No, but that does not necessarily mean that they intend to resurrect the station. It could mean that, but the call letters, combined with format, and other branding elements, can be considered intellectual property. That could all be bundled together as a sale of the license, without physical property for a transmitter site.
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What Happens to Inactive/Defunct Call Signs?
- Thread starter cc333
- Start date
I see, and then the buyer, if they so choose, could attach said license to a tower somewhere and put it back on the air if they wanted.
They'd probably have to get a different format though, I would think, as the former KDWN-AM's format is still in use on FM (is there an actual KDWN-FM?) and the Internet, probably with few, if any changes (maybe an updated ID that removes references to 720 AM, but that would probably be about it).
I guess?
c
For the right price, I'm sure Audacy would be willing to put something else on their FM.
There is no KDWN on FM. It’s K268CS and KMXB-HD3.
I'm remembering another slightly slippery station name now - for a period, one of the Jack FM stations in the UK had a sister station called Glide 107.9 (strapline: "you'll feel every song!"). Like KY-FM, that one caused some giggling among us children in the office at another radio station.
Even the logo looked like it came off a bottle of something.
I heard of stuff that the owners like Cumulus or Audacy would park defunct call letters to related stations they own in other parts of the country.
In Cumulus case when they converted the old KFOG to Sports/talk KNBR-FM they moved the KFOG Call letters from San Francisco to a cumulus owned station in Little Rock, AR. Parts of this is to prevent the rivals of Cumulus from taking those call letters to other Bay Area stations.
en.wikipedia.org
KFOG-AM 1250 kHz - Little Rock, AR
Audacy back when they where then Entercom had warehoused two call letters that had their origins in other places to Sacramento. KIFM was originally from a station they owned in San Diego until there was a format flip in San Diego that moved the call letters to Sacramento for a Sports/talk station they manage.
KUDL was originally from Kansas City before Entercom moved the call letters to Sacramento.
Some of this is to prevent competitors from reusing call letters in a certain area.
KIFM - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
In Cumulus case when they converted the old KFOG to Sports/talk KNBR-FM they moved the KFOG Call letters from San Francisco to a cumulus owned station in Little Rock, AR. Parts of this is to prevent the rivals of Cumulus from taking those call letters to other Bay Area stations.
KFOG (AM) - Wikipedia
KFOG-AM 1250 kHz - Little Rock, AR
Audacy back when they where then Entercom had warehoused two call letters that had their origins in other places to Sacramento. KIFM was originally from a station they owned in San Diego until there was a format flip in San Diego that moved the call letters to Sacramento for a Sports/talk station they manage.
KUDL was originally from Kansas City before Entercom moved the call letters to Sacramento.
Some of this is to prevent competitors from reusing call letters in a certain area.
KIFM - Wikipedia
KUDL - Wikipedia
And guess who Patterson's son-in-law was?
Dick Bott - yes, the founder of the Bott religious-radio empire in the Midwest. See: BRN History and Founder Mr. Dick Bott // Bott Radio Network History
Also - KSAN was where Belva Davis started her long and illustrious Bay Area career, becoming the first Black female journalist on the West Coast, going on to be an anchor and reporter at KPIX and KRON, and then a public-affairs host at KQED.
Interesting discussion re: the big radio conglomerates parking defunct calls in small towns where the competition can't get them.
Anyway, speaking of defunct calls, here's a list of three letter calls I'm thinking of using. Please let me know if any of them have iffy connotations similar to KYY's:
Anyway, speaking of defunct calls, here's a list of three letter calls I'm thinking of using. Please let me know if any of them have iffy connotations similar to KYY's:
- KBQ
- KBY
- KBZ
- KMQ
- KCY
- KFR
- KGM
- KZM (a station in Oakland, CA from 1921-1928, then relocated to Hayward from 1928 until deletion in mid-1931)
- KHI
- KHO
- KPZ
- I could go on....
So what's this for again? Some sort of 'play radio station'? Mr. Microphone?
It's for my Part 15 station, and I thought it would be fun if it had an actual call.
c
Ah, 'Mr. Microphone', got it. Yes, I think you should give it a fictitious call sign. That will make it easier for the Commission Enforcement Office to know it's you.
I was kind of hoping for a Recoton Room Service (the apparently rare audio-only version) myself.
Well, I'd say it's more like a jukebox at this point. No microphones, Mr. or otherwise.
Dare I ask what you mean by "recoton room"?
c
For some years, Northwestern football was carried on 820 in Chicago. Given how long they had then gone between winning seasons, WAIT was a fitting call sign.
For FCC clerks, for lawyers, and for nitpickers (and the copy editors of the old Broadcasting Magazine), yes. For normal people, feel free to write things like WGN-AM instead of WGN (AM). It provides clarity and uses one less character.
SimiIarly nitpicky, I can think of one television station that still uses a -TV prefix. WMAQ-TV Chicago, even though WMAQ-AM and WMAQ-FM changed their signs decades ago. GE allowed Westinghouse to continue the WMAQ call on 670 after it sold the station. Subsequent sales and format changes prompted the switch to WSCR.
The letters KAA-KCZ were never issued to broadcasters because until 1929, those calls belonged to Germany. Up until that point, the US only had KDA-KZZ in the K-block, which explains why KDKA was among the first 4-letter calls assigned to broadcasters. Three-letter call assignments went away right about the time KAA-KCA were acquired by the US. I don't think any new 3-letter calls were issued to AM stations after 1929. Coastal stations, maybe, but not broadcasters.
WIS, Columbia, S.C., was the last new three-letter call, in 1930.
The U.S. also has AAA-ALZ and N--, but only assigns those to military stations. The only notable one I know of is NAA, the Navy station originally in Washington, D.C., which handled time signals and, concurrently with what became KDKA, election night reports in 1920.
The U.S. also has AAA-ALZ and N--, but only assigns those to military stations. The only notable one I know of is NAA, the Navy station originally in Washington, D.C., which handled time signals and, concurrently with what became KDKA, election night reports in 1920.
OK, I was close.
The original callsign blocks for the US, assigned in 1912 or '13, were KDA-KZZ, NAA-NZZ, and WAA-WZZ. The AAA-ALZ block wasn't assigned to the US until 1947. I forget who owned it before then (Germany?).
Also, the N and AA-AL blocks are not only assigned to the military, but have also been assigned to ham operators since 1978. AH and NH are exclusively for Hawaii and the Pacific Islands territories (number-dependent), AL and NL for Alaska (all numbers 0-9, not just 7 like it was prior to '78), and NP is for Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and maybe a few other small Caribbean islands.
There was a proposed shortwave broadcast station somewhere in the South in the '80s that was going to use the call NDXE ("In Dixie." Get it?). I never heard it on the air; in fact, I don't think it was ever built. That's the only potential broadcaster I've ever heard of with a callsign beginning with N.
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