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Call Letters

I can't imagine any radio station that DOESN'T pick their own letters from what's available today.

Mainly the way the FCC works, you just never know what you're going to get assigned (WIMP, WUSS, etc.) It's like having your mom pick your school clothes for you.

But I ponder the choices some broadcasters make......

There IS a station BOLD enough to pick the letters KSEX (and a TV station, no less......)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSEX-CA

I know there's KPOT-LP (Jackpot, NV), KTHC (Sidney, MT), there was even KCUF (read those backwards) somewhere in Vail, CO before they changed to something else. (They tried to make a moniker "Keeping Colorado Uniquely Free". Nice try.)

In Seattle, there's KCIS (read those backwards), a religious talk station.
 
Today, you *have* to pick your own, because the FCC got out of the business of assigning them at random. For the most part, they got out of that business decades ago (before they *were* the FCC) although they lit it back up for a few months around ten years ago. American Family Radio got a bunch of WA-- calls issued around that time, and (unlike everyone else) decided to keep them.
 
w9wi said:
There was a WGAY in Washington for years. Had nothing to do with sexual orientation -- the owner's name was Connie Gay.
Click to expand...

Actually it was pure coincidence that Connie B. Gay ended up owning WGAY. Those calls were originally issued to 1050 AM in Silver Spring, MD (DC suburbs) when it went on the air in the late 1940s. It is thought the first programming was aimed at government employees and the call letters stood for "Government And You." The 99.5 FM signal came along sometime in the '50s and Mr. Gay bought the combo around 1959. He briefly put rock and roll on 1050 and played country music using a jukebox on the FM. By 1960 he started "mood music" on the AM and changed the calls to WQMR (Washington's Quality Music Radio). The FM began simulcasting 'QMR in '61 and continued with the format into the '90s.

Here is a great website with lots of great history of WGAY and WQMR: http://www.percyfaithpages.org/wqmrwgaymemories/wqmr.htm Even if you're not a fan of Beautiful Music it's a neat site with lots of insight into DC area radio in the 1960s.
 
One April Fool's day some years back, I heard WOWO changed to WEWE for the day, complete with toilet flushes. Priceless... I am pretty sure it was after Price Comm., in fact. LOL
 
In Virginia, WPWC was "Wonderful Prince William County" for a long time. They used that during ID's.

WPGC was for "Prince George's County."

WINC was of course in Winchester, VA.

WRVA in Richmond, VA.

WFVA in Fredericksburg, VA

WCUL in Culpeper, VA


and on and on...............
 
When my local station on 1460 went on the air here in Las Vegas in the late 40's, the owner had an idea that the FCC would never give him a call sign associated with gambling, so he put down KENO as his second choice. His first choice turned out to be a ship at sea, and we still have the KENO call sign through dozens off format changes and several owners. Today KENO is Hispanic Sports, Deportes.
 
Nobody owns calls. Once an owner gives them up, they're available for anyone else to request. That's why we often see calls "parked" - CBS knew "WNEW" had value even after they stopped using that call in New York City, so they used the calls on a small station in Florida for a few years before eventually reusing WNEW for their Washington, DC-market all-newser.
 
If another operator wanted to use the "KFRC" base callsign on AM (or to have a KFRC-LP on FM, or a KFRC-TV), they would first need the permission of CBS, since it's already using the KFRC base callsign on FM. CBS is allowed to ask for compensation for the use of the calls elsewhere, if it so desires.

(In practice, I imagine CBS would probably say no - whatever minimal compensation they might get from someone wanting to use "KFRC" on AM in, say, Frisco, Colorado would be outweighed by the value of being easily able to shift those calls back to being parked on 1550 if they needed to change calls on 106.9 for some reason.)
 
For example

If CBS puts KCBS-FM on 106.9 and Put's new calls on 93.1 (not the KFRC calls)

Can someone new get the KFRC calls?? let's just say a new AM in the Bay Area??
 
If CBS doesn't park the KFRC calls somewhere else (say, on a small station in another market), then yes, someone else could use "KFRC."

But CBS tends to be very good about parking calls that could be valuable later on.
 
How about the WNBC calls. There is no radio station using them, only TV. But if you do a call search on the FCC web site it says there not available.
 
knoxbob said:
How about the WNBC calls. There is no radio station using them, only TV. But if you do a call search on the FCC web site it says there not available.
Click to expand...

WNBC is Channel 4 in New York. The -TV suffix hasn't been used in years.
 
knoxbob said:
How about the WNBC calls. There is no radio station using them, only TV. But if you do a call search on the FCC web site it says there not available.
Click to expand...

And that's correct. Because channel 4 in New York is "WNBC," the callsign "WNBC" is not available to any radio station without the permission of NBC. If an FM station could get that permission, it would have to be WNBC-FM. If an AM station could get that permission, it would have to come along with a call change on channel 4 from "WNBC" back to "WNBC-TV," to make "WNBC" available for the AM station.

In practice, NBC is unlikely to grant that permission.
 
There is no master list. You can go to the FCC's Callsign Reservation System (don't have the link handy, but google it) and punch in a call and it will tell you if it's available or not.
 
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