"Steven J Sobol" wrote in message
...
David Eduardo wrote:
"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
The other thing that REALLY turns me off is when they run out of
things to say/do and start saying "News Talk 1250, WTMA" over and over
and over ad nauseum. "News Talk 730, WSC" (WSCC is more ashamed of
its call letters. Being a Clear Channel station, they think they
should be able to use RCA's WSC station call, assigned to marine band
use.)

Except for the legal ID, the station can call itself anything it wants,
as
long as what they want is not trade marked by someone else.

I beg to differ. If anyone called the FCC on that Central Pennsylvania
station
that id'd itself as WHOT-FM all of the time except at the top of the hour,
would the FCC not spank the station? (I'm referring to a station that was
mentioned in the Airwaves Digest a few years ago. WHOT-FM is the legal
callsign of a station at 101.1 in Youngstown, Ohio, and has been for
years.)

That is an interesting point, and one to ask in Florida, where a bunch of
Clear Channel talkiers are all called "WFLA" except at the top of the hour.
They are not networked, either. they only ID with real calls on top of hour.

Or in Puerto Rico, where the news net of WKAQ (AM) has been called "WKAQ
Radio Reloj" for 4 decades on a network of about 5 or 6 stations, some 24/7,
and none IDing with true calls except onthe hour.

I don't think a formal complaint has been made, although I know some DXers
have written complaints of an informal type.

Over on Clear Channel's WSCC, ol' Dan says the call letters/frequency
nearly continuously, now. Of course, he says WSC, not their real call
until the hour when they have a quickie spot to satisfy the FCC.

So? They have named the station WSC to make it easy to remember. This is
like WWWE in Cleveland (now WTAM) using 3-WE as an identifier.

Bull. There is no way anyone will mistake "3WE" for someone's call
letters.

Nor will anyone mistake "Power 106", "Hot 97", or "Z92.5" for another
station's calls. It's *not* the same thing.

No one but you cares.

It *is* misleading and shouldn't be allowed. I just don't care enough to
complain.

Since this has been going on for 4 decades with no action by the FCC, I
guess they don't fcare, either.

You are kidding, right? Except for the legal ID, a station can use any
identifier it wants.

So if I license a station and ID myself properly as, say, KIYS at the top
of the hour, and I'm at 102.7, but during the rest of the hour I call
myself
102.7 KIIS, no one will care? There is, of course, a station on 102.7 with
those calls.

Anyone at 102.7 can call themselves 102.7 Kiss, but only if they license the
Kiss name from the mark holder.

Wink 106 FM in Corning, New York, used to play that game a few years
ago...
I'd hear it when I was driving through Corning on the way to Albany or
Boston.
The jingles said "Wink 106, W-I-N-K". WINK-FM, if I'm not mistaken, is in
Tampa, or was a few years ago anyhow. Even at the top of the hour, the DJ
would ID the station correctly ("You're listening to WNKI,
Corning/Elmira")
and right after that you would hear the rest of the jingle, which used the
wrong calls (WINK).

I'll bet it would be hard for anyone to say that the station, whose name is
Wink, could not spell wink so diary keepers would know how to write it down.

I never cared enough to file a complaint with the FCC, but it's still not
right. I'd be ****ed if I owned or worked for the stations whose calls
were
being improperly used.

As long as the signals don't overlap, it probably makes no difference to
them unless they have an interest in preserving a national service mark.