new call letters

[jane grant]

WRKO
WBOS
WBCN


the person NH RADIO who asked about RKO changing call letters has a good idea. Since KISS and JAM N do well it would be crazy to change their call letters. The above 3 stations are not what they used to be.
Why hold on to the past?

WMBR used to be WTSB or something. if a college station can change so can these businesses.

 

[Neggy]

it was WTBS and as I remember Ted Turner paid them a handsome sum of money to aquire the calls...

TBS Turner Broadcasting Service.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

it was WTBS and as I remember Ted Turner paid them a handsome sum of money to aquire the calls...

TBS Turner Broadcasting Service.

The MIT station was WTBS (Technology Broadcasting System) from it's first sign-on in April 1961 until it became WMBR in May, 1979. The original call letters of the closed-circuit station WMIT which had preceded WTBS on the MIT campus were unavailable for use on the airwaves.

From the official history on the WMBR website:

With the construction of high-rise skyscrapers in Boston and Cambridge during the 1960's (including MIT's own Green Building), the original tower on the Walker Memorial roof soon proved to be inadequate. In 1971, WTBS received FCC approval to move its transmitter and construct a new tower and antenna on the roof of MIT's 30-story Eastgate graduate student housing building near Kendall Square. WTBS then applied for an upgrade to a class A signal with 200 watts ERP in 1972. After numerous technical and legal hurdles, including the resolution of potential interference claims made by other FM and TV stations, the FCC finally granted WTBS a construction permit for 200 watts ERP from the existing Eastgate tower and antenna in 1978.

However, the long battle was a costly one for WTBS, and the station no longer had enough money to buy a new transmitter. Help came from an unusual source: Ted Turner, who intended to distribute his TV station in Atlanta (then called WTCG) over satellite to cable operators across the US, wanted to use the call letters WTBS for his station, and contacted the MIT radio station with an offer to buy them.

Since the purchase of call letters was not yet allowed by the FCC, Turner and the lawyers for both stations found a legal loophole made possible by the MIT station's recently-obtained non-profit organization status: $25,000 would be donated to the station by Turner under the condition that WTBS-FM would apply for and receive new call letters. Turner would then apply for WTBS, and would donate an additional $25,000 if the FCC granted him the call sign.

The deal became reality: WTBS-FM became WMBR (“Walker Memorial Basement Radio”) on May 24, 1979, Ted Turner got the WTBS calls, WMBR received $50,000 from Turner, and WMBR signed on its new 200-watt signal on November 10, 1979. The station's licensee, the non-profit, all-volunteer WTBS Foundation, Inc., changed its name to the Technology Broadcasting Corporation a short time later.

WMBR currently broadcasts with 720 watts directional, the maximum allowed by the FCC on the frequency in the area. This final signal upgrade was accomplished in 1995 with help from listener donations during the stations annual fundraising week, which began as a once-yearly event starting in 1983.