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Is WHYY-FM legal ID correct?

aindik said:
I think the two AM sports station in Philadelphia now fall into this satellite station rule. I think both stations are complying with it by putting the frequency in the legal ID.

IIRC, WIP IDs as:
WIP-FM, WIP-FM-HD 1 Philadelphia, 610 WIP Philadelphia

IIRC, WPEN IDs as:
Ninety Seven Five The Fanatic is WPEN-FM Burlington, also heard on ESPN 950 WPEN Philadelphia
On Sunday 950 was running the MRN Daytona 500 coverage (of the rainout) separate from the FM local sports talk but ran the full AM-FM ID at 1 pm: "Ninety Seven Five The Fanatic is WPEN-FM Burlington, also heard on ESPN 950 WPEN Philadelphia". Shouldn't they have a separate AM ID when not simulcasting?
 
thataveragejoe said:
What gets really confusing is HD ID's, and I'm not talking sub-channels. Granted the rules aren't that specific but the wide array many stations ID is certainly complex. Some ignore, some give calls HD, some calls HD1, some frequency HD...half of these can't be right.

The FCC badly mucked up 73.1201 when they rewrote it for DTV and HD radio. What had been a fairly straightforward rule (calls followed by COL, licensee name/frequency/channel as acceptable insertions, as close as possible to the top of the hour) is now a vague mess. So far, there's been no clarification, not even from enforcement actions, to tell us what "in a manner that appropriately alerts its audience to the fact that it is listening to a digital audio broadcast" is supposed to mean. I spent 20 minutes on the phone earlier today with a consulting client discussing whether it's OK to identify the HD1 exclusively via PAD data and not aurally at all. (The answer appears to be "yes," at least until the FCC indicates otherwise.)

In practice, whatever the letter of the rules may say, the FCC's own actions over the last decade or so have indicated that the Commission doesn't really care whether an FM station correctly gives the "-FM" suffix, nor whether it uses the word "in" before the COL, nor whether or not it mentions its frequency. On average, the Enforcement Bureau nails stations for 73.1201 (legal ID) violations only a few times a year, almost always as part of a larger checklist of serious violations - and always for complete failure to ID. I can't even recall the last time I saw a station cited for IDing in an incorrect format.
 
Scott Fybush said:
In practice, whatever the letter of the rules may say, the FCC's own actions over the last decade or so have indicated that the Commission doesn't really care whether an FM station correctly gives the "-FM" suffix, nor whether it uses the word "in" before the COL, nor whether or not it mentions its frequency. On average, the Enforcement Bureau nails stations for 73.1201 (legal ID) violations only a few times a year, almost always as part of a larger checklist of serious violations - and always for complete failure to ID. I can't even recall the last time I saw a station cited for IDing in an incorrect format.

The Resident Agent for the enforcement bureau in my neck of the woods said at a recent SBE meeting that he won't write up someone solely for messing up an ID or not doing it on time, but when he hears one it invites extra scrutiny because if you're not doing the little things right you're probably not doing the big things right. So repeatedly messing up your legal ID is a surefire way of getting inspected, and if your house isn't in order, the NOV list will be long.
 
If memor serves correctly, WNEW 1130 IDed at the TOH with 'WNEW Metromedia Radio, New York', for years. This was decades ago.

With, as Scott Fybush says, the rules as unclear as they are, the feeling here is that if there's no intent to defraud or mislead, things are fine.

To me, a more heinous situation would be the blatant burial of a substandard city-of-license in the bellowing blaze of a more prestigious city. Most of us have heard a few.
There's far more deceit there. And it's purposeful, scheduled chicanery, too -- almost 9000 times a year. But then again, it seems the only people who rightfully would have a pursuable gripe would be some sort of dignitaries or watchdogs who actually lived in the community that's being given the finger every hour.

Re WNEW again:
Of course, there was the occasional instance at news time where the mischievous Gene Klavan, backtiming like he had to, would crank up the reverb and send 'W-W-N-W-N-EW-nnn -N-N-W!!!-W-E-W Metro (W) metro-Media-metro-media-media-New Yorknewyorknewywork (gish-gish GISHHHHH)' over air, splashing onto WHLI 1100 and WLIB 1190. Then he'd key off and just stop the whole racket cold for the TOH

'beep'.

One morning, man, the poor newsman at this legendary conservative MoR station, hearing this abomination through his erphones, just LOST it. I expect a memo came down to the news anchors to get the cue and the beep from some place other than 'that goofball down the hall'.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
To me, a more heinous situation would be the blatant burial of a substandard city-of-license in the bellowing blaze of a more prestigious city. Most of us have heard a few.

Serving the Universe, From the Top of the Empire State Building. Z-100 is WHTZ Newark New York City!

Washington's SuperStation, 106.7 WJFK-FM Manassas Washington.

Back when they were syndicating most of 106.7 Manassas (Howard Stern, G. Gordon Liddy, Don & Mike) over to 1300 AM Baltimore (dubbed "JFK Junior"), CBS/Infinity would run this convoluted legal ID:
WJFK FM and AM, Manassas, Washington, Baltimore
 
When 97.9X WBSX Hazelton was WVCD, they would horribly mess up - They would say Scranton WVCD is 97.9 Hazelton.

That lasted for a week or so, till they moved it to it's correct alignment.

Used to live up that way, wasn't as much of a radio geek so I hadn't known it was an issue.

Granted Scranton isn't Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, but it certainly isn't a country town. That station can reach around 900,000 persons.

[Edit - fixed typo and pop. mistake]
 
John1 said:
aindik said:
I think the two AM sports station in Philadelphia now fall into this satellite station rule. I think both stations are complying with it by putting the frequency in the legal ID.

IIRC, WIP IDs as:
WIP-FM, WIP-FM-HD 1 Philadelphia, 610 WIP Philadelphia

IIRC, WPEN IDs as:
Ninety Seven Five The Fanatic is WPEN-FM Burlington, also heard on ESPN 950 WPEN Philadelphia
On Sunday 950 was running the MRN Daytona 500 coverage (of the rainout) separate from the FM local sports talk but ran the full AM-FM ID at 1 pm: "Ninety Seven Five The Fanatic is WPEN-FM Burlington, also heard on ESPN 950 WPEN Philadelphia". Shouldn't they have a separate AM ID when not simulcasting?

I don't think there's a rule against IDing a station you're not actually broadcasting on. WXPN mentions WKHS in Maryland at every break, even though WKHS is not a 24/7 relay of XPN.
 
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