Wrong. It was WAHG (for the station's original owner, A.H. Grebe), first going on the air in 1924. Two years later Grebe changed the call sign to WABC, for his holding company, the Atlantic Broadcasting Company.
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A question about 77 WABC and their calls...
- Thread starter The Youngest Oldie
- Start date
Wrong. It was WAHG (for the station's original owner, A.H. Grebe), first going on the air in 1924. Two years later Grebe changed the call sign to WABC, for his holding company, the Atlantic Broadcasting Company.
Wait KHJ-TV in Los Angeles back in the 1980's had to change their call letters once that station was sold to different owners because of license issues from RKO General at the time, similar to WWOR and WNAC because RKO Generals business practices were being questioned.
At one point in time, Medial General in Tampa owned The (now defunct) Tampa Tribune, WFLA (AM), WFLA-FM and WFLA-TV. MG would eventually divest its radio products in the market to another company, retaining the newspaper and the TV station.
From what I have always been told by people who were at the time, is that the new owners of the radio stations had the "rights" to the call letters, and they (and subsequent owners all the way to iHeartMedia) allow Media General to use them for WFLA-TV. For what price I don't know. I've heard rumors ranging from a cash deal to simply providing the radio stations with weather forecasts voiced by the TV's meteorologists.
(As an aside, the FM station would have its calls changed to WFLZ. Clear Channel would eventually place the WFLA-FM calls on a station in Tallahassee, and use the "WFLA" brand on stations in Florida whose calls were "WFLF" and "WFLF-FM." Furthering my belief in this case that the owners of the original WFLA (AM) hold the rights to the calls.)
From what I have always been told by people who were at the time, is that the new owners of the radio stations had the "rights" to the call letters, and they (and subsequent owners all the way to iHeartMedia) allow Media General to use them for WFLA-TV. For what price I don't know. I've heard rumors ranging from a cash deal to simply providing the radio stations with weather forecasts voiced by the TV's meteorologists.
(As an aside, the FM station would have its calls changed to WFLZ. Clear Channel would eventually place the WFLA-FM calls on a station in Tallahassee, and use the "WFLA" brand on stations in Florida whose calls were "WFLF" and "WFLF-FM." Furthering my belief in this case that the owners of the original WFLA (AM) hold the rights to the calls.)
How do you reconcile that belief with the rule:
"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."
According to the rule, "the new licensee...shall request a different call sign."
I can't reconcile it, but everyone I know who was there at the time swears that's how it happened. Maybe Media General gave up rights to the calls in the sale? For the sake of getting a few more bucks?
Anyhow, I couldn't see Clear Channel (and now iHeart) 20+ years after the fact pay another company just to be able to use call letters out of market, as they do with aforementioned WFLA-FM in Tallahassee, and to even infringe upon the brand in places like Orlando and Panama City.
The fact is there's nothing in the rules that would explain it, other than obtaining consent.
It sounds like a lot of "FLuFf" to me.
I remember this !! At least WRC-TV was playing nice now on the other hand there was Buffalo's WKBW. Many years ago when WWKB 1520 went to "real oldies" the story I heard for years was that Entercom had really wanted to change the call letters to 1520 WWKB back to WKBW only to get a NO from WKBW-TV. For the first year or two of the oldies format on 1520 not only did I hear old WKBW jingles but even some of their jocks such as Jackson Armstrong even they would mention WKBW on the air. Unfortunately during the last year of the format pretty much the only jingle I did hear was "..You're listening to KB" and no references of any kind to WKBW. Many years ago on the now defunct WKBW radio tribute website it was mentioned that there was actually a court case about this. If that was true apparently 1520 and Entercom lost. I kinda figured there must had been some bad blood between 1520 WWKB and WKBW-TV since I saw a video some years back of the then-new oldies format there and in the studio was Buffalo's channels 2 and 4 but WKBW-TV channel 7 wasn't there.
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I think we're getting confused between what was and what is. A couple of decades ago, the FCC would not permit different owners to hold the same call letters. As mentioned above, 710 WOR was sold to one company and Channel 9 was sold to another. The AM kept the call sign, but the TV station had to add the extra W, becoming WWOR-TV. WNEW-AM-FM and WNEW-TV were sold to separate companies. The radio stations kept the call sign and the TV station switched to WNYW-TV. That was then.
This is now. Different owners can have the same call sign. When Park communications sold its NYC-area stations, 930 WPAT was bought by one company (Multicultural Broadcasting) and 93.1 WPAT-FM was bought by another company (Spanish Broadcasting Service). I'd say these days, if both companies value the call letters, they keep them, despite whatever confusion may arise. In these cases, I don't think any additional money changes hands because Company A is selling its AM to Company B and its FM to Company C. Each price is negotiated separately.
Here's an interesting story from Hartford CT... Travelers Insurance sold off WTIC-AM-FM and Channel 3 WTIC-TV to different firms quite a few years ago. The radio stations kept the call sign and the TV outlet became WFSB. Some years later, the son of the radio stations' owner became the owner of a new TV station, Channel 61. He asked his dad for permission to use the WTIC call sign on his UHF outlet, and the dad agreed. The FCC then went along with it. The WTIC-TV call sign was back in the Hartford market, but on Channel 61, not 3. The radio stations were later bought by CBS and the TV station, now a Fox affiliate, was bought by Tribune. So today CBS owns WTIC-AM-FM and Tribune Media owns WTIC-TV.
Does Tribune pay CBS for this right? I don't think so.
This is now. Different owners can have the same call sign. When Park communications sold its NYC-area stations, 930 WPAT was bought by one company (Multicultural Broadcasting) and 93.1 WPAT-FM was bought by another company (Spanish Broadcasting Service). I'd say these days, if both companies value the call letters, they keep them, despite whatever confusion may arise. In these cases, I don't think any additional money changes hands because Company A is selling its AM to Company B and its FM to Company C. Each price is negotiated separately.
Here's an interesting story from Hartford CT... Travelers Insurance sold off WTIC-AM-FM and Channel 3 WTIC-TV to different firms quite a few years ago. The radio stations kept the call sign and the TV outlet became WFSB. Some years later, the son of the radio stations' owner became the owner of a new TV station, Channel 61. He asked his dad for permission to use the WTIC call sign on his UHF outlet, and the dad agreed. The FCC then went along with it. The WTIC-TV call sign was back in the Hartford market, but on Channel 61, not 3. The radio stations were later bought by CBS and the TV station, now a Fox affiliate, was bought by Tribune. So today CBS owns WTIC-AM-FM and Tribune Media owns WTIC-TV.
Does Tribune pay CBS for this right? I don't think so.
This is a matter of consent, and does not always involve money. When WPAT (AM) was sold to Heftel there was no requirement or request to change call letters. So they remained the same.
When famous calls are allowed to stay the same after a local market split, it is usually part of the deal. That was the case between Disney and Citadel which allowed heritage radio calls to remain under the new owners. In this case, it is likely that Citadel insisted on keeping the calls as they were an important asset.
Where money is often involved is with desired calls in use on a different service. WMIA-FM is nice for Miami, but WMIA in Arecibo, PR had the calls for an AM only. The station in Miami, owned then by Clear Channel, reached a deal to share the calls and filed with the FCC.
WOR-TV had its COL moved from New York City to Secaucus in 1983. Less than four years later, RKO sold the station to the short-lived MCA-Universal/Cox joint venture.
My point was the call letter change happened after the sale, not because of the change of location.
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