What's In The Name Of A Station's Call Letters?

[kevinsealy]

For us traditional radio listeners, there are certain stations that will always hold a place in our hearts. These are stations we knew as kids and to this day we still identify thses stations by their call letters.

WNEW-AM 1130 was the station I grew up with in the 70's. When I hear or think of the WNEW call signs, I always think of the station as the Pop Standard, MOR/AC station it was throughout the 1970's up till its last broadcast. Traditionalist see WNEW mainly the station of Big Bands sounds.

I will always remember 77 WABC as the Top 40 station it was during the 60's & 70's.I identified with Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Dan Igram and Cousin Brucie with the station.

I can say that WCBS-FM as the station that's reliving what WABC was.

But when we see some other station in some other city using the call letters of our beloved station(s),it's like destroying the legacy of that station. Viacom dropping the WNEW call letters from 102.7FM and parking them in Palm Beach, Florida @ 106.3FM on an R&B station that has nothing to do with the heritage of of either WNEW-AM or WNEW-FM

 

[calguy]

For us traditional radio listeners, there are certain stations that will always hold a place in our hearts. These are stations we knew as kids and to this day we still identify thses stations by their call letters.

WNEW-AM 1130 was the station I grew up with in the 70's. When I hear or think of the WNEW call signs, I always think of the station as the Pop Standard, MOR/AC station it was throughout the 1970's up till its last broadcast. Traditionalist see WNEW mainly the station of Big Bands sounds.

I will always remember 77 WABC as the Top 40 station it was during the 60's & 70's. I identified with Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Dan Igram and Cousin Brucie with the station.

I can say that WCBS-FM as the station that's reliving what WABC was.

But when we see some other station in some other city using the call letters of our beloved station(s),it's like destroying the legacy of that station. Viacom dropping the WNEW call letters from 102.7FM and parking them in Palm Beach, Florida @ 106.3FM on an R&B station that has nothing to do with the heritage of of either WNEW-AM or WNEW-FM

Sadly this has happened all over the country. Here in California the KMET calls ended up on a small town station inland of Los Angeles. Ditto KKDJ. When it became KIIS FM the calls moved to Fresno and now are in another small city. KZAP in Sacramento went Country and the calls were moved to Chico. The station there doesn't even use them save for the top of the hour calling themselves STAR 104 or something like that. Another Sacramento institution was Top 40 great KROY. Those calls are in a small Texas town now. Texas also is the home to KROY's old FM call letters KROI, now a Gospel station in Houston. Other famous calls stayed in LA like KMPC and KRLA, but the stations they were moved to are somewhat lackluster. San Francisco recently went through the trauma of having the KFRC calls removed from 610 AM when CBS sold the station off and it went religious. The calls remain on 99.7 but aren't being used since the wonderful brain trust at CBS went to the MOVIN' format. They probably kept the calls because of what happened in the 80's when KFRC AM's format changed from CHR to Standards. The public outcry was overwhelming. Of course public opinion didn't stop the same company from the disastrous decision to blow up the oldies format on CBS-FM in NY. The bottom line is that most companies have no sense of history and what it means to the city and its population when what amounts to an historic landmark is removed. And really, call letters represent a city’s history where the inhabitants have formed a bond much the same way they would with any other landmark. They may tolerate format changes, but many are quite unhappy when the call letters disappear.

 

[icybluelake]

What puzzles me is the instances that broadcasters give up call letters that have a history attached to them -- what we usually call heritage stations or calls. I think I see why stations do it -- often just to inaugurate a format change, where retaining the old call letters suggest the old station and might be associated strongly with a history that the station wants to move away from. I always think, why would a station want to give up call letters that are well-recognized, even if listeners associate them with the sound that the station had prior to making some kind of change? To me, it seemed silly for CBS to change 102.7 from WNEW-FM to WWFS. I understand the WWFS connection to the "Fresh" name, but it still seems like a strange decision for a company to make.

I can think of any number of stations in smaller markets that have given up "heritage" calls for something new moniker that just sounds to me like alphabet soup -- like WFZK or KYXV (I'm making these up) that doesn't lend itself to memorability.

 

[davideduardo]

I can think of any number of stations in smaller markets that have given up "heritage" calls for something new moniker that just sounds to me like alphabet soup -- like WFZK or KYXV (I'm making these up) that doesn't lend itself to memorability.

In many cases, the calls are changed to match the name for sales purposes... the calls, other than the legal ID, are not used on the air.

Since in such situations, calls are seldom if ever written down in the diary, the change of calls is irrelvant to the listener and only important so the ad agency can easily see which station it is.

 

[Metropolite]

New York's NBC O&O WRCA is now "Caliente 1330" in Boston.

 

[dkocolin]

I always think, why would a station want to give up call letters that are well-recognized, even if listeners associate them with the sound that the station had prior to making some kind of change?

I think you answered your own question... "the best county all day long... WRAP!"

 

[ouuc]

What's in the name of a station's call letters? Not much, unless the station prefers to be identified by them. in the city, a lot of the big AMs still do that, so the calls have a lot of value to them.

Call letter changes are much ado about nothing. If a set of calls is tied to a format, and the format changes, those heritage calls don't mean a thing, so it makes sense to change. When WNEW sold to Bloomberg and dropped music, it made sense to change. It also made sense to change when WNEW-FM dropped rock.

