WKLB Frequency Change?

[A. Joseph Ross]

I believe there actually was a lawsuit between WBCN and WBCS, which WBCN 
lost, probably over unfair competition.  I can't find the case now, but 
I do remember reading the opinion, either by the Massachusetts Appeals 
Court or the Supreme Judicial Court.  As I recall, the court decided 
that few if any listeners would mistake the reverently patriotic country 
station WBCS for the irreverent anti-patriotic WBCN.


On 7/9/2018 2:46 AM, Bob Nelson wrote:
> Yes, CLB stood for Country CLuB. They played a song called "(I'm a member
> of a) Country Club" by Travis Tritt, IIRC in promos.
>
> WCRB and Ch 5 indeed were not thrilled by the call letter similarity. I
> don't think WBCN complained about WBCS but who knows.
> During summer tropo season, a friend picked up WBCS Country 96.9 Boston
> while in Wisconsin, including ads for Boston businesses. "Wisconsin's Best
> Country Station", he quipped.
>
> After becoming WKLB:"Boston spells country with a K"
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 9, 2018, 12:34 AM Ron Bello <rbello@belloassoc.com> wrote:
>
>> and didn’t Fairbanks move the WCLB calls to another of their stations ?
>>
>> Don’t know if it is still
>> ​ there but for many years after the call letter change and studios had
>> moved to the Pru,
>>
>> there was a sign at the top of the Edgell Rd / Main Street ramp from route
>> 9 in Framingham to the studios​
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sunday, July 8, 2018, Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 7/8/2018 8:37 AM, Scott Fybush wrote:
>>>
>>>> That FB post (from John Kosian) was showing off a shirt from 20+ years
>>>> ago!
>>>>
>>>> WBCS was one of two competing country stations in the 90s, replacing
>>>> smooth
>>>> jazz WCDJ. It was up against Fairbanks' WCLB 105.7 (ex-WVBF). WCLB
>> became
>>>> WKLB fairly quickly,
>>>>
>>> I was there, consulting WCLB when some of this occurred-- if my memory
>>> serves me well, the call letter change reflected the old Arbitron diary
>>> process of listeners being asked to remember and then write down the call
>>> letters; research showed lots of folks were getting the call letters
>> wrong
>>> and writing down stations other than WCLB, even if that's what they were
>>> listening to.  So the management decided a K would be easier to
>> distinguish
>>> than a C.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Donna L. Halper, PhD
>>> Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
>>> Lesley University, Cambridge MA
>>>
>>>

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459-2004
617.367.0468 · Fx: 617.507.7856 · http://www.attorneyross.com