WWLV "Love 94.5" - "Barely Legal ID" - December, 1991

[MN Maniac]

WWLV targeted the Orlando metro area but was licensed to Daytona Beach. At the time, their studios were located in Daytona Beach. The 1500 foot tower near Paisley, Florida put a city grade signal over both markets. Notice the clever method in which the Legal ID downplays Daytona Beach while emphasizing Orlando. Orlando is mentioned 3 times in less than 30 seconds! Clever, and just barely passing muster with the FCC.

Also included are a few of their sweepers.


http://elliskansas.info/drew/?page_id=712

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

Very interesting way of getting the COL in... "Daytona Beach to the Gulf Coast" not quite what i thought i was going to hear... but clever.

 

[jmtillery]

Although Star 94.5 does very well in the ratings and ad revenues, I personally liked the former "Love 94.5" WWLV as an adult contemporary formatted station (during the time frame of the aircheck - 1991) while it was owned by the Chapman S. Root Revocable Living Trust.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
Email: [email protected]

 

[MN Maniac]

Did they flip because there wasn't room for 2 Lite A/C's in the market and Magic 107.7 was beating them badly? Or because New City was LMA'ing them by 1992 and they wanted to protect K92 against the Young Country craze by putting it on 94.5 before someone else in the market did the format?

 

[jmtillery]

WWLV was being LMAed to New City Communications with the plan to sell to New City once the anticipated first duopoly rules went into effect allowing a single entity to own two AMs and two FMs in the same market. Just about everyone, including me, thought New City was taking 94.5 the CHR route gradually via adult contemporary. If you remember, WWLV went from Bonneville beautiful music to lite contemporary love songs, to mainstream adult contemporary to border line hot adult contemporary. Once the sale from the Chapman S. Root Revocable Living Trust to New City Communications was completed, New City repositioned WWLV as Young Country "B 94.5" under the new (and current) call letters WCFB (for Central Florida's B 94.5).

New City flipped 94.5 to country to compliment its existing heritage country outlet WWKA "K 92 FM". The plan was that K 92 would target the older country demographic while B 94.5 would target the younger country demo. That way, theoretically, New City would have the entire country market for Orlando and Central Florida between the two 100kw country outlets. Of course, New City everntually sold all its broadcast holdings to Cox Radio at which time WCFB dropped young country in favor of becoming adult urban contemporary formatted Star 94.5 in 1995, only three years after B 94.5 debuted.

So, to answer your original question, WMGF nor any of the other stations had any direct influence on New City's decision to flip WWLV from adult contemp to WCFB young country. It was purley a business decision based on the desired target demographics and the results New City Communications hoped to gain as a result of the format switch.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
Email: [email protected]

 

[Rob]

I'm starting to hear barely legal IDs up to this day. Don't think it matters 'cause the closest FCC field office is in Atlanta..

(Hell, WNCV is still working on a CONSTRUCTION PERMIT..)

Is the correct legal ID "WWAV Santa Rosa Beach (city of license) Destin/FWB/Crestview) I'm heard "Coast 93.3 it's an awesome 80s weekend at TOH yesterday) NO calls were mentioned.

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

it might be slammed in the middle of a stopset.

 

[MN Maniac]

I also thought they were going to go CHR. This was about a year after WBJW>WOMX completed *it's* gradual transformation from CHR to Hot A/C. In 1992, many markets still had two CHRs. WFLZ had not yet killed off WRBQ in Tampa. So, I was thinking 94.5 would likely go after XL. But then, the Young Country craze hit...big time!

By the time 94.5 flipped, I had left WTRS and was over at WOCA/WMFQ. We were thrilled, of course. Having two Lite A/Cs from Orlando putting local strength signals into Ocala made things rough for us.

 

[passtheword]

WWLV targeted the Orlando metro area but was licensed to Daytona Beach. At the time, their studios were located in Daytona Beach. The 1500 foot tower near Paisley, Florida put a city grade signal over both markets. Notice the clever method in which the Legal ID downplays Daytona Beach while emphasizing Orlando. Orlando is mentioned 3 times in less than 30 seconds! Clever, and just barely passing muster with the FCC.

Also included are a few of their sweepers.


http://elliskansas.info/drew/?page_id=712

I have an aircheck of WWLV back in '89 when they were still programming beautiful music; the legal ID was, at that time, properly stated as "WWLV, Daytona Beach/Orlando". It might not be legal for them to do so, but a lot of rimshot FM's are trying their best to get away with trying to hide their actual COL, either leaving it entirely out of the legal ID or announcing it after a much larger city they serve. It happens a LOT. We have an FM here in Alabama that does that type of illegal ID religiously. They'll mention the larger city immediately following the call letters and then "bury" the actual COL right afterward. I'm not really sure it makes much difference, though. Most folks who don't work in radio, or know anything regarding FCC rules, are unaware that legal ID's even have to be broadcast, much less that they be given in a certain manner/order (call letters followed by actual COL, then optionally, other cities they serve). I figure that most people in those cases just think the "order" of cities given is merely the station's personal preference of how they want to give the ID, and nothing more. I doubt many of those folks know the actual COL, anyway.