However, many modern FM stations use a moniker instead of call letters as their main identifiers, so calls in those cases are irrelevant. Some of those stations try to have their calls sound phonetically close to their monikers. In New York, WLTW for LITE-FM. Obviously for those stations that use the single letter-frequency schematic (Z-100), it makes sense to have a Z somewhere in the calls. However, some stations don't even bother to adjust their calls to mimic their moniker. STAR 99.7 in Central NJ still uses the WAWZ calls. It doesn't matter to them, because they push STAR, not the calls.

Listeners will call the station whatever the station promotes. What some radio people need to understand is that the average listener doesn't pay attention to (nor do they care about) a lot of the minutae that we obsess over. Call letters are a prime example. If your station is Q-104.3, and you pump that on the air, you will get credit for anyone in your market who reports Q-104 to Arbitron. In many cases, those monikers are easier to remmeber than the call letters.

 

[neo11]

What's in the name of a station's call letters? Not much, unless the station prefers to be identified by them. in the city, a lot of the big AMs still do that, so the calls have a lot of value to them.

Call letter changes are much ado about nothing. If a set of calls is tied to a format, and the format changes, those heritage calls don't mean a thing, so it makes sense to change. When WNEW sold to Bloomberg and dropped music, it made sense to change. It also made sense to change when WNEW-FM dropped rock.

However, many modern FM stations use a moniker instead of call letters as their main identifiers, so calls in those cases are irrelevant. Some of those stations try to have their calls sound phonetically close to their monikers. In New York, WLTW for LITE-FM. Obviously for those stations that use the single letter-frequency schematic (Z-100), it makes sense to have a Z somewhere in the calls. However, some stations don't even bother to adjust their calls to mimic their moniker. STAR 99.7 in Central NJ still uses the WAWZ calls. It doesn't matter to them, because they push STAR, not the calls.

Listeners will call the station whatever the station promotes. What some radio people need to understand is that the average listener doesn't pay attention to (nor do they care about) a lot of the minutae that we obsess over. Call letters are a prime example. If your station is Q-104.3, and you pump that on the air, you will get credit for anyone in your market who reports Q-104 to Arbitron. In many cases, those monikers are easier to remmeber than the call letters.

Exactly. While calls like WCBS-FM and WNEW may have held sentimental and nostalgic value, once the formats they were associated with leave, then the calls are more or less meaningless, regardless of whether or not the new format then retains those same calls or ditches them.

I don't really see the point in crying over the WNEW calls moving to South Florida, when the two formats it was associated with--rock on FM and standards on AM--went off the air years before. Mix 102.7 being "WNEW" or Jack FM being "WCBS" doesn't really do anything to bring back the old formats, and the calls become more meaningless still as the stations prefer to go by their monikers, like Mix or Fresh or Jack, instead of the calls.

 

[username23]

WHTZ was given to Z100 because it looks like the word Hits. In fact, an early advertising campaign for the station in the 1980's said "WHTZ the new way to spell hits"

 

[neo11]

WHTZ was given to Z100 because it looks like the word Hits. In fact, an early advertising campaign for the station in the 1980's said "WHTZ the new way to spell hits"

That's a good point, however, my point is that nowadays, listeners of stations that identify themselves with a moniker of some sort (Z100, Hot 97, Kiss FM, Jack, Power 105, Free FM and so on) are quite likely unaware of the station's call letters, since they are not emphasized in the station's imaging and promotions.

 

[username23]

Very true, I thought it was an FCC requirement to say the call letters and the broadcasting city at the top of every hour, like "This is WHTZ Newark" (because their license is in Newark) instead of playing the Z100 sweeper that says Z100 New York.

 

[SteveScott]

Here's a great list of call letter origins...

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/nelson/origins.call-list.html

 

[neo11]

Very true, I thought it was an FCC requirement to say the call letters and the broadcasting city at the top of every hour, like "This is WHTZ Newark" (because their license is in Newark) instead of playing the Z100 sweeper that says Z100 New York.

Stations still do the legal ID, but they air it at lightning speed, buried within a stopset, usually anywhere from 5-15 before the hour. Z100 does say, for instance, "WHTZ Newark New York City" with the New York City heavily emphasized.

 

[kevinsealy]

OUUC,
>>>Call letter changes are much ado about nothing. If a set of calls is tied to a format, and the format changes, those heritage calls don't mean a thing, so it makes sense to change. When WNEW sold to Bloomberg and dropped music, it made sense to change. It also made sense to change when WNEW-FM dropped rock.<<<

AGREE 0NE HUNDRED PERCENT.IF BLOOMBERG HAD KEPT THE WNEW-AM CALL SIGNS THE LETTERS WOULD HAVE LOST THEIR SENTIMENTAL ATTACHMENT. THE SAME GOES FOR THE WNEW-FM CALL LETTERS WHEN THE STATION CEASED BEING A ROCK STATION.

BUT WHEN SALEM COMMUNICATIONS BOUGHT WMCA FROM FEDERAL BROADCASTING(I WAS WORKING AT WMCA AT THIS TIME), SALEM WANTED TO KEEP THE WMCA LETTERS BECAUSE THEY WERE HISTORIC.



THANKS,
KEVIN L. SEALY