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Stations that give up "heritage" call letters

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icybluelake

I'm not sure this is really a DX topic per se, but the crowd here is pretty savvy, so I'll try it.

Why do radio stations give up call letters that have been in use for quite a while for completely new ones? I'm not making the argument here that heritage call letters these days are inherently financially valuable -- I understand that call letters today matter to relatively very few listeners. But on the other hand, why change?

KFRC and KABL in San Francisco come to mind as stations whose calls at least had some meaning in respect to the city in which they were located, and had been in use for some time, and presumably had some recognition value, even if minimal.

Sometimes there is a logic that isn't readily apparent until one hears the story. In other instances, though, the decision seems questionable.

This subject isn't really keeping me up at night, but I'm just curious to hear people's thoughts.
 
icybluelake said:
Why do radio stations give up call letters that have been in use for quite a while for completely new ones? I'm not making the argument here that heritage call letters these days are inherently financially valuable -- I understand that call letters today matter to relatively very few listeners. But on the other hand, why change?

Sometimes there is a logic that isn't readily apparent until one hears the story. In other instances, though, the decision seems questionable.
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There are a variety of reasons for abandoning long-standing call letters.

First, if the station is sold and the owner wishes to keep the calls for another property, the new owner may have to change. An example would be KOB in Albuquerque where the TV kept the call letters and the AM & FM became KKOB.

Second is when the station has been doing poorly for some time and ownership fells that the calls, as great as they may have been, are now associated with a failed station where listeners won't tune back because they "know" the station is not for them.

Third is where the owners want call letters that "say" the format... generally reinforcing the station's name.

Fourth is when the owners don't think the calls matter and they won't be promoted, but a format change makes them want to put some distance between the old and the new programming.

Fifth, and last, is stupidity. This is the "cat pissing in all the corners of the room to prove it is his territory" situation where a new owner or manager thinks that they know better when they really don't.
 
I can't directly answer your question because I haven't ever asked station management why they would flip calls. I can give an opinion:

1. The station has changed ownership and the old calls represent the old owner or the old format.

2. The station changes formats and wants something more appropriate to the new format.

3. The station owner has a gigantic ego and wants everyone to know THESE are his/her initials. Also holds true for corporate ownership.

When I lived in S.F. (mid-60's) KABL was a Beautiful Music station and had those cable car bell bumpers. Those wouldn't work very well in Jasper Junction. Then KABL flipped to rock and the calls still fit S.F.

KFRC was T-40 then rock then something else and didn't have the geo tie-in of KABL so not as big a deal - especially since they weren't a rock station any longer. And actually, the original KFRC was AM as well so even more difference. I wasn't there when the calls went FM.
 
What about radio stations that have voluntarily dropped 3 letter calls and taken 4 letter calls? I seem to remember that happening somewhere in the West about 5 years back. Not associated with the same calls being used on a TV or other radio station.
 
seedless said:
What about radio stations that have voluntarily dropped 3 letter calls and taken 4 letter calls? I seem to remember that happening somewhere in the West about 5 years back. Not associated with the same calls being used on a TV or other radio station.
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There are plenty of 3-letter calls that have changed to 4-letter ones. Generally, it has happened when the heritage calls have become irrelevant or where the owners think that the old calls are negative baggage.

KOL Seattle and KYA San Francisco are examples.
 
landtuna said:
KFRC was T-40 then rock then something else and didn't have the geo tie-in of KABL so not as big a deal - especially since they weren't a rock station any longer. And actually, the original KFRC was AM as well so even more difference. I wasn't there when the calls went FM.
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From 1966 when Bill Drake and Tom Rounds changed the old MOR format to the mid-80's when it changed to nostalgia in the mid-80's, KFRC was a Top 40 station. We alternately called Top 40 stations as "rock" at one point, and then when R&R wanted to make its chart "better" than Billboard's, CHR. But by any name, the basic format was Top 40.
 
DavidEduardo said:


From 1966 when Bill Drake and Tom Rounds changed the old MOR format to the mid-80's when it changed to nostalgia in the mid-80's, KFRC was a Top 40 station. We alternately called Top 40 stations as "rock" at one point, and then when R&R wanted to make its chart "better" than Billboard's, CHR. But by any name, the basic format was Top 40.
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Thanks for the clarification. To me the definition between T-40 and Rock as station formats has always been that T-40 identify themselves as such and played primarily/exclusively tunes from the current T-40 while rock stations don't limit themselves to the T-40 playlist or advertise that fact. May be somewhat simplistic but it has served me well.
 
