The local K-Love station, at 103.1 in Royalton, VT, used to be WRJT when it was playing the devil's music. It's now WZKC, which I can get nothing from, although at least there's K in it. Still, the call looks like a random assignment rather than something EMF specifically asked for.
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WBOQ sale, format change coming
- Thread starter raccoonradio
- Start date
didn't we have a million discussions about call letters being obsolete WRT branding?
They need it at the top of the hour and that pretty much covers 90 percent of their use.
They are more concerned about promoting the name of the network and how to donate.. the call letters mean nothing
They need it at the top of the hour and that pretty much covers 90 percent of their use.
They are more concerned about promoting the name of the network and how to donate.. the call letters mean nothing
I'm sure that the conditions of the sale are the main deciding factor. In some cases, the selling company opts to keep ownership of the calls, and in others the seller has no further use for them.
they can only keep the calls if they have a place to park them like WBCN did....
Although I thought part of the WBZ A sale was they had to give up the calls at some point....
The FCC is not holding call letters for former station owners, if they are not on a station, and not a bad word, then they are available if not already taken
Although I thought part of the WBZ A sale was they had to give up the calls at some point....
The FCC is not holding call letters for former station owners, if they are not on a station, and not a bad word, then they are available if not already taken
Would you explain or re-word this, please?
Assume he means that the FCC will not issue K*NT or WF*K and such because they are (or contain) "bad words." (Self-censorship imposed here to adhere to forum guidelines on obscenities.)
As Dr Gregory House, M.D. would say, "Well, when you put it like that....", then it makes perfect sense. Thanks!
I assume those Christian’s would say those words are from the devil.
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From what I observe, it comes down to whether or not the selling company aims to keep the intellectual property of a station that was branded with their call letters in tact. You don't see this as much, when the station is branded by a name. If EMF bought the license to the frequency of 94.5 in Boston, I theorize it as being less likely for iHeart would care about the WJMN call letters; as it's more known to the regular listener as "Jamin." In the case of a station like WAAF, the format is still called "WAAF," thus a need to retain ownership of the calls.
Again, that's all theoretical. One can easily argue that iHeart would want the WJMN calls for a station in another city that is branded as "Jamin." The main position is that unless the selling company aims to use the calls as branding for an online or HD-2 operation, they are less inclined to care what happens to the calls. In the case of WBCN, CBS parked the calls to retain ownership, as they were launching an HD-2 with the former station's branding, while also moving it's free form HD station to another frequency's HD-3.
Yes, and it would be part of a deal for them to do so. This is why WAAF (Boston) became WKVB, while WCCC and WPLJ still have the same call letters after flipping to K-Love.
From what I observe, it comes down to whether or not the selling company aims to keep the intellectual property of a station that was branded with their call letters in tact. You don't see this as much, when the station is branded by a name. If EMF bought the license to the frequency of 94.5 in Boston, I theorize it as being less likely for iHeart would care about the WJMN call letters; as it's more known to the regular listener as "Jamin." In the case of a station like WAAF, the format is still called "WAAF," thus a need to retain ownership of the calls.
Again, that's all theoretical. One can easily argue that iHeart would want the WJMN calls for a station in another city that is branded as "Jamin." The main position is that unless the selling company aims to use the calls as branding for an online or HD-2 operation, they are less inclined to care what happens to the calls. In the case of WBCN, CBS parked the calls to retain ownership, as they were launching an HD-2 with the former station's branding, while also moving it's free form HD station to another frequency's HD-3.
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For a time 107.3 had the WBZU calls (awfully close to WBZ!) but that was strictly temporary:
Wikipedia entry for WKVB:
>>Upon the takeover, Entercom "parked" the WAAF call sign on a station in Scranton, Pennsylvania; that station's previous WBZU calls were transferred to WAAF in a temporary move, effective February 26, 2020. The WBZU call letters had themselves been parked in Scranton 15 years earlier... Entercom then changed the station's call sign to WKVB on March 6; EMF had previously used the WKVB call sign on the K-Love station at Port Matilda, Pennsylvania. EMF's purchase of WKVB was completed on April 21, 2020.
