Call Letter Consideration

[landtuna]

I've often wondered about this since my Navy radio days back in the 60's.

Do commercial radio or TV stations take into consideration how easy or difficult it is to pronounce their calls prior to requesting or changing them?

Calls with recurring consonants like WWWB would be difficult for most announcers to say unless done slowly and don't lend themselves to jingles as easily as those with interspersed vowels.

I realize a lot of stations try to embed some meaning into their calls. Just wondering if the people who would have to say the call on-air have any input?

 

[Bongwater]

History is filled with nightmare call signs.

The WORST letter to say of all is "W". Most radio stations east of the Mississippi never bother with the full set or stick with a moniker if it has more than one.

What I'd like to know are the most UNPRONOUNCEABLE sets you've ever heard (Or - gasp! - Had to use regularly on the air)

For me, it will always be KWWA in Bremerton, WA in the early '80s. Today, it's calls are the nearly as tongue twisting KRWM, but luckily, it's moniker is "Warm 106.9"

 

[trusty]

One of the hardest letter combinations to speak, or to slur, are "HC" or "HZ" (Slightly harder than "KHJ". ) Both the "H" and the "C" (or "Z") need to have their own distinct sound and are very unforgiving.

Funny that "CH" and "ZH" are so easy, but that's English for ya .

 

[cd637299]

IMO the worst set of calls ever to say on the air were those of the former 1550 New Smyrna Beach, FL: WCCZ!

I never heard the station, but I could just imagine.

cd

 

[Bongwater]

IMO the worst set of calls ever to say on the air were those of the former 1550 New Smyrna Beach, FL: WCCZ!

I never heard the station, but I could just imagine.

cd

Even worse would be WCZC or KCZC

 

[anotherguyTN]

Try adding a website to any of those: www.wwww.com :

 

[dave73]

Fort Wayne, IN's WISE-TV's call letters used to be WKJG. The owners thought they were too difficult to pronounce, & decided to have them changed to something easier. That didn't sit too well with locals, as they were heritage call letters. The owners didn't care, because they wanted something simpler. Luckily, a radio station on the AM dial in Fort Wayne picked up the call letters. The station used to be called WONO AM 1380, then changed the calls to WKJG. Ironically, according to wikipedia, this station's call letters were WKJG from 1947 - 1971.

 

[cd637299]

Amazing that Y-100 in Miami had been WHYI for 37+ years. They have to say "WHYI" at the TOH or so, but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue....

In their early days they tried to incorporate the calls into their logo as in WHYIoo (Why100)....looked silly.

(One of the few stations whose lone letter in the slogan is the *middle* of the three chosen letters, "W" being the required one.)

cd

 

[RadioDaze]

The ABC affiliate in Lynchburg, Virginia, WSET, can sound like WSCT or WSZT when said fast. The station was originally WLVA-TV.

The old Jefferson Pilot TV stations were fond of including "WBT" in their call letters (company's flagship radio station in Charlotte), resulting in some hard-to-say combinations such as Florence, South Carolina's WBTW and Richmond, Virginia's WWBT. Their Charleston, South Carolina, TV station didn't follow the "WBT" pattern, but did stick with the equally hard-to-pronounce WCSC.

 

[LKellerIII]

I remember an early 70sTop 40 station on Maui (Hawaiin Islands) had the call letters KMVI. Try saying that fast without turning the "M" into an "N." Not easy.

 

[Bongwater]

WKJG...Almost broke my neck trying to spit those out.......

 

[Dave Andrews]

AM 1250 in Wickenburg AZ was KBSZ. This being on an AM freq I couldn't tell if it was KBFZ, KBSC or KBFZ. (Maybe we should start a "confusing calls" thread.)

IMO, WUUW or WHJW would be REALLY hard to say.

 

[radiowizard101]

KBSZ. The station slogan was 'Our BS won't make you sleepy'. This is only speculation. (a bad attempt at being funny?!?)

 

[borderblaster]

True...WKJG was the original call for 1380, then WKJG-FM at 97.3 (changed to WMEE on a top 40 format on 1380 and Beautiful Music WMEF in 1971...AM later became WQHK when WMEE moved to FM in 1979), and for many years Channel 33. Why the change on the TV side was neccesary I haven't got a clue.

Off the top of my head..the most difficult one I ever worked with was WMVR in Sidney, Ohio. The station (FM side...AM went off after directional array blew down) still exists but it's Hits 105-5 except for legals. A few others that come to mind: WHBM in Xenia Ohio; WONW in Definace, Ohio, and WRSW in Warsaw, Indiana.

 

[landtuna]

WKJG...Almost broke my neck trying to spit those out.......

You mean your tongue covered up your eye teeth and you couldn't see what you had to say? ;D

 

[KeithE4]

AM 1250 in Wickenburg AZ was KBSZ. This being on an AM freq I couldn't tell if it was KBFZ, KBSC or KBFZ. (Maybe we should start a "confusing calls" thread.)

It's still KBSZ, but it moved to Apache Junction. (almost as far east from Phoenix as Wickenburg was northwest) and 1260 a couple of years ago.

 

[michael hagerty]

AM 1250 in Wickenburg AZ was KBSZ. This being on an AM freq I couldn't tell if it was KBFZ, KBSC or KBFZ. (Maybe we should start a "confusing calls" thread.)

It's still KBSZ, but it moved to Apache Junction. (almost as far east from Phoenix as Wickenburg was northwest) and 1260 a couple of years ago.

The calls trace back to an FM in the 1990s that called itself "The Blaze".

 

[davideduardo]

AM 1250 in Wickenburg AZ was KBSZ. This being on an AM freq I couldn't tell if it was KBFZ, KBSC or KBFZ. (Maybe we should start a "confusing calls" thread.)

It's still KBSZ, but it moved to Apache Junction. (almost as far east from Phoenix as Wickenburg was northwest) and 1260 a couple of years ago.

And, since Phoenix is a PPM market, it really does not matter what the calls sound like. Listeners identify stations principally by dial position, not calls (with a few exceptions for heritage calls), so it does not matter what the calls are, either.

 

[davideduardo]

It's still KBSZ, but it moved to Apache Junction. (almost as far east from Phoenix as Wickenburg was northwest) and 1260 a couple of years ago.

And anyone who has traveled through Wickenburg (as I continue to do to avoid the construction on the 10 and the 17) knows, the only kind of station that town can sustain is a gas station.

 

[landtuna]

And anyone who has traveled through Wickenburg (as I continue to do to avoid the construction on the 10 and the 17) knows, the only kind of station that town can sustain is a gas station.

You just made Merv Griffin roll over in his grave! ;D