Original call signs

[Scott Fybush]

WBUF-TV was an NBC owned-and-operated station in its last few years, the odd result of a quirk in FCC ownership limits that then allowed a single company to own five VHF stations plus two more UHFs.

As for WNED-TV, its legal ID is "WNED-TV Buffalo." You can say anything you want before or after the magic combination of calls and city of license. And they'd be foolish to ignore the potential membership/viewership base of several million people on the other side of the border.

[M.J.]

WBUF-TV was an NBC owned-and-operated station in its last few years, the odd result of a quirk in FCC ownership limits that then allowed a single company to own five VHF stations plus two more UHFs.

As for WNED-TV, its legal ID is "WNED-TV Buffalo." You can say anything you want before or after the magic combination of calls and city of license. And they'd be foolish to ignore the potential membership/viewership base of several million people on the other side of the border.

Going a little west of the New York state border, WQLN in Erie does the same thing with Erie-London in their IDs, since London, Ontario represents a large chunk of their membership. Not surprisingly, Londoners were upset when the cable company announced plans to switch the PBS station to WTVS from Detroit, and they ended up retracting the plan.

[Derek]

Other stations with cross-border legal IDs include Bellingham, Washington's KVOS ("Bellingham / Vancouver / Victoria") and Burlington, Vermont's WFFF ("Burlington / Plattsburg / Montreal").

Multiple-city legal IDs don't have to sound small market either. Look at "San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose" and "Dallas / Fort Worth".

[SirRoxalot]

Going a little west of the New York state border, WQLN in Erie does the same thing with Erie-London in their IDs, since London, Ontario represents a large chunk of their membership. Not surprisingly, Londoners were upset when the cable company announced plans to switch the PBS station to WTVS from Detroit, and they ended up retracting the plan.

The cable company didn't retract the plan. They simply told WQLN that they wouldn't take an OTA feed and rebroadcast it anymore, and that WTVS was willing to provide Rogers head-end in Windsor with a fiber link for programming. WQLN finally matched the offer after their head bean-counter realized his spreadsheet would show a lot of red if they lost London. It's costing 'QLN significant dollars monthly to provide NPR to Rogers Communications, but they stood to lose a LOT more if they didn't bite the bullet.

[tvlurker]

WNED-TV identifies itself as "Buffalo/Toronto". Is this a legal ID?

I think the legal ID ends before the '/'.

Think of all those FM rimshot stations that ID with Call letters followed by whispering their community of license and shouting out the Metro area they're trying to serve. Mentioning a Canadian non-city of license is not much different than mentioning an American non-city of license.

WNED is not the only stations that does this. At least one station (Fox 44) in the Burlington-Plattsburgh market has IDed as Burlington-Plattsburg-Montreal

But while we're on the topic, how did WPTZ get away with being "Plattsburgh-North Pole-Burlington" all those years, when the community of license was North Pole. Should it have IDed as North Pole-Plattsburgh-Burlington.

But the bottom line is that you can do what you can get away with.

[fortmill]

     In Buffalo, Ch. 17 was originally WBUF and became WNED around 1959 or 1960.  IIRC, WBUF was affiliated with the Dumont Network...

      As long as I'm on the subject of Ch. 17, can someone give me an answer to a question I've had for a few years now? WNED-TV identifies itself as "Buffalo/Toronto". Is this a legal ID?  Toronto is not a part of the US and to the best of my knowledge, has never been considered a part of the Buffalo market. I realize a lot of members of Ch. 17 are from southern Ontario but to ID yourself in such a way doesn't seem right. It also sounds like a small market ID like Utica/Rome, NY or Greenville/Spartanburg, SC...

The Greenvile/Spartanburg/Asheville DMA is #36, significantly larger than the Buffalo market.  Sorry.

[therealjm12]

And it's not the Utica/Rome TV market.  Just Utica.  Syracuse gets Rome (which sucks).  It is Utica/Rome for radio.

[MediaBoy4Radio]

WBUF Channel 17 in Buffalo.....was never a DuMont station.......CBS ...for a time......then purchased by NBC.............It went off the air in Sept of 1958 and was dark until March of the next year when it became the educational WNED.

[RBW]

Other stations with cross-border legal IDs include Bellingham, Washington's KVOS ("Bellingham / Vancouver / Victoria") and Burlington, Vermont's WFFF ("Burlington / Plattsburg / Montreal").

In northern New York, there's also 102.7 WLYK... which ID's as "WLYK Cape Vincent/Kingston" (Ont.) Then, to "satisfy" the listeners in Kingston (where their "live" morning show originates, --- and to freshen the illusion that it's a CANADIAN station) the WLYK calls are NEVER used-- (6-9 AM) until they join ABC at 9 AM w/Timeless Favorites. Come to think about it--- why shouldn't they consider themselves a Canadian station, since ALL their news is FROM Kingston, and so are their ads!! 

[w9wi]

I think the legal ID ends before the '/'.

73.1201(b):
"(1) Official station identification shall consist of the station's call letters immediately followed by the community or communities specified in its license as the station's location: Provided, That the name of the licensee or the station's frequency or channel number, or both, as stated on the station's license may be inserted between the call letters and station location.  No other insertion is permissible.

(2) 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."

So "WNED Buffalo/Toronto" is fine as long as Buffalo comes first. 

But while we're on the topic, how did WPTZ get away with being "Plattsburgh-North Pole-Burlington" all those years, when the community of license was North Pole. Should it have IDed as North Pole-Plattsburgh-Burlington.

73.1201(a):
"...Television broadcast stations may make these announcements visually or aurally." 

(in other words, they don't have to do both.  In other words, it's legal to display "WPTZ Plattsburgh-North Pole-Burlington" on the screen if you say "WPTZ North Pole" aurally.  Or vice-versa. 

But the bottom line is that you can do what you can get away with.

In a world where "...as close to the hour as feasible, at a natural break in program offerings." can mean 13 minutes before the hour and separated by five minutes of commercials, promos, and weather forecasts is considered OK, I would imagine swapping "Plattsburgh" and "North Pole" isn't going to raise many eyebrows!