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WSB Turns 100 on March 15th
- Thread starter RadioDoogie
- Start date
Interesting stuff. A much simpler time a mere 47 years older than me. Even less for a lot of folks on this board. Reminds me of a certain Merle Haggard song.
It's kind of odd that they would celebrate 100 years when they never mention WSB 750AM on air. Except for the hourly ID (a simple WSB Atlanta with no mention of 750 and the WSBB Doraville) every thing is promoted as 95.5 WSB which technically is WSBB. I would like to know how many people will think 95.5 is 100 years old? IMHO it would be better to say AM750 is 100 years old. They are paying an electric bill and maintaining the 750 facility. If someone tunes to AM 750 then it is some small return on their investment.. If they hate the AM signal they will go back to 95.5. I realize this will not matter to most people wouldn't care if the station is 1 day or 1000 years old. The one thing you can count on is a really short "memory" for most folks who want certain type of content and will switch stations if they are not happy.
AM 750 WSB (as we know it) is only 81 years old, WSB AM having been on other frequencies before that.
WSB did have some use of 750kHz for a short time between 9/22 and 5/23 as a secondary signal. But WSB bounced around, using 833, 700, 630, and settling on 740kHz until the Great Reallocation of 1941, when it moved to 750kHz.
All of the original Class 1A stations moved around early on. It doesn’t take away from their history and relevance. Your argument would be like saying that Ford is only 80 years old, because they don’t make Model T’s anymore.
And Ford still does not sell Model T's any longer. The product changes, but the brand endures.
My point in responding to the post above was that the promotion (or lack thereof) of "750" isn't relevant for the history of WSB and its 100th anniversary, since it HAS moved around in the past, and the "move to FM 95.5" isn't the first frequency move of WSB.
To put it another way, the presence of WSB on 750kHz is part of WSB's history, but not the sum total of it. We're celebrating a media outlet, not an FCC license for a particular frequency.
Atlanta Radio Club will host a special event station to help celebrate:
WSB Radio 100th Anniversary Special Event Station W5B is a week-long event recognizing WSB Atlanta celebrating its 100th anniversary. It is the oldest broadcast station in the Southeast, and one of the oldest stations in the United States.
The Atlanta Radio Club W4DOC along with many hams in the Atlanta area will be commemorating this anniversary by conducting a special operating event. The event will be operating all week long and directly from WSB in Atlanta as well as the transmitter site on the 15th.
If you have an interest in participating as an operator, go to www.atlantaradioclub.org/wsb-100-event and click the sign up link further down the page.
Amateurs using the callsign W5B will make two-way contact with other amateurs across all bands on SSB, AM, CW, and digital modes.
WSB Radio 100th Anniversary Special Event Station W5B is a week-long event recognizing WSB Atlanta celebrating its 100th anniversary. It is the oldest broadcast station in the Southeast, and one of the oldest stations in the United States.
The Atlanta Radio Club W4DOC along with many hams in the Atlanta area will be commemorating this anniversary by conducting a special operating event. The event will be operating all week long and directly from WSB in Atlanta as well as the transmitter site on the 15th.
If you have an interest in participating as an operator, go to www.atlantaradioclub.org/wsb-100-event and click the sign up link further down the page.
Amateurs using the callsign W5B will make two-way contact with other amateurs across all bands on SSB, AM, CW, and digital modes.
While listening to the GA men's basketball being eliminated. I did hear AM 750 in the ID. I don't know if it is for folks that listen to GA sports at night or they have 750 Am back in their regular ID's.
WSB does have their legal ID at about 5 minutes before the hour where they mention something like "AM 750 WSB Atlanta and 95.5 WSBB-FM and HD-1 Doraville". But it's not their ident that they run right at the top of the hour which is just "95.5 WSB" . They've had both of these for a while, at least since they dropped the mention of the AM in their branding.
Except for the legal ID, they don't mention "AM" "750", "WSBB", or "Doraville" at any other time.
That's a good point. 780 in Chicago does the same thing where about :58 past the hour they run off a really quick, well calibrated WBBM Chicago WCFS FM and HD1 Elmwood Park Chicago, (Audacy tones), an Audacy station.. At the top of the hour, they say This is Chicago's all news station. News Radio 780 and 105.9 FM WBBM.
I still wonder why Cox didn't ask Rhode Island Public Broadcasting if they could use WSBE-FM. Then the call sign would have read out "double-you-ess-bee-ee-eff-em", close enough to "WSB-FM" if read in a normal speaking voice (although the city of license would still be Doraville). Station ID recognition doesn't matter in a PPM market.
it does not matter for ratings directly, but branding today is more important than ever. WSB is a brand, wherever it is listened to.
Except for the FCC and a few folks on this board, nobody really cares about call letters except when used in branding. I have always wondered why Cox has never swapped 98.5 and 95.5 call letters. 98.5 only uses WSB FM during ID's and WSB FM strengthen the WSB brand at least once an hour. They most likely could swap COLs too. Then they do legal ID quickly: WSB AM FM Atlanta
I agree with you, and we've had that discussion before. But only radio geeks like us would notice. No one else would have any idea that things changed. It would do nothing to strengthen the brand, but I think it still would make sense.
WSB calls itself WSB on FM except for the legal ID and owns the FM station that uses the WSB calls. Since they call themselves WSB, why not ID as WSB-FM? And 98.5 would still be B98.5 with the WSBB calls. Maybe someone is a traditionalist and feels 98.5 should stay WSB-FM, or the station just doesn't think it would be worth the effort.
It might be a concern over whether three-letter callsigns are transferable from one station to another; the FCC hasn't been consistent on those rules. Sometimes they will let you do so (or even resurrect one), sometimes it has to stay put or it goes away forever.
Picking a nit, "AM" is never part of a legal ID. Indeed, you can't include "FM" unless that's part of your legal ID. For example, "WABE-FM Atlanta" isn't correct, because the callsign of the station at 90.1MHz in Atlanta is licensed as "WABE", not "WABE-FM". WKLS 96 Rock went back and forth between "WKLS" and "WKLS-FM" depending on whether WKLS (AM) 970 was in existence as a sister station. 96.1 had to change from WKLS to WKLS-FM while 970 was WKLS.
Technically, a correct ID for a WSB AM/FM simulcast would be "WSB Atlanta, WSB-FM and HD1, Atlanta". The FCC has been vague on how to identify an HD signal, just that you have to. And the FCC has been lenient on dual legal ID grammar, so you could probably get away with "WSB, (and) WSB-FM and HD-1, Atlanta". But the rule is that the callsign and CoL have to be right next to one another.
To: Rodney Ho. In your recap of the history of WSB, I would include perhaps their most famous creation - what is now the NBC chimes.
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