So if you're in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre you can enjoy WAAF and WODS...as long as you like the news talk of "WILK NewsRadio"
>>WAAF (AM), a radio station (910 AM) licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States
>>WODS (AM), a radio station (1300 AM) licensed to serve West Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States
WODS is one of four simulcast radio stations in Northeast Pennsylvania that call themselves WILK Newsradio, along with 103.1 WILK-FM in Avoca, 980 WILK in Wilkes-Barre and 910 WAAF in Scranton
Call letters don't matter...so yeah, iHeart go ahead and change WRKO and WBZ AM to WHZY and WZPM...
Nobody will notice (though different companies are using the WBZ calls on -FM and -TV(
Wikipedia entry for WKVB:
>>Upon the takeover, Entercom "parked" the WAAF call sign on a station in Scranton, Pennsylvania; that station's previous WBZU calls were transferred to WAAF in a temporary move, effective February 26, 2020. The WBZU call letters had themselves been parked in Scranton 15 years earlier... Entercom then changed the station's call sign to WKVB on March 6; EMF had previously used the WKVB call sign on the K-Love station at Port Matilda, Pennsylvania. EMF's purchase of WKVB was completed on April 21, 2020.
So if you're in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre you can enjoy WAAF and WODS...as long as you like the news talk of "WILK NewsRadio"
>>WAAF (AM), a radio station (910 AM) licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States
>>WODS (AM), a radio station (1300 AM) licensed to serve West Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States
WODS is one of four simulcast radio stations in Northeast Pennsylvania that call themselves WILK Newsradio, along with 103.1 WILK-FM in Avoca, 980 WILK in Wilkes-Barre and 910 WAAF in Scranton
Call letters don't matter...so yeah, iHeart go ahead and change WRKO and WBZ AM to WHZY and WZPM...
Nobody will notice (though different companies are using the WBZ calls on -FM and -TV(
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There was a time that stations in the market could object to call letter changes that were too close to existing calls in the market.
I remember one time in the late 1970's one of the things that came across my desk was a notification that a call change was requested by a station and we were being notified so we could object to it if we wanted.
I remember one time in the late 1970's one of the things that came across my desk was a notification that a call change was requested by a station and we were being notified so we could object to it if we wanted.
Memories of WJTK for 1150 was proposed back in the day. Not to mention WBCS on 96.9 also, but WBCN did not seem to object at all.
WCLB to WKLB to avoid confusion with WCRB and WCVB-TV
It was not widely reported, I stand corrected!
I've heard the CLB//CRB confusion cited ... but why would a TV station's call matter?
I thought that was the decision of Fairbanks Communications, who owned them at the time. They reported that they would not be doing any cutsey "K" things at all.
Were people entering call letters into ratings diaries and putting WCVB in instead?
Wikipedia WKLB, "other frequencies":
>>Confusion with other radio stations, including WCRB, and a TV station lead to WCLB changing its calls to WKLB-FM in 1995
Yes, there was a required "Public Notice" that a station applying for new call letters had to send out to all stations within a specific radius of the one requesting the change.
Management hated this, as call letter changes often indicated a format change and even what format was intended.
In late 1978 I applied to change WSRA in San Juan to WZNT. Eveyone in the market knew that some kind of contemporary format would be coming as "Z-93". So we pretended to "test" the new format from Midnight to 6 AM... but the test format was a dreadful thing with the wrong songs and terrible imaging.
When the real format debuted, none of the competitors were listening and one of them said, "that guy does not know how to do our music". When ratings came out just a month later WZNT was #1 and none of the competitors even realized what had happened.
It was not till years later that the FCC realized that nearly nobody used call letters for imaging and positioning on the air and changed the call change procedure.
Call letters at that time were seldom put in a diary unless that was the principal identity of a station. Usually the frequency was listed in most entries.
The confusion among media buyers was probably a greater concern.
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