Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: GREEN@wharton.upenn.edu (Scott D. Green) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Radio Station Names (Wxxx - Kxxx) Message-ID: Date: 5 Sep 89 16:21:00 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 24 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 353, message 3 of 9 It used to be that the FCC was Very Particular about how a station identified itself: the "official" ID had to run within 2 or 3 (I can't remember) minutes of the top of the hour. An official ID consisted of the Call Letters followed immediately by the city of license. And they meant "immediately": "WABC, New York" was legal; "WABC in New York" was not. If an AM and FM station shared the same call sign, that needed to be included as well: "WCBS-FM, New York". The FCC is a *little* more lax now - the hourly ID only needs to run once per hour; it doesn't matter when. Another factor in how the stations ID themselves is how the ratings service credit the stations for listeners. Used to be that the station only got credit for a listener if the listener listed the FCC call sign in the listener log. Now, I believe that the stations get credit for Easy-101, Hot Hits 98, TalkRadio 77, etc. etc. Stations would much rather build their identity thru a logo-trademark kind of thing (even if it is franchised or purchased from a Format Company), than a sterile set of 4 letters, so you will often find, on these heavily formatted stations, that the "legal" ID is buried in the middle of a jingle touting their logo. -scott