When can radio/TV call letters be reused?

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

I’ve noticed that sometimes a radio or TV station will change ownership, and the ownership change also brings a change of call letters.

I’ve also noticed that some older stations had the same call letters for the radio and the TV station. However, all the ones in my area have since changed to other call letters.

The questions:

What determines the change of call letters when there is an ownership change? Is that just a business negotiation, as in the owner might be trying to “hold on” to the letters in case they want to relocate elsewhere? Or is it some FCC reg?

If the old call letters aren’t used in the change, when can they be reused?

Why did some call letters get used for both a radio and TV broadcast? Is that still done, or do they have to be different now?

[Walloon]

@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker

What determines the change of call letters when there is an ownership change? Is that just a business negotiation, as in the owner might be trying to “hold on” to the letters in case they want to relocate elsewhere? Or is it some FCC reg?

From the FCC (1998):

Under our current call sign practices, we allow mutually agreed-to transfers of basic call signs only in cases where licensees of stations in the same service located in the same market exchange frequencies or where a station switches to a new frequency in the same market. We do not believe that continuation of this limitation any longer advances or safeguards any key Commission regulatory objective. We are therefore proposing to eliminate any restrictions that currently prevent licensees or permittees in the same service from agreeing to exchanges or transfers of call signs. . . .

We believe that the assignee/transferee alone should bear the responsibility of requesting a different call sign or obtaining the consent necessary to retain the present or conforming call sign from the existing owner. In our experience, the parties to assignments and transfers have been able to resolve the call sign issue without Commission involvement.

@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker

If the old call letters aren’t used in the change, when can they be reused?

From the FCC (1998):

Following the effective date of the change of a broadcast station’s call sign, the station’s previous call sign will be available for reservation by another user.

Elsewhere, the FCC says it has a long-standing policy of first come, first served for the reservation of call signs.

@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker

Why did some call letters get used for both a radio and TV broadcast? Is that still done, or do they have to be different now?

The same call letters get used for AM, FM, and TV stations when they have the same owners. It is still done, although such stations must include the suffixes “FM”, or “TV” when making station identifications. The AM station is considered the default call sign, and does not have to add “AM” to their station identifications.

[Walloon]

Federal Code of Regulations:

Where a requested call sign, without the “-FM,” "-TV,’’ "-CA’’ or "LP’’ suffix, would conform to the call sign of any other non-commonly owned station(s) operating in a different service, an applicant utilizing the on-line reservation and authorization system will be required to certify that consent to use the secondary call sign has been obtained from the holder of the primary call sign.

LP = low power TV and FM stations use the -LP suffix.
CA = low power stations protected from interference by primary stations use the -CA suffix.
service = AM, FM, and TV are different “services.”

[jayjay]

So does that mean that long-established stations (tv or radio) that have had the same call letters for ages are still under the ownership of the original person/corporation? An example would be KDKA in Pittsburgh, the first commercial radio station to broadcast, which is STILL KDKA.

[Walloon]

I don’t know how you inferred that from what I quoted above. To the contrary, it says that station owners are free to transfer call signs among themselves.

[jayjay]

@Walloon

I don’t know how you inferred that from what I quoted above. To the contrary, it says that station owners are free to transfer call signs among themselves.

Sorry…I read that all wrong.