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wNbc

We were living there @ the time and remember, "The station of the Stars, (w)WRC", also remember "Baltimore's WMIX, Mix-106" blasted liberally every chance they got and then once each hour reminded us all way under their breaths that, "WMIX is WWMX, Baltimore".
 
ai4i said:
We were living there @ the time and remember, "The station of the Stars, (w)WRC", also remember "Baltimore's WMIX, Mix-106" blasted liberally every chance they got and then once each hour reminded us all way under their breaths that, "WMIX is WWMX, Baltimore".
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The call letters WMIX are licensed to Mt. Vernon, IL. As "Mix" became" a radio name the owner service marked the call letters "WMIX". I believe WWMX was served with a cease and desist for using the fake calls "WMIX". He did the same thing to a station in Louisville who tried to call themselves "WMIX"
 
gr8oldies said:
I don't know that Disney could force WABC and KABC to drop the call letters.
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It was reported that there is a contractual agreement between Disney and Citadel to continue using the calls in LA and NY (which are also on Disney's TV stations) under a set of conditions.

If I were allowing a second party to use the calls of my flagship TV stations, I'd also include conditions of retention, such as maintaining an appropriate image, etc. And I would also make the retention subject to review if Citadel ever sold or transferred the licences. Of course, I am not a lawyer so I don't know how this would be written, but since permission to use the calls was an agreed on issue at the sale, conditions on that use can certainly be placed.
 
badjef said:
After WKTU beat WABC in 1978 with the all disco station, the market showed the venerability of WABC. Different stations tried different promotions to give the image they were Number 1.
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KTU beat WABC because it became the hit music station. Add to that the timing... the very year that FM surpassed AM in total audience share nationally... and the fact that disco sounded better on FM...

Not being "Number 1" in ratings has never kept stations from saying things like "your number 1 hit music station" or "Anytown's number 1 music" because the statement is as unregulated and unenforcable as the current fashion of calling things "natural."
 
The Knoxville situation was complicated by the fact that an LMA was dismissed early in the Citadel bankruptcy. If the parties had gone to court over it, the only claim would have been intellectual property rights. Citadel decided not to fight it and just re-branded. Ratings will be a mess for years as long as people think they are listening to Rush, Glenn, Sean and local hosts on "WNOX" while a rival talker actually has the calls and much stronger former frequency.
 
gr8oldies said:
The Knoxville situation was complicated by the fact that an LMA was dismissed early in the Citadel bankruptcy. If the parties had gone to court over it, the only claim would have been intellectual property rights. Citadel decided not to fight it and just re-branded. Ratings will be a mess for years as long as people think they are listening to Rush, Glenn, Sean and local hosts on "WNOX" while a rival talker actually has the calls and much stronger former frequency.
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Since, on average, 80% of diary entries in diary markets are frequency alone or frequency and additional data, this was likely considered to be a non-issue and not worth the legal costs of pursuing.
 
Bigjay is right, the entire staff was doing the "NNNNNN" thing to draw a line between them and WABC...Stern was just being Stern and made it about him and made it fun...
If you remeber, many years before the WNNNNNBC...there was WRFM AND WTFM going head to head formats just about the same...
WTFM's ids and sweepers were W(((T)))FM ..... T in reverb....
Here's a call letter question. We know about WABC,WNBC and other stations like them...Oh by the way calls WNBC are they owned by GE?
But, thats not my question, this is....WGLI AM & FM BABYLON has not been on the air for a few years...for history go to www.wackradio.com
Now there is a WGLI FM 98.7 ROCKIN' EAGLE IN MICHIGAN......with no am....if someone wanted to use WGLI am who would you call first....
 
DavidEduardo said:
badjef said:
After WKTU beat WABC in 1978 with the all disco station, the market showed the venerability of WABC. Different stations tried different promotions to give the image they were Number 1.
Click to expand...

KTU beat WABC because it became the hit music station. Add to that the timing... the very year that FM surpassed AM in total audience share nationally... and the fact that disco sounded better on FM...

Not being "Number 1" in ratings has never kept stations from saying things like "your number 1 hit music station" or "Anytown's number 1 music" because the statement is as unregulated and unenforcable as the current fashion of calling things "natural."
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Right, but my point was, it was the uncovered vulnerability of WABC that was revealed.

WNNNBC went after them hard after that. And calling themselves "the next One" was part of that strategy.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
butchfm said:
But, thats not my question, this is....WGLI AM & FM BABYLON has not been on the air for a few years...for history go to www.wackradio.com
Now there is a WGLI FM 98.7 ROCKIN' EAGLE IN MICHIGAN......with no am....if someone wanted to use WGLI am who would you call first....
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You would go to the licensee of WGLI(FM) in Michigan.

Here's how this all works today:

As far as the actual issuance of callsigns, current FCC policy says that the licensee who has held the base call the longest controls other uses of that base call. So if I own WAAA(AM), which was licensed with those calls in 1956, and you want to put WAAA-FM on the air somewhere else, you need to get permission from me. And if there's also a WAAA-TV, which was sold off to a different owner in 1991, you still have to come to me at WAAA(AM).

There can be other factors that figure into this: if the owners of WAAA-TV included a contractual clause taking control of the base calls (as Disney did when it sold its ABC radio stations), then it would be up to the owners of WAAA-TV to decide whether you get to use WAAA-FM. That's essentially what happened in Knoxville: Citadel's LMA of 100.3 included a contractual clause giving Citadel control of the WNOX callsign - but when Citadel used its bankruptcy to walk away from the LMA contract, that apparently voided the callsign-control clause.

