Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!pollux!attctc!vector!telecom-gateway From: vrdxhq!escom.com!al@uunet.uu.net (Al Donaldson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Radio Station Names (Wxxx - Kxxx) Message-ID: Date: 3 Sep 89 19:10:18 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: ESCOM Corp., Oakton, VA Lines: 37 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 347, message 7 of 9 In article , (Paolo Bellutta) writes: > I noticed that American radio stations names starts with W or K. Fifteen years ago when I used to work in the radio and TV business, stations actually USED their call letters when doing the station ID. The minimum form included the call letters and the location, e.g., "W-K-R-P, Cincinnati", usually on the hour and half-hour. For TV, this information could be given either on audio or video. But over the past several years there seems to be a trend of replacing the legal call letters with catch-phrases and names that will appeal to the audience, e.g., "COOL", "ROCK", "EASY". Now this has always been done to some extent or other. For example, KLIK, a station I worked at in Jefferson City, Mo, used to pronounce the call letters "CLICK", sort of nerdish in retrospect, but it was certainly unique. There was obviously some competition for call letters that were easy to remember and compatible with your market image, e.g., KOOL, WROK, KEZY, etc. But now it seems that every major market in the country has an EASY or a COOL radio, and there's a whole generation of people who probably think that is the real name of their favorite station. Part of this is probably due to saturation of the name-space -- as with site names, all the good ones are taken, so stations with largely unpronounceable call letters like KZQE or WHCJ (to pick a couple at random) might become "EASY" or "COOL" respectively. But the biggest reason is probably the franchising of the radio industry that took place several years ago, with canned sounds, playlists, jingles, and so forth -- just like the fast food industry, you can get a Big Mac, fries and EASY almost anywhere you go. It seems that call letters are rarely used anymore, except perhaps when filing to the FCC for a license renewal :-). Al Donaldson al@escom.com (703) 620-4823