Re: uncommonly owned call letters

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

On Thu, 20 Aug 1998, Eric Jacobs wrote:

> After reading the thread on WTIC-TV,I have the following questions. In
> the old days, if you wanted to use existing calls on a station in
> another service, permission from the original holder was required (I
> think). If I was to buy a radio station, could I name it WHDH-AM or
> WHDH-FM without Ch.7's OK? 

No.  The old rule was that stations with the same base calls had to be
under substantially the same ownership.  The current rule is that it can
be done, but only with the consent of the station that has the
earlier-existing calls.

For example, it's been mentioned around here from time to time that the
then-owners of WKLB-FM got permission from the AM station WKLB (Somewhere
in Kentucky, I think) in order to use use the callsign WKLB-FM.

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 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                         617.367.0468
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