Re: Ugo San Antonio Obit

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

Although it seems unlikely that WGHJ went on the air that early, I believe
that there was a period of quite a few years (probably ending sometime in
the 40s) when FMs were not permitted to use their AM affiliates'
calls--except with a -FM suffix. For sure, that was the case with TVs before
WBZ-TV signed on. After New York City's Channels 4 and 2 gave up their
experimental calls (a mixture of numbers and letters), both had calls
separate from those of the affiliated AMs. Channel 4 was WNBT and Channel 2
was WCBW. Probably for at least part of that period, the AMs were,
respectively, WEAF and WABC (before the 1946 call flip to WNBC and WCBS). I
got my first FM radio in 1948, after FM had moved (from--was it 42 to 54
MHz?) to 88 to 108 MHz. I'm pretty sure that, by 1948, 97.1 was WNBC-FM and
101.1 was WCBS-FM. I think that 101.9 was already WPIX-FM. But even when I
was in college in Troy from 1952 to 1956, WGYs FM affiliate was WGFM (and TV
was WRGB). In Rochester, WHAM's FM was originally WHFM. So maybe 93.7 first
signed on when it would not have been granted WCCM-FM and the owner just
used his own initials.

The use of separate FM calls didn't really take hold again until the 70s,
when FMs were mandated to program separately from the affiliated AMs. Since
advertisers no longer got time on the FMs as a "free" bonus with AM buys, it
became important for the stations to be recognized as separate entities in
the ratings. If the calls were essentially the same, credit for the FM
listenership would have gone to the similarly named AM.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: A. Joseph Ross <lawyer@attorneyross.com>
To: <lglavin@lycos.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2002 2:51 AM
Subject: Re: Ugo San Antonio Obit


> It began as WGHJ, simulcasting WCCM.  I think that sometime in the
mid-to-late 60s, it did
> eventually become WCCM-FM.  Since it was simulcasting, and even signing
off with WCCM
> at sunset, it's strange that it wasn't called WCCM-FM from the start.  I
was in high school at
> the time, and at some point, I called the station and asked that very
question.  I was
> transferred to someone who was apparently the owner's son.  He said that
he didn't know
> what his father had in mind, except that GHJ were his father's initials.