Station Identification - Combining Identification With Promotion

Combining Identification With Promotion

Many television stations have devised a clever way to use station identifications as a promotional tool. By combining a short promotion for an upcoming show the station can fulfill its identification requirements while building its audience. For example, a station may show video of a local fire and tell them to tune in to the next newscast. During this short clip, the station will run its call signs and communities on screen, often in very small type. No audio announcement of call signs is necessary if the information appears on screen, so stations are free to use, in this example, the audio of an anchor or reporter promoting the story. Stations also use similar techniques to promote entertainment shows. If the correct and complete information appears on screen, it is a legal identification.

Any combination of this is also acceptable. For example some stations air a short (5 to 10 second) announcement with their station logo and an announcer reading their call signs. In this example the communities the station serves were not announced verbally.

Some television stations have even monetized their station identification; for instance WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has of late offered their top of the hour identification as a short five second ad slot, where an entity (in this case, a discount furniture store and WTMJ's sister radio station) will have their slogan and logo voiced out and displayed while the station's call letters display on the bottom in basic legal type.

As an example, in the 1990s, radio station WQLR in Kalamazoo, Michigan would give the weather (provided by Accuweather) at the top of the hour. The weather report would be prefixed with "WQLR Kalamazoo Accuweather", and because the callsign and city are announced back-to-back, it is a perfectly legal station identification.