David ) writes:
On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 02:19:25 GMT, "David Eduardo"
wrote:



Most interesting is when stations, like several Clear Channel AMs in FL that
call themselves WFLA while those calls are only on the Tampa station they
own.

I think their use of KISS-FM is more interesting. The real one is not
even owned by Clear Channel.

Is that one of those "made up" callsigns? I don't know how common
those are now, but there was a time when they were used a lot.
As someone said, they can call themselves whatever they like (kind
of like a business name) so long as they do properly identify themselves
when needed.

So one local fm station used to be "FM96", but then morphed into "The Mix".
In Toronto, there is/was "Q107". CBC radio here in Canada simply
calls itself "CBC Radio One" (for the AM network, which in the large
cities are now on the FM band) and "CBC Radio Two" for the stereo
network. Vermont Public Radio only announces call signs when it is
required, instead being "VPR" most of the time. I couldn't tell
you what the "local" (it's in Burlington or Plattsburgh) FOX tv station's
callsign is, since they refer to themselves on a far bigger basis as
"FOX 44".

It's a marketing too. Once upon a time, stations would try to get
specific callsigns, to match their intent or somebody's initials.
That's gotten harder, as stations have proliferated. So they
come up with some other branding process, that has nothing to do
with the legal callsign, but which so many refer to them as, one
might think someone is issuing rather odd call signs.

Michael