Re: Stations where the sun never sets (Was Re: WMVU AM 900 Nashua NHon late)

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Bill O'Neill wrote:
<snip>
>I heard a story, years ago, perhaps myth, that some stations actually did a
>legal ID at pattern change because a good portion of the signal would be
>non-existent after the switch.

        I think some stations, from the way-back days of long-forgotten
tradition and pre-automation / pre-deregulation operations, used to use
that as the cue for the engineer out at the transmitter site to hit the
switch, and it probably did do double duty as an ID for the listeners who
were about to "disappear."

        If you talk about a legal ID after the pattern / power change, I
think that may be left from the rule that said anytime a station was off
the air it was supposed to give a legal ID when it came back on the air. I
don't know if that rule still exists, and even if it does I think that
being off the air for 1 or 2 seconds (or even less) and following that rule
might be a bit excessive. Although, perhaps, once upon a stricter time,
that was the proper and accepted interpretation of it. Now, of course, I
hear stations off the air for 5, 10, 15, 100 minutes with technical
problems and they come back on with no legal ID.
        But, speaking of WTIC, I still occasionally hear someone there open
the mike and give a legal ID right after the pattern change, as if they're
following the off-the-air rule. With the DA-N Class A stations, the switch
to night pattern means they're gaining some territory for their signals as
well as losing other territory, so maybe it's a greeting to 'TIC's
listeners in the Maritimes <g>.

------------------------------