the one I was responsible for, where the legal ID was buried in the weather report at the end of every TOH newscast:

"Current area temperatures from KAAP AM & FM: Santa Paula 68, 64 in Oxnard, and in Ventura 65 degrees."
Click to expand...

In 1990, WMJQ 102.5 Buffalo did the same with the weather in its legal. From a June 1990 aircheck...

"Magic 102-5, Western New York weather that you can depend on.
Gorgeous tonight, with a low of 66.
Hot, breezy tomorrow, a high of 87 at WMJQ Buffalo 78, Rochester 79, Toronto, 77."
 
davideduardo said:
Mentioned before, but there was an FM in Eaton, OH, that was adjacent to Dayton. It wanted to be known as a Dayton station, so, as Wikipedia says,

The catchy legal ID was "WGTZ Eaton, Dayton And Springfield alive!" It first caught the attention of listeners that same year when there was no contemporary hit radio (CHR/Top 40) station in Dayton at the time. The phrase was coined by Z-93 creator/PD/Morning DJ John King as an attempt to position Z-93 as a Dayton station and minimize its Eaton location.
Reportedly, they first said "WGTZ Eaton Dayton alive" and later added Springfield

If you don't get it, it was said as "W-G-T-Z... eatin' Dayton alive!"

View attachment 10767
Click to expand...
This station is now back with that same ID
 
I remember a Cincinnati station (probably 92.5) which changed format but call letter change had not gone through. So at the top of the hour it was "This is NOT W____, Cinncinati, this is your new home for (whatever)
 
For the decade I've known about them, WION has always identified its 92.7 MHz translator in pure morse code at the top of every hour. (The code reads "W22BZ IONIA".)

I checked them again today, and they're still doing that, but it now appears they have a second translator on 100.3 MHz (W262DN Ionia-Lowell) that's being identified only by voice following the first translator's morse ID. Perhaps they figured that the 5 seconds it takes to ID the first in morse is all the audience will sit through.

Anyway, their current top-of-hour ID: https://files.catbox.moe/gcdryp.mp3

This must be legal if WION has been doing it for years. I wonder how creative you can get with the idea and have the FCC still acknowledge it as an intelligible (legal) form of ID. Could a classical station have a quartet of flute players play the station's ID in perfectly synchronized morse code, but in a chord that exhibited melodic progression, maybe even matching part of a famous composition?
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
KSKO LEGAL BECAUSE WE NEED ONE APPARENTLY 1.mp3
Click to expand...
That's cool, and nicely produced! Is making fun of the current government still allowed even when you depend on licenses from it to do things? If it is, do one like this too (gold text = spoken monotonously through a telco bandpass):

"Last month, our faithful listeners donated $#,### to KSKO to keep free speech on the air! Now, we must legally say KSKO McGrath, Alaska so our FCC listeners don't show up and fine us it all."
 
yeoldeschool said:
"Last month, our faithful listeners donated $#,### to KSKO to keep free speech on the air! Now, we must legally say KSKO McGrath, Alaska so our FCC listeners don't show up and fine us it all."
Click to expand...

This is taking it a bit too far and pushing it
 
yeoldeschool said:
For the decade I've known about them, WION has always identified its 92.7 MHz translator in pure morse code at the top of every hour. (The code reads "W22BZ IONIA".)

I checked them again today, and they're still doing that, but it now appears they have a second translator on 100.3 MHz (W262DN Ionia-Lowell) that's being identified only by voice following the first translator's morse ID. Perhaps they figured that the 5 seconds it takes to ID the first in morse is all the audience will sit through.

Anyway, their current top-of-hour ID: https://files.catbox.moe/gcdryp.mp3

This must be legal if WION has been doing it for years. I wonder how creative you can get with the idea and have the FCC still acknowledge it as an intelligible (legal) form of ID. Could a classical station have a quartet of flute players play the station's ID in perfectly synchronized morse code, but in a chord that exhibited melodic progression, maybe even matching part of a famous composition?
Click to expand...

I know Jim and WION is pretty successful but that top of the hour is way too long, wordy and stuffy with wording that isnt needed
 
WION is the one that boasted the fact that it's broadcasting in AM Stereo, isn't it?

They even went so far as to use a Carver TX11a tuned to their frequency as the feed for their stream.

Are they still doing that, or did they give up on it and go with FM translators instead?

c
 
cc333 said:
WION is the one that boasted the fact that it's broadcasting in AM Stereo, isn't it?

They even went so far as to use a Carver TX11a tuned to their frequency as the feed for their stream.

Are they still doing that, or did they give up on it and go with FM translators instead?

c
Click to expand...
I think they're doing all of the above. I doubt they'd give up on the AM Stereo thing, as I doubt it takes much effort to maintain and is a pretty neat curio. Of course most of their listeners aren't tuning in with an AM Stereo receiver, but that's not the point of doing it...

I'd bet that their listeners are a combination of the AM, the translators, and online streaming. I pop the stream on from time to time because of their unique & local programming (I'm nowhere near their OTA coverage area).

Case in point: just heard a liner encouraging the use of Amazon Alexa. So it's definitely a combo.
 
I remember when KXMX (ex-KEZY) Anaheim had a short-lived "Mix" format from then-owner Clear Channel between KEZY going away and The Fish coming on board at 95.9. I don't remember exactly, but they would do the legal ID and station phrases in different languages at the top of the hour with the station voice going something like "Huh? Oh, you mean KXMX, Anaheim." I thought this was clever. Also in areas where the legal ID uses multiple cities (but only requires the first one) I always thought it would be a cute idea (and maybe even more appropriate in today's age of streaming) to just randomly insert other major cities around the world as the final city in the ID....so "KMEL....San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose" would become "KMEL.....San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose-Tokyo" with different cities thrown in to different top of the hour IDs.
 


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