Radio
Radio stations are required to verbally identify themselves each hour; they must announce their legal call sign followed immediately by the station’s community of license. Though many radio stations use their call sign (either full or partially) in their branding, the full call sign must always be used in the legal ID. Additionally, the call sign must be spelled out; for example, Seattle, Washington radio station KOMO, though their branding includes the call sign pronounced as "KO-MO", must legally identify themselves as "K-O-M-O, Seattle.” If a station’s call sign includes a suffix (which is more common with FM stations), the station must include the suffix in their identification (e.g. “WLWK-FM, Milwaukee”). Although it is not required, some radio stations will also announce their frequency or dial setting during the station identification.
Some stations include in their legal ID a larger nearby city that they serve but is not their city of license (e.g. "WSNE-FM, Taunton/Providence"); some even go so far as to downplay their actual city of license in favor of the more major city it serves (e.g. WKTU, which mentions their city of license, Lake Success, very quickly and with less inflection before the much more prominent New York). This is acceptable as long as the first city mentioned immediately after the call sign is the station's city of license. FCC rule 73.1201 specifies that "a station may include in its official station identification the name of any additional community or communities, but the community to which the station is licensed must be named first."
Some stations broadcast on more than one frequency, including low-power stations, and are required to announce these identifications as well; however, stations do not have to announce all translators each hour, but instead must ID them 3 times per day. All translators must be identified between 7am-9am, 12:55pm–1:05pm, and 4pm-6pm.
As noted above, FCC regulations dictate that the community of license must immediately follow the call sign, and announcers need to be careful to avoid adding additional words between the two. Therefore, a station can present their ID as, "This is WXXX, Anytown," but not "This is WXXX, based in Anytown" (which is not acceptable because of the inclusion of "based in" between call sign and city of license); additionally, an ID of "WXXM, Madison/Sun Prairie" is not allowed (since that station is licensed to Sun Prairie, it must ID themselves as "WXXM, Sun Prairie/Madison"). Certain NOAA Weather Radio stations, however, have been allowed to insert the word "in" between the call sign and the city of license (e.g. "This is KEB98 in Buffalo and WWG32 in Little Valley").
Stations broadcasting in HD Radio identify by their stream channel, and unlike television, the HD1 channel is included in the identification (e.g. "WXSS-HD1, Wauwatosa/Milwaukee" or "WCBS-FM-HD1, New York". AM stations which simulcast via an FM HD subchannel identify both the main stream and the HD stream, and if broadcasting in HD Radio format in AM, also list that as part of the identification (e.g. "WISN HD, Milwaukee, and WRNW-HD2, Milwaukee").
Some radio stations employ or have employed creative ways of announcing station identification that are legal. For instance, KMRI in Salt Lake City, Utah, when they operated under the KRPN call sign, identified itself as "WKRP N Salt Lake City"—a manner allowable by the FCC even though the "W" was extra and the "N" served as a homophone for the word "in" (if "K-R-P-N, Salt Lake City" was spoken, the ID was legal).
Read more about this topic: Station Identification, United States, Proper Format of Identification
Famous quotes containing the word radio:
“There was a girl who was running the traffic desk, and there was a woman who was on the overnight for radio as a producer, and my desk assistant was a woman. So when the world came to an end, we took over.”
—Marya McLaughlin, U.S. television newswoman. As quoted in Women in Television News, ch. 3, by Judith S. Gelfman (1976)
“The radio ... goes on early in the morning and is listened to at all hours of the day, until nine, ten and often eleven o’clock in the evening. This is certainly a sign that the grown-ups have infinite patience, but it also means that the power of absorption of their brains is pretty limited, with exceptions, of course—I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. One or two news bulletins would be ample per day! But the old geese, well—I’ve said my piece!”
—Anne Frank (1929–1945)
“from above, thin squeaks of radio static,
The captured fume of space foams in our ears—”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)