Re: WTIC/WFSB

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Tue, 18 Aug 1998, Sven Weil wrote:

> I don't quite follow this. Do you mean that the new
> owners had to get new call letters for their newly 
> acquired toy or do you mean that the previous owners
> couldn't hold onto the call sign by assigning it to
> another property? > 

The point was that, in those days, stations that were not under common
ownership couldn't have the same base call letters.  So when channel 3 was
no longer owned by the owners of WTIC radio, it couldn't be WTIC-TV.

That is no longer the case today.  So, as someone pointed out, the present
WTIC-TV is not currently co-owned with WTIC radio. 

Closer to home, the former owners of Channel 7, after having purchased
WHDH radio and made Channel 7 WHDH-TV, later sold WHDH radio.  Both
stations kept their calls under separate ownership for a year or two,
before WHDH radio became WEEI.  Once upon a time, that was not possible,
and either Channel 7 or WHDH radio would have had to change call letters
immediately when they were no longer commonly owned.

===========================================================================
 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                         617.367.0468
 15 Court Square                                      lawyer@world.std.com
 Boston, MA 02108-2503                       http://world.std.com/~lawyer/
===========================================================================

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