• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WSBE changes call letters to WPVD

S

ssetta

So when I turned on WSBE this morning, something caught me by surprise. When I saw the station ID, it said WPVD-TV. I had no idea of this. Did anybody else know about this? It would make sense if it just happened today, since it is the first of the month. *rabbit rabbit*
 
ssetta said:
So when I turned on WSBE this morning, something caught me by surprise. When I saw the station ID, it said WPVD-TV. I had no idea of this. Did anybody else know about this? It would make sense if it just happened today, since it is the first of the month. *rabbit rabbit*
Click to expand...
Ocean State Media (the group that owns WSBE/WPVD) changed the callsign today, I think to match with their sister radio stations WPVD/1290 AM and WPVD-FM/103.7 FM.
 
alg2468 said:
The new call letters also avoid confusion with WSBK-TV.
Click to expand...
If the two stations coexisted with those calls for 59 years, I'm pretty sure there wasn't any real-world confusion. Especially since neither one has branded with its call letters in the last decade, if not longer.

(This gets to one of my little Wikipedia annoyances - whoever decided that any article with callsigns in it has to include a "not to be confused with WXXX" where one letter is transposed.)
 
fybush said:
(This gets to one of my little Wikipedia annoyances - whoever decided that any article with callsigns in it has to include a "not to be confused with WXXX" where one letter is transposed.)
Click to expand...
Someone from Jordan's Furniture? 😜
 
It would actually appear that the call letter change may not be official yet. I saw a promo on there from 2023 that still said WSBE, and also the Comcast guide still lists it as WSBE, and I think the PSIP does too. It’s only at the top of the hour that it’s changed.
 
ssetta said:
It would actually appear that the call letter change may not be official yet. I saw a promo on there from 2023 that still said WSBE, and also the Comcast guide still lists it as WSBE, and I think the PSIP does too. It’s only at the top of the hour that it’s changed.
Click to expand...
That would mean it *IS* official and no one cares (just TOH Legal ID).
 
Uncle Kaimbridge said:
That would mean it *IS* official and no one cares (just TOH Legal ID).
Click to expand...
The TOH legal ID is all that matters. Aside from that, a station can market itself as anything it wants to (though I have to think there could a problem if they used the call letters of another existing local station).

WBQC-LD Cincinnati long marketed itself as "WKRP-TV" for obvious reasons. And to get really technical about it, LPTVs often use the "-TV" suffix along with their LPTV call letters for marketing purposes, chopping off the "-LD" or "-CD" legal suffix and using "-TV" instead. As long as they give the true LPTV call sign at TOH, AFAIK they are able to do so. LPFMs often do likewise, using the "-FM" suffix.
 


Back
Top Bottom