Most of us know that 77 WABC is owned by Cumulus. My question is the call letters themselves. Does ABC/Disney still have any right to those calls or did they hand that over to Cumulus?
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A question about 77 WABC and their calls...
- Thread starter The Youngest Oldie
- Start date
The WABC calls are still owned by Disney and Cumulus leases them. Same with KABC, KGO, and WLS.
Thank you, Big A. I'm all about details big or small. Here's hoping that this will continue for some time.
The main factor is that Disney also uses those letters for their TV stations. Normally when ownership changes, the new owner is required to obtain new letters. That's what happened when WNEW split from Channel 5, and WOR split from Channel 9. Thus, WNYW and WWOR. My understanding is a similar deal will be in place when CBS Radio spins from CBS Corporation. They will retain the current letters on their radio stations.
I dont think so......the calls are owned by the station licensee...NOT the organization who USED to own it....Callsigns are NOT leased...the only way you can find a call being used with another owner/licensee's permission is a FM or TV station that uses the same call as an AM (which is always the primary holder IF it had them first!)....Case in point: KPRC TV and KPRC-AM used to be owned by the same company then the AM was sold off..now owned by iHeart.....but Channel 2 still has the call KPRC-TV (or DT)...this was agreed when the stations were sold...IF Channel 2 changed calls, NOONE else could pick up the -TV without permission (and paying some $$) to iHeart....(in that case you could call it a lease)...but an AM ALMOST always controls the callsign..
SO KABC, WABC, KGO, WLS, etc. are all controlled by Cumulus....not Disney (I work for CMLS and used to work for Disney; Citadel and then Cumulus had use of the name ABC RADIO and ABC Radio Networks until the agreement expired a few years ago...but that did not include the callsigns...I own my own AM and tried to get a FM with xxxx to go xxxx-FM so I could to use the call on my AM....but they didnt want to deal....in THAT case, they had it first and thus have control of the call...I ended up with a callsign I like...and if a FM OR TV outside my market wanted to use it, they would have to ask ME for permission.....under the agreement I could withdraw permission and they would have to change call again....and they could never use the call on a different signal without my ok.....IF I changed callsign, then they would become the controlling license for the call...THAT's how it works)
NOW it IS possible that in the sale of the Disney/ABC radio signals to Citadel, it was agreed the callsigns could remain as long as they stayed on the station in question and if they were removed, Disney would regain control of the AM use of those calls..I would have to check the sales agreements for that
SO KABC, WABC, KGO, WLS, etc. are all controlled by Cumulus....not Disney (I work for CMLS and used to work for Disney; Citadel and then Cumulus had use of the name ABC RADIO and ABC Radio Networks until the agreement expired a few years ago...but that did not include the callsigns...I own my own AM and tried to get a FM with xxxx to go xxxx-FM so I could to use the call on my AM....but they didnt want to deal....in THAT case, they had it first and thus have control of the call...I ended up with a callsign I like...and if a FM OR TV outside my market wanted to use it, they would have to ask ME for permission.....under the agreement I could withdraw permission and they would have to change call again....and they could never use the call on a different signal without my ok.....IF I changed callsign, then they would become the controlling license for the call...THAT's how it works)
NOW it IS possible that in the sale of the Disney/ABC radio signals to Citadel, it was agreed the callsigns could remain as long as they stayed on the station in question and if they were removed, Disney would regain control of the AM use of those calls..I would have to check the sales agreements for that
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I thought that "WABC," "KABC," "WLS," and "KGO" were registered trademarks owned by Disney. Wouldn't that have to be taken into account?
My understanding is that a certain amount of money is involved as well, thus my use of the word "lease."
Incorrect, according to 47 CFR Section 73.3550(d). Disney, as the original holder of the call signs when Cumulus purchased the AM's, "controls" which stations get to use them.
Call signs are not "owned" by any licensee. They are a government-ASSIGNED identifier.
As a broadcasting attorney once told me, a government-assigned identifier cannot be trademarked or copyrighted. As I recall, she said they could be registered as a service mark, but even that is subject to approval by the FCC, which must approve all call sign assignments.
