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The FCC mandates that stations have either a 4 or 3 letter call sign. Ones on the west coast start with K, east of that is W. Since they all have to identify th
by alexb_ 5y ago
The FCC mandates that stations have either a 4 or 3 letter call sign. Ones on the west coast start with K, east of that is W. Since they all have to identify themselves to the FCC with these call signs, it's convenient to advertise the channel with that name as well. Not every station does this, some like to not talk about the call sign at all in their name, but most advertise with it for simplicity.
- sbierwagen 5y ago>Since they all have to identify themselves to the FCC with these call signs, it's convenient to advertise the channel with that name as well Not just that, it's required by federal law to announce the callsign once an hour, in both radio and OTA television. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_identification#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_identification#United_... (If you watch sports broadcasts on OTA TV you might notice a subtle overlay pop over the content at the top of the hour) Made more sense in the analog era, when tuning was done by twiddling a potentiometer and you never quite knew exactly what frequency you were on.
- terinjokes 5y agoThough the identification you hear may be that of the originating station in the case of a simulcast. Many years back Clear Channel would simulcast hurricane coverage across most of their stations in Florida, resulting in them all identifying as "Newsradio 610 WIOD Maimi". (Though a YouTube search suggests iHeartMedia now pitch- and speed-bends to say all the legal identifiers very quickly.)
- oblio 5y ago> east of that is W Because of course it is. Facepalm moment right there.
- astrange 5y agoThe name standard is international, so we didn't get E.
- oblio 5y agoDamn, that's sad :-( I guess they could have just used them the other way around, to simplify things a bit (West Coast - W, East Coast - K). The thing is, I realized now why people care about this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_signs_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_signs_in_the_United_State... > Other stations downplay their call letters, in favor of an easily remembered slogan. This is also the standard practice in most other countries. I have NO idea what the radio call letters are for any radio in Romania. Nobody I know does. We just know them as RockFM, MagicFM, EuropaFM, RadioZu, whatever.