Wikipedia entry for WKOX

[Kevin Vahey]

Speaking of call letters - can anything be more ironic than this?

http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/station/americas-talk-1660/

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 10:59 PM, Garrett Wollman <wollman@bimajority.org>wrote:

> <<On Wed, 23 May 2012 21:39:39 -0400, Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>
> said:
>
> > On 5/23/2012 9:25 PM, Paul B. Walker, Jr. wrote:
> >> Well, how can Mr. Mindich own the WFNX call letters? once the station
> >> is sold and Clear Channel changes calls, unless Mr. Mindich puts them
> >> somewhere else, they become available for another station to use.
>
> > Evidently not, according to an article in this week's Boston Phoenix:
> > "WFNX's intellectual property, including its call letters, remains
> > property of the /Phoenix/."
>
> The FCC has a different view.  You guess which one prevails.
>
> (I just checked the Federal trademark register, and -- no surprise --
> there is no Federal registration for the word mark "WFNX".  Any other
> trademark rights Mindich may have are purely under Massachusetts law
> and would not prevent someone in another state from claiming that call
> sign.  He does have a Federal trademark registration for "The Boston
> Phoenix", so it's not like he's not familiar with the system.)
>
> It is a weird purchase for Clear Channel, though: can't be upgraded or
> moved easily, doesn't really complement any of their existing signals,
> doesn't have full-market coverage.  There's nobody currently operating
> in Boston who would have an obvious interest in swapping something
> else in another market for it.  Time will tell, of course.
>
> -GAWollman
>
>