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TOH Legal ID

LibertyNT said:
Even better than that, FM Translators can identify using frequency-shift keying. Tune into your local translator and see if you can catch some "popping" near the top of the hour. Sounds very close to the "sub-audible" tones some sat services use.
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That must be what W220CE 91.9 in Middlefield, CT, does. It relays WGRS 91.5 Guilford, which is nothing but a 24/7 simulcast of WMNR Monroe. W220CE, which puts out a mighty 6 watts from about 550 feet, is never mentioned in the long list of simulcasting stations and translators that WMNR does each hour (WGRS originates nothing of its own, including voice IDs.), so maybe it's being buried in FSK. I'll have to listen for the pops.
 
CTListener said:
How strict is the FCC on enforcement when it does receive a complaint? Staying on Long Island, WPPB Southampton often airs improper IDs on weekends, when volunteers host specialty music shows. There a man who plays jazz who consistently gets the wording wrong, inserts ad-libbed liner-type material ("Your community public radio station for eastern Long Island!") between call letters and COL, that sort of thing. For whatever reason, WPPB allows all air staff to do IDs live rather than running recorded IDs at the top of the hour as many other non-comms do, especially ones with long lists of translators to recite. The pros who do the weekday programming know the drill by heart, the weekenders tend to improvise. (And try telling a jazz enthusiast that improvisation is bad!)
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Reminds me of the station I worked for in the 90's. We were KFSO, but before that they were KEYZ and simulcasting with KEYQ in the town up the road, together they were "the KEY to the valley." So the jock who filled in on vacations, used to work there back then full time. Just kept IDing as KEY. I wouldn't tattle anyway, but he told me the PD said he could.
 
An ID for broadcast consists of the call sign followed directly by the city of license, ie. "WPLJ NEW York", as closest to the top of the hour as possible. The FCC never stated it had to be clear English or understood. It is not unusual to hear it sped up and buried inside of the music or inside of a spot break before the hour. WHTZ used to, years ago, id as "WHTZ, Newark, New Jersey, New York, & Connecticut's Hit Music Z-100". In doing so, it was burying the COL of Newark and at the same time, defining the target of the Market as the "Tri-State" area.
I thought 103.9 moved their COL to "Bronxville".

We have Channel 10 in the Tampa Bay Market which IDs graphically as "WTSP Tampa, St. Petersburg" They are licensed to St. Pete. The have been doing it wrong, every hour, for years. I have heard all kinds of excuses for it.
 
badjef said:
An ID for broadcast consists of the call sign followed directly by the city of license, ie. "WPLJ NEW York", as closest to the top of the hour as possible.
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"...in a natural break in programming" is part of the language." That, in the case of some programming, could give as much as an hour in leeway.

From the excellent Cornell site:

"Official station identification shall consist of the station's call letters immediately followed by the community or communities specified in its license as the station's location; Provided, That the name of the licensee, the station's frequency, the station's channel number, as stated on the station's license, and/or the station's network affiliation may be inserted between the call letters and station location. Where a multicast station is carrying the programming of another station and is identifying that station as the source of the programming, using the format described above, the identification may not include the frequency or channel number of the program source. A radio station operating in DAB hybrid mode or extended hybrid mode shall identify its digital signal, including any free multicast audio programming streams, in a manner that appropriately alerts its audience to the fact that it is listening to a digital audio broadcast. No other insertion between the station's call letters and the community or communities specified in its license is permissible."

More discussion including digital TV specific requirements are at https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/73.1201
 
badjef said:
We have Channel 10 in the Tampa Bay Market which IDs graphically as "WTSP Tampa, St. Petersburg" They are licensed to St. Pete. The have been doing it wrong, every hour, for years. I have heard all kinds of excuses for it.
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After all these years I don't think the Commission is too concerned. The fact that Tampa and St. Petersburg are known that way to begin with, I doubt the legacy overrides the technicality. After well over thirty years in this business, I don't recall ever hearing about a station getting an NAL for putting a community name in their Station ID in the wrong order. I have heard about stations who have been dinged for using the wrong community in their ID, but never in the incorrect order.
 
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