jd said:
Yes, that's a really good analysis. I'd like to see one for FM as well.
Offhand I can think of these current examples of "W" FM calls west of the Mississippi: WDAY-FM Fargo ND, WNAX-FM Yankton SD, WIBW-FM Topeka KS, WLTE Minneapolis, WWLS-FM The Village OK, and two in Texas, WACO-FM Waco and WRR Dallas. There may be others west of the Mississippi in Louisiana and Minnesota as well, not to mention translators with W calls.
Note that WWLS (AM) was formerly WNAD Norman OK; it moved to Moore and rather recently later picked up the FM licensed to The Village. WACO-FM and WRR haven't had a companion AM for years, and I don't know why "WACO-100" hasn't dropped the "FM" suffix like WRR.
Since the K/W policies were firmed up well before FM came along, all "wrong-side FMs" come from one of four places:
- FM affiliates of "wrong-side AMs"
(this accounts for the vast majority of cases, including all the ones you mention above except WLTE)
- City lies on both sides of the river. (Minneapolis, New Orleans)
(the center of Minneapolis lies west -- actually south -- of the Mississippi, but part of the city is east/north, and so is the WLTE transmitter)
- Station moved across the river. (Memphis, St. Louis)
- FCC screwed up. (WGCQ)
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purpledevil said:
On the flip side of that coin, you have stations like KBXX and KKBQ here in Houston which both use the FM suffix, when the AM counter part is long gone. In the case of KBXX, I can't seem to recall there ever being a KBXX on the AM dial, the previous calls on 97.9 of KFMK did not have the FM suffix, so I'm not sure why it was added there. KKBQ still ID's as KKBQ-FM/Pasadena-Houston even though the AM counterpart at 790 hasn't been KKBQ for about a decade now.
The -FM suffix is required if the same calls exist without a suffix on another service. So if there's a KKBQ on 790 AM, and you want to use KKBQ on FM, you must use the -FM suffix. The official calls are KKBQ-FM as you note.
If you then change the AM station to something else, the FM does NOT lose the -FM suffix. It remains KKBQ-FM. If you want to drop the -FM suffix, you have to file the appropriate paperwork (and pay the filing fee) to change calls.
The -FM suffix is
optional if there is no call without a suffix on another service. If there is no KKBQ on AM, then your FM station can have either KKBQ or KKBQ-FM. Your choice. But whichever one you choose, that appears on your license, and that's how you're required to identify.
It is not unheardof for a station that doesn't officially have a -FM suffix to use that suffix anyway in its legal ID -- to identify as "KKBQ-FM Houston" even though their calls are officially just "KKBQ". Arguably that's not legal, though I've never heard of anyone being cited for it. (and arguably, "FM" is an acceptable insertion. You can insert your frequency in your ID, and arguably your frequency is "FM" -- the rules don't say how specific you have to be!)
