Re: Censorship at WTKK

[Chuckigo@aol.com]

Rich...
   it was indeed Wyoming.  (Wyoming Blasting & Zoning) your memory serves you 
well.

Brian...
    you are possibly close on the call-letter reasoning, though.  it is all 
about ratings.

    there is still a school of thought that runs a few ideas at the same time:
 1) don't mention the "other guys".  if your listeners are astute enough, 
they are very much aware that there are "other guys" out there.  if not, and 
the radio is on, the only letters that matter are YOUR OWN.  
  2) if someone listening to a talk station thinks he or she is listening to 
station A, while in reality she/he is listening to station B, and the 
call-letters for A are mentioned, A gets the credit (in a ratings situation). 
  
     ((we still get calls here at WROR thinking we're any one of a number of 
stations...  the caller insists they are calling WROR while listening to 
another station (usually heard in the background of the conversation).  most 
"listeners" are not as tuned-in as those of us here.))
    if B prefers to not allow mentions of A's (or C's or D's, etc) 
call-letters, then that is their perogative.  it's not censorship, its 
protection of, and the constant battle to maintain, their station's identity.
   although i find the avoidance of or deletion of legendary calls no longer 
in use as kind of silly.  (eg:  WHDH)   even though the letters live on the 
tube, they aren't on the radio dial.  i hear the avoidance and even deletion 
of those specific letters during some of the night time talk shows on the 
city's local stations, usually whenever references are made to previous 
incarnations of the host's station of record or in remembrances of 
"legendary" hosts and where they used to be found.

     btw:  i can not answer one way or the other, definitively about the 
initial thread question about WTKK or its policies.  although i work here in 
the building at 55 Morrissey Blvd, we are five radio stations with five 
different programming departments and five different staffs.  its not quite 
25 guys/25 cabs, but each station is independent of the other and the 
competition, although friendly, exists.

- -Chuck Igo