Re: COL

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

>Kevin Vahey wrote:
>COL's have always amused me and I have always suspected politics is the main
>reason they even exist. A few examples...
>
>WKLB  Lowell-Boston
>WROR Framingham-Boston
>WUNR Brookline-Boston
>WXKS AM Everett-Boston
>WXKS FM Medford-Boston
>
<snip>

        Originally, the FM allocations (like 105.7 to Framingham) were made
with what seems like the quaint idea that the stations assignbed to the
smaller cities and suburbs would serve the community that was the COL. But
that gradually faded away. Same for AMs. But the move-in phenomenon goes
way back. WLAW/680 is a good case. It supposedly was licensed to provide
local service to Lawrence back in the '30s. At least as far back as the
'40s, though, it was moving out of town to Boston as fast it could.
        One thing to remember is that way back, a station could not just
tag on any city it wanted to after the actual COL, as it can now. It had to
get the FCC to OK any additional city and then it had to use (and still
does) the exact wording of the dual COL. I think that existed as late as
the '60s or '70s. For example, WVBF, Framingham-Boston. I think they had to
go to the FCC to add Boston, and maybe there were even signal minimums to
meet and such. It's not legal for them to say Boston-Framingham.
        Minneapolis-St. Paul is an interesting case. Because of the true
twin nature of those cities, the FCC gave almost all the stations joint
legal IDs a long time ago, when it was not so common. But you can always
tell which city the station originally was licensed to, because that city
comes first. WCCO (AM) IDs as Minneapolis-St. Paul. KSTP (AM) says St.
Paul-Minneapolis.
        The current rules make it hard to tell where a legal COL, single or
dual, stops, and a list of cities the station wanted to add on starts. For
awhile, WRCH-FM down here was using WRCH, New Britain, Hartford, New Haven,
Springfield. Its actual COL is New Britain-Hartford. Is there any such
thing now as a station getting the FCC to authorize a change to a dual COL?
Why would a station bother, since it can say whatever it wants?

        How about a trivia thread on stations that have never bothered
puffing up their IDs by adding on nearby larger cities, either as dual
legal IDs or, nowadays, as they see fit? As far as I know, for example, the
ID that WGY uses is just plain old Schenectady. Almost always, WEBE-FM,
Westport, Connecticut (right between Bridgeport on one side and
Stamford-Norwalk on the other), just goes with Westport.