WGSM

["Dan Strassberg" <Dan.Strassberg@att.net>]

--------Originally sent to an erroneous address on 5/13/2001--------

On today's LTAR, Donna said that she couldn't remember what WGSM's original
calls were but she'd look them up. Donna, if your source says that WGSM had
any calls besides WGSM when it first signed on, find another source; the one
you've consulted is wrong. WGSM has always been WGSM since it signed on half
a century ago. I was within earshot--in the Bronx when the station first
signed on--and I can vouch for the fact that it signed on as WGSM, just as
WHLI, several years earlier, signed on as WHLI. And I suspect that WGBB,
which is probably the oldest still-operating station licensed to a community
in Nassau County, has always been WGBB. I think that WGBB dates back to the
late 20s or early 30s, and I believe that it once shared time with WFAS,
another suburban New York City station that, as far as I know, is still
using its original calls.

The man who founded WGSM, a former New York City ad-agency exec, picked the
calls to stand for World's Greatest Suburban Market. Unlike some other corny
radio station slogans that were made up to fit calls that already existed,
this slogan and the station calls were made up at the same time.

--

Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
Phone: 1-617-558-4205, eFax: 1-707-215-6367

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