Interesting. When Cumulus/WLS-AM/FM was spun off from ABC, I thought I read that the reason that Disney could keep the WLS-TV calls on Channel 7 was because they had trademarked the call letters. Otherwise, they would have had to change it to WMVP-TV.
Since the radio stations were being sold, they would be the ones who would need to obtain new calls.
That's not what the rule says:
"Where an application is granted by the FCC for transfer or assignment of the construction permit or license of a station whose existing call sign conforms to that of a commonly-owned station not part of the transaction, the new licensee of the transferred or assigned station shall expeditiously request a different call sign, unless consent to retain the conforming call sign has been obtained from the primary holder and from the licensee of any other station that may be using such conforming call sign."
So the rule says WABC-AM would need to request a different call sign. What we're saying is consent was obtained.
The FCC loosened their call sign restrictions during their 1980s wave of deregulation.
A few examples of this are Channel 8 in Cleveland (WJKW-TV) allowed to revert back to a three-letter call–WJW-TV–after its former sister radio station dropped it in 1985, after an ownership change. And a few years later in Chicago, Group W was allowed to keep WMAQ (AM) at 670 AM after buying the station from NBC, who retained WMAQ-TV for Chicago's Channel 5.
And BTW, a reminder: there are now, and never have been radio stations with an "-AM" suffix. The FCC and the trades traditionally use (AM), albeit unofficially.
A few examples of this are Channel 8 in Cleveland (WJKW-TV) allowed to revert back to a three-letter call–WJW-TV–after its former sister radio station dropped it in 1985, after an ownership change. And a few years later in Chicago, Group W was allowed to keep WMAQ (AM) at 670 AM after buying the station from NBC, who retained WMAQ-TV for Chicago's Channel 5.
And BTW, a reminder: there are now, and never have been radio stations with an "-AM" suffix. The FCC and the trades traditionally use (AM), albeit unofficially.
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TTBOMK the FCC was not involved in the WABC call letters. All they needed was consent from Disney, as stated in the rule, and they got it.
FTR: WABC is not the station's original call sign. It's original call sign was WJZ, which was re-claimed by Westinghouse for its TV station in Baltimore (originally WAAM).
WABC is the original call sign of WCBS.
WABC is the original call sign of WCBS.
Well, when I lived in DC back in the 1980's, I remember two oddities.
One was a Baltimore station that all throughout the hour would brand themself (or themselves) as WMIX.
WMIX this, WMIX that, WMIX the other thing, but at the top of each hour they would softly remind everyone that
"WMIX is WWMX, Baltimore".
Could WWMX have done that if there were a real (and uncooperative) WMIX somewhere out there?
Case two:
WRC this, WRC that, WRC the other thing.
Again, at the top of each hour, it was:
(big loud drumroll and fanfair)
Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to the station of the stars, wWRC, Washington"
Well, in that case, the only station that could have complained would have been TV channel four in DC.
One was a Baltimore station that all throughout the hour would brand themself (or themselves) as WMIX.
WMIX this, WMIX that, WMIX the other thing, but at the top of each hour they would softly remind everyone that
"WMIX is WWMX, Baltimore".
Could WWMX have done that if there were a real (and uncooperative) WMIX somewhere out there?
Case two:
WRC this, WRC that, WRC the other thing.
Again, at the top of each hour, it was:
(big loud drumroll and fanfair)
Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to the station of the stars, wWRC, Washington"
Well, in that case, the only station that could have complained would have been TV channel four in DC.
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The "real WMIX" is in Mount Vernon IL. As long as it's not in the same market, and you don't use it as the legal call, you're fine.
The story about that goes back to when the two stations were owned by NBC. In 1984 Greater Media bought 980AM from NBC. NBC kept the TV and the WRC call letters. Greater Media couldn't keep the original 3 letter calls after the sale, so they added the extra W (in the same way that WWOR TV in NY added the W). As part of the sale, they got consent from NBC to market the station as WRC, although the legal call has the extra W. Of course since then, those letters have migrated to 570 AM, and WTEM is now on that frequency.
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I thought WWOR came about because they had to move the station license to New Jersey.
Not directly. The change came about because of ownership. At the time, the station was owned by RKO General. The sale happened around the same time the station was required to move to Secaucus NJ. When RKO sold the station to MCA (actually Cox & MCA), they were required to apply for new call letters.
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