 

[MN Maniac]

Speaking of legal and not-so-legal ID's, what was the story with WFKS/Palatka-Daytona Beach?

In the mid-1990s, they would bury their Legal ID in the :50 stopset. Just a very rapid, dry voice "WFKS Palatka", sandwiched between two spots. It sounded like they purposely sped it up so it would be even less noticeable.

Then, at :00, they ran a fully-produced sweeper: "WFKS, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville, Gainesville...Florida's KISS-FM."

The word I heard was that the FCC fined them $$$$ for transmitting "deliberately deceptive identification." Since the station's actual call letters were being given directly next to a location that was NOT it's city of license and at :00, this was deemed to be "deliberately deceptive."

Can anyone elaborate on this? FWIW, I was at K-Country in Ocala and heard this ID several times. In my opinion, it *was* deliberately deceptive. Whereas the WWLV ID was close to the line, the WFKS ID was way over the line.

 

[Ai4i]

WRMF, Palm Beach, used to ID as WRMF, Palm Beach, Broward, Dade.
The city was made to sound like a county.

 

[jmtillery]

WRMF, Palm Beach, used to ID as WRMF, Palm Beach, Broward, Dade.
The city was made to sound like a county.

This ID is legal as it complies with the legal ID requirements for radio - Call letters followed by city of license. In this case the call letters are WRMF and the legal city of license is Palm Beach (not West Palm Beach. By the way WRMF is the only radio station licensed to Palm Beach). Hence, WRMF Palm Beach - Broward - Dade is legal as it meets the minimum legal ID requirements - WRMF Palm Beach - call letters immediately followed by city of license with nothing inserted between call letters and COL. Anything else added before the call letters or following the city of license is optional at the licensee's discretion. The fact that Broward and Dade were added after the city of license- Palm Beach - is fine.

When WIYD-FM Palatka moved to Daytona Beach under the new call letters WNFY with a much wider signal in the early 80s, the legal ID used was WNFY Palatka, Serving Daytona Beach, Deland, Gainesville, Ocala and Saint Augustine. The station actually did serve the other five communities but was licensed to Palatka. The ID was legal as it met the above referenced requirments; again, call letters immediately followed by city of license. Everything else was purley optional and legal.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
Email: [email protected]

 

[jmtillery]

Speaking of legal and not-so-legal ID's, what was the story with WFKS/Palatka-Daytona Beach?

In the mid-1990s, they would bury their Legal ID in the :50 stopset. Just a very rapid, dry voice "WFKS Palatka", sandwiched between two spots. It sounded like they purposely sped it up so it would be even less noticeable.

Then, at :00, they ran a fully-produced sweeper: "WFKS, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville, Gainesville...Florida's KISS-FM."

The word I heard was that the FCC fined them $$$$ for transmitting "deliberately deceptive identification." Since the station's actual call letters were being given directly next to a location that was NOT it's city of license and at :00, this was deemed to be "deliberately deceptive."

Can anyone elaborate on this? FWIW, I was at K-Country in Ocala and heard this ID several times. In my opinion, it *was* deliberately deceptive. Whereas the WWLV ID was close to the line, the WFKS ID was way over the line.

That was, and still is, a common practice to bury the legal ID in the :50 stop-set. The rules specify the legal ID is to consist of call letters immediately followed by city of license and identified as close to the top of the hour as possible without interruping normal programming. The :50 legal ID is fine in most cases. However, in the case of the scenario you described with WNFI was illegal as the station gave two legal IDs: The real legal ID at :50 and an illegal ID at the top of the hour. Since WNFI was licensed to Palatka, giving a second ID at the top of the hour as WNFI Daytona Beach is telling the listeners that WNFI is licensed to Daytona Beach when in fact it is licensed to Palatka. Remember the rules state the legal ID be given as close to the top of the hour as possible. And giving the positioning statement ID as WNFI Daytona Beach on the top of the hour violated the legal identification rules. It would have been fine to have said "I 100 Daytona Beach" at the top of the hour since the hourly legal ID had been given at :50 but not WNFI Daytona Beach. WNFI are/were the legal call letters while I 100 was only a positioning statement or moniker.

Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
Email: [email protected]

 

[Ai4i]

This ID is legal as it complies with the legal ID requirements for radio

We know it was legal, just that none of us like this blatant obfuscation.
Then there was the station that called them self WMIX all hour long, but near the top of each hour would remind the listeners that "WMIX is WMMX, Baltimore, Maryland's WMIX", as if to say, "shhh, don't tell anyone but we really aren't whom we've been saying we are for the past 59 minutes".
What about the spirit of the ID requirement.