The reason for that being that, over the last decade or so, radio station ownership has become largely the province of a few very big companies (Clear Channel Communications being the biggest player, I believe), and formats have become more segmented. Therefore, rather than trying to develop unqiue identities, most group-owned and many locally-owned stations use consultants to help them develop an image, which usually includes call letters, an accompanying name, market positioning and image.
Alternative stations are often called “The Edge,” stations at freqs between 106.9 and 107.9 are often called “The End” (with call letters often xEND or xENZ), and so forth. Whenever a station in your market changes ownership or format, there’s a very good chance you’ll see new call letters soon.
KSAT - San Antonio, Texas
KHOU - Houston aiport designation (for Hobby Airport)
KUHT - University of Houston, Texas (PBS-TV)
KTBC - Texas Broadcasting Company (I think), Austin
KLBJ AM/FM - named for president Lyndon Johnson whose family owned company (and KTBC - TV) (I once saw an old campaign commercial where a dire voice intoned: “Don’t vote for the man who imposed a broadcast monopoly on the capitol of Texas!”)
KBVO - Austin TV station named for University of Texas longhorn mascot named Bevo. (Station is now called K-EYE.)
KRGV - Rio Grande Valley, Texas
XHFOX - Fox affiliate in Rio Grande Valley. Interesting because, while it serves the English speaking community in South Texas, it is actually liscensed and operates out of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
There’s a similar station serving Southern California. XTRA (690 AM) is an all-sports station which broadcasts in English from just across the Mexican border from San Diego. They carry ESPN radio and other such big-time programs.
I heard somewhere that they benefit nicely from not being FCC-regulated in that they can crank their signal power (presumably with the approval of Mexican authorities) to well over the 50,000 watts that seems to be the U.S. licensing limit. Anybody know if that’s really true, or just a rumor?
While they primarily cater to San Diego, they can be picked up loud and clear everywhere in Los Angeles (easily 130 miles north of the border) that I’ve tried. That seems to lend some credence to the super-high-power notion.