HD subchannels

[Sid Schweiger]

"why do stations that were originally licensed to a suburb, but which have moved to the same antenna locations as stations licensed to Boston itself, still identify themselves with the suburban town in which they were originally licensed?"

Because the "community of license" is a material term of the license, which means that to change it the licensee must apply to the FCC.  It's not necessarily an easy thing to change, particularly if the smaller community has only the one station licensed to it and moving the COL to the larger city would mean that the smaller community loses its only service.  And if you're thinking that rule is horribly out of date, IMO you'd be right.  The political pressures brought to bear on the FCC and its predecessor agencies over the years means that the original concept of a limited number of stations serving the entire nation is long gone, replaced by the idea that every area of the US should have at least one station serving the local area.  I'd have to guess that these days it would be politically unfeasible to reverse that policy.

Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Brighton MA  02135-2040