Then there are groups in which all of their stations with like formats have two of the same letters,
or they want something to sound like their new format, or both.
WFNW, WFNX, WFNY, WFNZ could all be used for Fun, Fan, or Financial.

I remember when WOR-TV became WWOR, and when WRC radio became WWRC.

I could be wrong, but I believe it is next to impossible to recover a surrendered three-letter call sign or one that is on the wrong side of the Mississippi River or in KQV's and WHO's cases, both.
 
ai4i said:
I remember when WOR-TV became WWOR, and when WRC radio became WWRC.
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Both happened when the co-owned stations were split off. GE sold WRC-AM, but kept the TV, so the new radio owner had to change the letters. One exception is Disney, which sold off it's radio stations, kept the TVs, but leases the heritage call letters to Cumulus.

ai4i said:
.

I could be wrong, but I believe it is next to impossible to recover a surrendered three-letter call sign or one that is on the wrong side of the Mississippi River or in KQV's and WHO's cases, both.
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WHN became WMGM in the 60s, and then switched back to WHN.
 
I was living in DC for a short time just as WWRC became a new entity and I will never forget their TOH legal ID. Under a barrage of music, the announcer would proclaim that,
"You're listening to the station of the stars, wWRC, Washington, DC".
 
When Hubbard sold KOB-AM and KOB-FM, the stations changed their call letters to KKOB-AM and KKOB-FM. KOB-TV kept the original call letters.
 
TheBigA said:
WHN became WMGM in the 60s, and then switched back to WHN.
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And a mere three weeks ago, in response to a question over at ReelRadio, I looked up how the three-letter call got reassigned to 1050:

me said:
WHN changed call letters in 1948 to WMGM when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought it. In 1961, after Storer Broadcasting bought it from MGM, they asked the FCC to restore the original three-letter call. That took effect February 28, 1962. The basis for Storer's request? The sale agreement required him to remove the "MGM" from the call letters.

The Rules said no new three-letter calls would be assigned; George B. Storer argued that WHN was not a "new" call but its "pioneer" call, which had been used for over a quarter-century before MGM changed it.

Apparently the FCC agreed.
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The above was all verified by Broadcasting articles at the time.
 
I really don't see a problem with the FCC granting three-letter calls.
It seems that they don't do it because .... they just don't do it.
 
K.M. Richards said:
And a mere three weeks ago, in response to a question over at ReelRadio, I looked up how the three-letter call got reassigned to 1050:.
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And let's nor forget how KKHJ got the "old" KHJ calls back.

The FCC had allowed reversion to three-letter calls only if the same licensee who renounced them requested them back. In the case of KKHJ, Los Angeles, the licensee was not the same as the one who changed them to KRTH (AM). So they should not have been able to make the change, right?

Wrong. KKHJ successfully argued that the two "K" letters in Spanish were pronounced just the same as "caca", the word for "poop". They wanted to avoid that unpleasant connotation and asked for KHJ back and got the request granted.

It did not matter that the station only used the calls at the top of the hour legal ID, and never, ever said them in Spanish... the ruse worked even though there was really no problem
 
When WNBC became WFAN in1988 to go with the new Sports format, a lot of people were lamenting the dismissal of those legendary calls. Obviously the change of calls was successful. WMCA's calls go back to 1925. They were not changed when Salem took over in 1989. Probably didn't matter with a station with a few but devoted listeners. WPAT,both AM and FM never changed their calls when they went brokered on AM and Spanish on FM.
 
benale said:
When WNBC became WFAN in1988 to go with the new Sports format, a lot of people were lamenting the dismissal of those legendary calls.
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They had to, for the same reason as WRC: They were sold by GE, but GE retained the TV. TTBOMK, the WNBC call letters have not been used again in radio.

Historically, the station was originally WEAF, owned by AT&T, but changed to WNBC when AT&T got out of radio ownership.
 
landtuna said:


3. The station owner has a gigantic ego and wants everyone to know THESE are his/her initials.
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When Richard M. Fairbanks acquired WKOX-FM in Framingham (suburban Boston), he changed the call to WVBF, for his wife, Virginia B. Fairbanks. He already had his own initials on a station in Florida. WVBF wasn't a great call because the last three letters could be easily misunderstood. Indeed, I still recall many a contest winner doing a recorded spot with a DJ who'd ask the listener what his or her favorite radio station is, only to get an excited "WBBF!" in response.
 
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