Herald: Ch 4 going back to "WBZ" brand

[Dan Strassberg]

The radio station was KHJ in Los Angeles, which became KKHJ for many years
and then convinced the FCC to let it go back to KHJ, which are the current
calls. The reasoning for dropping the extra K was a bit hokey, but I think
the FCC was simply looking for a reason that it could a accept (that is, a
reason that sounded plausible) and the licensee came up with one. And yes,
there is (or was) a KHJ-TV, which, I believe, is not co-owned with KHJ (AM)
and has not been for many years.

--

Dan Strassberg
dan.strassberg@att.net
Fax: 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <Joe@attorneyross.com>
To: "Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@mail.com>; "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: Herald: Ch 4 going back to "WBZ" brand


> On 22 Nov 2006 Scott Fybush wrote:
>
> > They could still do that. There are fairly recent examples - CBS
> > buying WGPR-TV in Detroit and changing it to WWJ-TV, for instance, or
> > the fairly recent revivals of the KSL-FM and WWL-FM calls in Salt Lake
> > City and New Orleans. But in those cases, the base call had remained
> > on the air continuously since being granted. In the case of WJZ, the
> > calls had been dormant for four years, and in the case of KUT for
> > something like 25 years. And in both cases, the licensees asking for
> > the "new" 3-letter calls were not the same licensees who'd last had
> > those calls in their old incarnations. The equivalent here would be
> > someone buying a station in New York City and asking for the WHN or
> > WOV calls back.
>
> I heard about another one not too long ago -- perhaps on this list.
> As I recall it involved a radio and TV combo in San Francisco which
> got separated, and the TV station got the three-letter calls.  The
> radio station added another K -- much as WWOR in New York added a W.
>
> At some point, the TV station gave up the three-letter calls, and the
> radio station, now under separate ownership, asked for the three-
> letter calls back.  The reason they gave was that they now did
> Spanish programming, and in Spanish, KK is pronounced "Caca," which
> isn't a very nice thing to say on the air.   Apparently it worked,
> and the radio station got back the three-letter calls.
>
> --
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                   617.367.0468
> 15 Court Square, Suite 210         Fax: 617.742.7581
> Boston, MA 02108-2503         http://www.attorneyross.com
>
>