I have to ask, why do Americans always refer to radio stations with a 4-letter code? Most places are just the frequency and the station name (94.2 The Rock, 98.8 Radio Hauraki, etc) but I'm pretty sure every single time I have seen an American refer to a radio station they say something like "KUOW 94.9".
The FCC mandates that stations have either a 4 or 3 letter call sign. Ones on the west coast start with K, east of that is W. Since they all have to identify themselves to the FCC with these call signs, it's convenient to advertise the channel with that name as well. Not every station does this, some like to not talk about the call sign at all in their name, but most advertise with it for simplicity.
>Since they all have to identify themselves to the FCC with these call signs, it's convenient to advertise the channel with that name as well
Not just that, it's required by federal law to announce the callsign once an hour, in both radio and OTA television. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_identification#United_... (If you watch sports broadcasts on OTA TV you might notice a subtle overlay pop over the content at the top of the hour)
Made more sense in the analog era, when tuning was done by twiddling a potentiometer and you never quite knew exactly what frequency you were on.
Though the identification you hear may be that of the originating station in the case of a simulcast.
Many years back Clear Channel would simulcast hurricane coverage across most of their stations in Florida, resulting in them all identifying as "Newsradio 610 WIOD Maimi". (Though a YouTube search suggests iHeartMedia now pitch- and speed-bends to say all the legal identifiers very quickly.)
> Other stations downplay their call letters, in favor of an easily remembered slogan. This is also the standard practice in most other countries.
I have NO idea what the radio call letters are for any radio in Romania. Nobody I know does. We just know them as RockFM, MagicFM, EuropaFM, RadioZu, whatever.
It probably has to do with the US requirement to announce the call sign at least once an hour. Regular listeners will associate it with the station due to this.
There's probably a good reason for it but I don't work for the FCC so I couldn't tell you. Iirc TV stations have to do the same thing every hour by showing the station name briefly.
Not all American stations have names aside from their call sign. In the Seattle Area, KUOW is just KUOW. The dance station at 89.5 calls itself C89.5, and almost nobody uses their call sign of KNHC.
On the other hand, the dance station in the Miami area calls itself "Revolution 93.5". It really depends upon the station and the market.
In many places you can't even use the frequency as a reference because it changes depending on region. On my regular 100-km drive in Belgium Classic21 gets three different frequency. But it's just Classic21, it doesn't have a code name.