(There can also be, as in the case of WMIX, trademark issues involved. IANAL, but my understanding is that the FCC won't take those into account - so if MTM or its successors trademarked "WKRP," that won't stop the FCC from issuing you the WKRP callsign - but it could subject you to a lawsuit if you actively market your station as "WKRP" in a way that infringes the trademark.)

There's one more twist to this: in the case of WGLI, or WNBC, you can't simply use "WNBC" or "WGLI" as the callsign of your hypothetical AM station without another procedural step taking place. AM stations never have a suffix attached to their callsign. FM and TV stations can have a "-FM" or a "-TV" (or "-DT") suffix attached to their calls, but can also use a four-letter call without a suffix.

After NBC sold off its radio stations, it changed the callsign of "WNBC-TV" to simply "WNBC." And when the station in Michigan took its calls, it chose to be simply "WGLI," rather than "WGLI-FM." Those stations would have to change their calls to "WNBC-TV" and "WGLI-FM," respectively, before they could authorize you to use "WNBC" or "WGLI" as the callsign of your AM station.
 
jmtillery said:
DToTheJ said:
I think a low-power TV station even wanted to use the callsign WKRP
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According to the FCC database, the WKRP call letters are assigned to an LPFM in Key West, Florida.
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Appropriate... county has less than 80,000 population and 23 licensed stations. Sounds like where WKRP ought to be!
 
Why did WMCA give it up so soon? Did WNNNNNNNBC have Wolfman Jack on nightly?
 
MsMusicRadio said:
Why did WMCA give it up so soon? Did WNNNNNNNBC have Wolfman Jack on nightly?
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WMCA had signal problems that were noted as a non-competitive environment for them with stations such as WABC. They became one of the first talk stations to offer a conference call between listeners and guests.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
I don't know the whole story, but towards the end of the 60s, WMCA's biggest air talent left for various reasons. Probably money. Gary Stevens was the first. He became a very successful radio station broker. Harry Harrison was hired by WABC. Jack Spector went to WNBC. The station replaced the DJs with talk show hosts. By the time WABC flipped formats, WMCA had already gone talk.

The success of WABC claimed two other Top 40 stations in New York: WINS (original NYC home of Murray the K and Alan Freed) and WMGM (which became WHN).

Regarding the Wolfman, he had several incarnations at the big 66. There actually was a period, I'm told, when he worked at 30 Rock. There's a photo of him, Imus, and Howard walking down the hall together. This is all before my time. The Wolf also did the show from his home in North Carolina. While he did a syndicated daily show, the WNBC shows were customized for New York.

Here's a publicity photo of Imus, Stern, Wolfman, and Soupy Sales from 1985:

http://broadcatching.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/howard-stern-don-imus-wolfman-jack-and-soupy-sales-publicity-photo/
 
Does anybody remember who was on WINS along with Murray the K and WMGM along with Peter Tripp ?
 
MsMusicRadio said:
Why did WMCA give it up so soon? Did WNNNNNNNBC have Wolfman Jack on nightly?
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The WABC/WMCA war took the shape of a doughnut. WMCA had the hole (the city itself) while WABC had the rest. What ratings WABC lacked in the city they won with the suburbs and, in the end, won the war. Beyond the signal problems, WMCA's owners wanted a talk station. They actually did go talk half the broadcast day as "Power Radio". There was a last gasp return to all music, excluding the nightly Barry Gray talk show that predated Top 40, but it was too late. WMCA's signal shortcoming became an issue again when WABC became a talk station.

Wolfman Jack first came to WNBC in the early seventies riding the success of "American Graffiti". WNBC went as far as placing a six foot tombstone at the entrance of ABC promoting his arrival.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
Wolfman Jack first came to WNBC in the early seventies riding the success of "American Graffiti".
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As well as the early success of "Midnight Special," on NBC-TV. The TV show was first. Then he was hired for radio. This first incarnation didn't last long, because a few years later, NBC hired Cousin Brucie. But he returned in the 80s.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
The WABC/WMCA war took the shape of a doughnut. WMCA had the hole (the city itself) while WABC had the rest.
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I have heard this. Not being a New Yorker, but just seeing that they (the good guys) beam right into the city from the bottom of the band, I must ask, how much of the market do the five burroughs make up? I assume the ratings for latin and urban stations follow this same pattern today. I would also guess that Manhattin (sp?) is also unique, where WNYC claims to be #1.
 
MsMusicRadio said:
Does anybody remember who was on WINS along with Murray the K and WMGM along with Peter Tripp ?
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WMGM in the early days had TED BROWN AND THE RED HEAD am drive...There was also JACK STERLING he may have been with WHN or WMGM..
Someone will set that record right...The reason i mention Jack Sterling is, he also did a kiddie show on Saturday called THE BIG TOP i think it was brought to you by SEALTEST ICE CREAM....in the 70's he did am drive at WEZN.......Sorry, not sure of the Peter Tripp timeline but i do remember him....
WINS had STAN Z BURNS and stayed with the station when it went all news.....
 
PS WKRP was an am station in Dallas GA. for many years before the tv show....after the tv show hit they were hounded by offers to sell the calls..
 
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