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What's the record for most call letters on one frequency in a year?

K

KeithE

Guest
My guess is 4: 1360 in Glendale (Phoenix suburb) AZ in 1999.

1, KGME until May when that station (without the transmitter) was sold by New Century Arizona to AMFM (Clear Channel) and moved to 550 (now on 910). KGME had been used since 1994. The move occured in April but KGME had to continue to use the KOY call letters (that station moved to 1230 at the same time) on 550 for a few weeks.

2. KFDJ from May to October (I thought it was August but the FCC database says October) while the sale of the transmitter to Salem was being completed.

3. KCTK very briefly in October after Salem took over. That station and its talk format was moved to 960. The CDBS database says KCTK was used only for 2 days on 1360 but I thought it was at least a month.

4. KPXQ (current calls) and religious format was moved from 960 later in October.
 
A tie with 4. In Boston, from December, 1984 through October, 1985, 100.7 FM went through 4 sets of call-letters. "Beautiful music for YOU!" WHUE-FM, "Beautiful Music and hours of silence" WCOZ (for one week in December, 1984), "Top-40" WKKT (from 12/84-10/85) and has been "Classic Rock" WZLX ever since.


> My guess is 4: 1360 in Glendale (Phoenix suburb) AZ in
> 1999.
>
> 1, KGME until May when that station (without the
> transmitter) was sold by New Century Arizona to AMFM (Clear
> Channel) and moved to 550 (now on 910). KGME had been used
> since 1994. The move occured in April but KGME had to
> continue to use the KOY call letters (that station moved to
> 1230 at the same time) on 550 for a few weeks.
>
> 2. KFDJ from May to October (I thought it was August but
> the FCC database says October) while the sale of the
> transmitter to Salem was being completed.
>
> 3. KCTK very briefly in October after Salem took over.
> That station and its talk format was moved to 960. The CDBS
> database says KCTK was used only for 2 days on 1360 but I
> thought it was at least a month.
>
> 4. KPXQ (current calls) and religious format was moved from
> 960 later in October.
> <P ID="signature">______________
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts</P>
 
> My guess is 4: 1360 in Glendale (Phoenix suburb) AZ in
> 1999.
>
> 1, KGME until May when that station (without the
> transmitter) was sold by New Century Arizona to AMFM (Clear
> Channel) and moved to 550 (now on 910). KGME had been used
> since 1994. The move occured in April but KGME had to
> continue to use the KOY call letters (that station moved to
> 1230 at the same time) on 550 for a few weeks.
>
> 2. KFDJ from May to October (I thought it was August but
> the FCC database says October) while the sale of the
> transmitter to Salem was being completed.
>
> 3. KCTK very briefly in October after Salem took over.
> That station and its talk format was moved to 960. The CDBS
> database says KCTK was used only for 2 days on 1360 but I
> thought it was at least a month.
>
> 4. KPXQ (current calls) and religious format was moved from
> 960 later in October.

How about the station which is now KOMR Sun City (Phoenix), AZ? In a month's span of October, 2001, the station went from KEDJ (right before the Big City sale to HBC was complete; the KEDJ format minus Howard Stern moved to former KPTY 103.9 Gilbert), to KPTY (call letter swap; temporary until HBC moved these calls to Houston), then KOVA, and finally KOMR.

Simulcast partner KKMR 106.5 Arizona City went from KBZR to KOMR (which moved to 106.3) then KKRM, and ended up with KKMR - all in a three month span.
 
How about 3 calls in the course of 10 days?

It was all part of Salem (see a pattern here?) re-arranging call signs in Cleveland and Youngstown-Warren.

Some history: Since the Great Frequency Swap of 2001, Salem had placed the historic calls of WHK (formerly on 1420) on their big 50kw preacher at 1220 (the old WGAR). Locally-owned 1420 was standards under, first WCLV, then the WRMR call sign. Well, after having disposed of 1420 as part of the 2001 shenanigans, Salem bought it back in July 2004 as a home for their secular talk format. They wanted to bring the historic WHK calls back to 1420.

However, in the meantime, the core preaching audience had come to recognize the WHK calls on 1220 as the place for spiritual awakening. So, Salem had to keep some form of "WHK" in the new 1220 calls. At the same time, Salem had a hybrid secular talk-preacher in Warren using the WHKW calls, and some weight was attached to them as well. Salem wanted those WHKW calls for 1220 in Cleveland, and Youngstown-Warren would get some form of "WHK" in their assignment.

Fast forward to April 2005...

Salem is finally ready to make the call switch official (even though their stations had been imaging--but not ID-ing--with the expected calls.)

As it turned out, to keep everything on the level and not lose any calls, Salem had to placehold. So, in early April, 1220 in Cleveland was:

1. WHK, used from August 3, 2001 to April 5, 2005

2. WHKZ, used as a placeholder from April 5, 2005 to April 13, 2005, and finally...

3. WHKW, from April 13, 2005 to present.

Span of 10 days (April 4 to April 13, 2005): 3 different, yet similar, calls.

For the record, Salem did a similar maneuver with "WHK" prodigy on 1220 back during the freq swap in 2001, but over the course of a month. (WKNR to WHKC to WHK)

And, P.S., the Warren station is now WHKZ. During the 2001 shenanigans, it too was a Salem placeholder: it went through 4 calls in 5 months, from March 14, 2001 to August 16, 2001--WRBP, WHKW, WFHM, WHKW.

> A tie with 4. In Boston, from December, 1984 through
> October, 1985, 100.7 FM went through 4 sets of call-letters.
> "Beautiful music for YOU!" WHUE-FM, "Beautiful Music and
> hours of silence" WCOZ (for one week in December, 1984),
> "Top-40" WKKT (from 12/84-10/85) and has been "Classic Rock"
> WZLX ever since.
>
>
> > My guess is 4: 1360 in Glendale (Phoenix suburb) AZ in
> > 1999.
> >
> > 1, KGME until May when that station (without the
> > transmitter) was sold by New Century Arizona to AMFM
> (Clear
> > Channel) and moved to 550 (now on 910). KGME had been
> used
> > since 1994. The move occured in April but KGME had to
> > continue to use the KOY call letters (that station moved
> to
> > 1230 at the same time) on 550 for a few weeks.
> >
> > 2. KFDJ from May to October (I thought it was August but
> > the FCC database says October) while the sale of the
> > transmitter to Salem was being completed.
> >
> > 3. KCTK very briefly in October after Salem took over.
> > That station and its talk format was moved to 960. The
> CDBS
> > database says KCTK was used only for 2 days on 1360 but I
> > thought it was at least a month.
> >
> > 4. KPXQ (current calls) and religious format was moved
> from
> > 960 later in October.
> >
>
 
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