Oldest religious broadcast?

[Dan.Strassberg]

As you said, Ithaca is in the Finger Lakes region, an area well-known
for its production of wine. So maybe these WINO calls are not a
reference to alcoholism. Or maybe the Radio Free Ithaca folks figured
that, in one (printable) four-letter word, they could have a call sign
that pays homage to one of their heroes, to a legendary radio station
that never existed, and also to perhaps the best-known algricultural
product of their region. I'd call that a win-win-win choice (or maybe
a wino-wino-wino choice).

And considering how much in demand call signs that can be pronounced
"win," "wins," "winner." and the like have become over the last three
or more decades, doesn't the fact that this is the first WINO
demonstrate the rarity of out-of-the-box thinking in the radio biz?
Obviously everybody feared that the alcoholic connotation would
overshadow the win connotation. Until these guys at an LPFM asked why
it had to be that way. I wonder whether they've acquired rights from
Carlin's estate to use the Wonderful WINO jingles.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
Cc: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>; "Donna Halper"
<dlh@donnahalper.com>; "boston Radio Interest Board"
<boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 3:41 PM
Subject: Re: Oldest religious broadcast?


> Dan.Strassberg wrote:
>> Well, maybe the FCC stopped sending out such letters when the info
>> appeared on the FCC's Web site. I remember seeing such a letter in
>> 1952 in the files of then campus-limited carrier-current WRPI,
>> which,
>> along with a number of other campus-limited college stations had
>> gotten the FCC to "reserve" its call sign so that it could not be
>> taken by another station.
>
> I wonder when that practice ended? I'm thinking no later than the
> 1970s, and probably sooner.
>
> I've acquired some relatively complete historical files from some
> stations dating back to the 1950s, and have never seen a letter like
> the one Dan describes. I wonder if someone at WRPI made a specific
> request for that historical information?
>
>> It was from that letter that I learned that
>> the previous holder of the WRPI calls was the Police Department of
>> Ashland OH. That WRPI was obviously a neighbor on the dial of
>> George
>> Carlin's fictional Wonderful WINO, which, if you recall, was at
>> 1700--just above the police calls.
>
> The late Mr. Carlin would probably be amused to know that there's
> now an FM construction permit bearing the wonderful WINO callsign.
> It's at 89.9 in Odessa, New York, near Ithaca, and since it belongs
> to the Radio Free Ithaca community group, it probably comes by the
> callsign honestly!
>
> (Ithaca is also at the heart of the Finger Lakes winemaking region.)
>
> It doesn't appear that the FCC has issued the WINO calls previously.
>
> s