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WSBB vs WSBB
- Thread starter HippieGuy
- Start date
Because when 95.5 gets is it town signal, there will be no need for 750 to carry the current programing. Big light bill very few listeners. That is a pretty expensive “heritage”. They could go third tier talkers, or “local” talk. That would not be that hard to do with CBS news covering 6 + minutes plus an hour. With Channel 2 news and the AJC they really could go all news on 750.*
*Just kidding, after the Cumulus’ Atlanta and Radio One’s Houston feeble attempts I doubt anybody anywhere will ever try all news again in our lifetime.
They still don't need to change the call letters. They can still call it "News Talk 95.5 WSB." With PPM in place, there will never be confusion in the ratings between 95.5 and 98.5
That's what they say now. And yes, the PPM picks up the listening correctly. No reason to switch the calls except it seems like it makes more sense to have the same calls on AM and FM. It's probably my OCD.
Assuming that WSB pays a commercial rate (and not the lower industrial rate) they use about $10 an hour in electricity or around $6,000 a month. That assumes a solid state transmitter and an average cost for air conditioning as well as tower lighting, gear in the rack, etc.
WSB bills about $30 million a year. A tiny expense for the AM transmitter electricity is nothing if the AM even contributes just 5% to the total listening (and I believe it to be much, much more).
Obviously, there are other costs like the engineering department, repairs and maintenance, insurance and such. Still, a small price to pay for added share points.
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One other example: WBEN-AM in Buffalo owned by Entercom, WBEN-FM in Philadelphia owned by Beasley.
The rule I mentioned before only dealt with old 3-letter callsigns. AFAIK there's nothing stopping a station from keeping its 4-letter callsign after a change of ownership.
From what I remember with the FCC rules with HD IDs are real loosey-goosey, versus the anal retentive rules for the main ID. Something like you have to do the ID of the main station, and make some kind of reference to HD. B98.5 does something like that, IIRC. They could say something like "WZGC Atlanta, plus super iBiquity-ripoff HD Radio too!"
But you are probably right about the FCC cutting people slack generally. For a simulcast you technically have to do a proper ID for each station individually, but many stations don't (again, the "WGST AM and FM, Atlanta/Canton" comes to mind). Heck, many stations sing their TOH IDs, and that's not technically legal, either.
Sure it is. I've been hearing ID jingles since the 50's and never heard of one case of the FCC objecting. And plenty of stations do the ID so fast, it sounds like the disclaimers at the end of a prescription medicine ad!
The administrative procedure has been that a 3 letter call, once changed to a 4 letter one, can not be reactivated unless the station is still under the ownership of the company that gave them up. If the station is sold, the ability to get the 3 letter call back are gone and there has been only one case... and a highly faked situation too... where a new owner got the "old" calls back.
Three-letter call combos or stations can be transferred without a need for call letter changes.
However a condition of the sale of one part of a combo may frequently include provisions requiring the buyer or seller to change the other part(s) to new calls. Such was the case with KOB in Albuquerque.
Hmmm, I'm thinking about WHN, which became WMGM under Loews, and then returned to WHN by Storer.
Good point but ancient history. I think that the "no return" administrative procedure was put in effect in the late 70's or early 80's.
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There are duplicated callsigns in Mexico, about 25 pairs.
They mostly occurred when AM stations migrated to FM, and a lot of them involve this block of AM-FM combo stations authorized in 1994.
They mostly occurred when AM stations migrated to FM, and a lot of them involve this block of AM-FM combo stations authorized in 1994.
It seems that nearly half of them are the original Organización Radio Centro, Radiopolis (Rogerio Azcárraga) and Televisa (Emilio Azcárraga) groups' FMs that were first used, back in the 60's, as studio-transmitter links.
FM was used all over Latin America in that era for STL purposes. Those who were fortunate enough to get multiple FM STLs found, in the 70's, that they had been given the gift of a prosperous future.
I wonder if there is any surviving documentation of Mexican STLs becoming independent stations.
Of course, Mexico later decided AMs would have XE- prefixes and FMs would be XH- assignments. The US never made a distinction in the base calls, just the suffixix.
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And with the FCC allowing stations to attach the name of the market they want to serve to the real city of license, i.e. WPGC-FM, Morningside became WPGC-FM Morningside/Washington D.C., some stations have tried to hide their real COL. For example, when Z100 in New York first signed on, their ID said, "WHTZ, Newark, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut's Z100." Z100 was licensed to Newark.
There used to be a station in Lexington Park, MD at 920 AM. There are actually towns nearby called Hollywood and California, respectively. WPTX used to ID as "WPTX, Lexington Park, Hollywood, California." Somebody there had a sense of humor.
Of course, you meant "suffix."
Exactly!!!
The most famous was WGTZ in Eaton, OH, but targeting Dayton. "WGTZ...eatin' Dayton alive" was the ID.
There was a KRPN in Salt Lake that had "W KRP (i)N Salt Lake City" as their legal ID.
Not to be confused with WKRP Dallas (GA).
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