They're short for Kick ass. https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=KASS&nav=&x=19&y=4
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How did KASS call letters get approved by the FCC?
- Thread starter Miles917
- Start date
You sure it doesn't mean Mama Cass?
According to Radio-Locator the station is in Casper, WY, so there mat be a connection to that.
I guess they were approved by the same guy who approved KLIT.
K-LIT in LA was always written with a hyphen. There was a rather frequent "abduction" of the hyphen from the raised metal letters on the front of the building on Sunset Boulevard, followed by an unpleasant scene performed as a soliloquy by the manager.
A new hyphen would be ordered. It would eventually be taken.
On the air, it was Kay-lite. The legal ID was "Kay.... El Eye Tee... Kay Lite."
They wanted to be "lite" so badly that they created their own Rocky Horror Show of Radio.
Of course now those call letters are used by a Spanish Christian station in Texas. No hyphen.
At one point, DFW had a low powered TV station with the KSEX calls while airing (I think) informercials. I couldn't receive the station but I could imagine that it aired informercials for "toys" if you know what I mean (I'm sure not).
Today the calls are now KBOP. The KSEX calls are now in San Diego.
Today the calls are now KBOP. The KSEX calls are now in San Diego.
There is no WASS currently licensed. Has any licensed station ever used it?
no different than the station on the campus of the University of Minnesota at Morris
KUMM
Spanish language station in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 1450 AM Radio Cumbre. WCUM. http://radiocumbre.am/wp/
no different than the station on the campus of the University of Minnesota at Morris
KUMM
KOME in San Jose used to advise its listeners: "Don't touch that dial, it's got KOME on it!"
Those calls were once assigned to a station in Cumberland, MD.
It went off the air in 2017
So is this turning into a thread about dirty call letters?
One of my favorite radio stations as a kid was KACA Prosser, WA. No big deal in 1962 when the station opened. But as the area's Spanish speaking population rapidly increased (the city is over a third Hispanic now) it was changed in 1992.
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The FCC policy going back to the 1980s appears to be "this is a marketplace issue." If you really want to call your station KUNT or WFUK, they'll let you use the calls. But the marketplace hasn't seemed to reward anyone who's tried, going back to the original test case of WSEX in the Chicago suburbs.
There used to be a station in Fulton, KY, WFUL. Like Maxwell Smart said, "Missed it by THAT much!!!"
That's hard to believe. No state will issue a license plate with "ASS" on it, let alone those three-letter combos preceding "FUD" and "FUL." And the very same FCC skips those combos in its amateur call sign sequences and won't allow a ham to request one as a "vanity" call. Check any old Callbook -- WB2ASR is followed by WB2AST, K6FUB is followed by K6FUD, etc.
It was 23 or 24 years ago when oldies KPGM 106.9 requested the call letter change to KASS for “Kick Ass Rock n Roll” and flipped to classic rock. The station bombed and quickly began calling itself “Kick 106.9” while keeping the KASS calls.
The FCC was challenged in the 80's after 92.7 in metro Chicago was denied the WSEX calls. The FCC either lost or relented and eventually allowed them. WSEX didn’t fare particularly well either and switched calls a few years later.
My favorite calls were used in Colorado in the not too distant past. Those, of course, would be KCUF. I can already hear the jingle “KCUF, Spell it backwards!” The operator of the Colorado station, however, said the callsign stood for “Keeping Colorado Uniquely Free.”
The FCC was challenged in the 80's after 92.7 in metro Chicago was denied the WSEX calls. The FCC either lost or relented and eventually allowed them. WSEX didn’t fare particularly well either and switched calls a few years later.
My favorite calls were used in Colorado in the not too distant past. Those, of course, would be KCUF. I can already hear the jingle “KCUF, Spell it backwards!” The operator of the Colorado station, however, said the callsign stood for “Keeping Colorado Uniquely Free.”
They probably wanted CASS, but I'm guessing that a Canadian station already has that one!
And I used to work for them! (But they were WKZT at the time.)
Wrong guess. Chile owns CA through CE. Canada has CF through CK. These are the ITU's allocations, although it should be noted that Canada uses the CB prefix on CBC stations. The Wikipedia entry gives no explanation for this apparent incursion into another country's call sign territory, but Canada's been doing it for years, so maybe at one time it did have CB and is allowed to "share" the prefix with the ITU's designated owner through some sort of grandfathering, or an international handshake agreement.
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