[HCDX] Re: WFLA

["Robert Foxworth" <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Apart form the local powerhouses I found in the evening hours a (weak)
>station on 540 kHz that identified as "News radio 540, WFLA". Local weather
>was for Florida.  At first I was puzzled, as on 540 I only have WFLF (Pine
>Hills = Orlando, Fl) in my lists. Via the Internet I found that in fact
>there are at least two WFLA's in Florida (maybe even more).  Apart from the
>true WFLA in Tampa (970 kHz) apparently the same company owning this
station
>also operates other stations under the same "brand name", including WFLF on
>540.
>This is confusing. Therefore my questions :
>
>1. Is the program on 540 the same as on 970 ? (apparently the ID is not).
As
>970 was occupied by a strong local signal I could not check this.

The program is the same for some parts of the day. I just checked it now, at
0930 local time. Both stations carry Glenn Beck talk show (on a network) but
with separate 5-min newscasts at :00 and :30.  540 is 7 seconds behind 970.
They
both also carry Rush Limbaugh 12:06 to 15:00 and the same afternoon pgm.
They have different evening pgms. Both carry Art Bell. I think 540 can be
considered a satellite of 970, with some local origination.

>2. Are there any other stations use the WFLA call ?

The 1450 in Sarasota does this also, similar operation

>3. Is this accepted by the FCC ?. I know that nowadays there are many
>network stations without a true local ID, but using the call of another
>station as a local call is new for me.

The FCC just requires a true ID once per hour, so the 540 does identify
as "WFLF Pine Hills-Orlando" at about  xx:59:40  but it is spoken rapidly
and unclearly. Then there is a "loud" WFLA promo before news.
540 usually has CBS news and 970 news on the hour is locally produced.

>4. Any other networks which use the call of the mother station as a brand
>name ?

These stations all belong to Clear Channel which today owns over 1200
stations. I don't know about the others. Clear Channel is having the
same news people do local halfhour news for both 970 and 540 with the
audio fed from 970 by ISDN line, one on delay and one live, I think.

Some time back I offered to manage QSLs for 970, as I live here, but my
offer was never answered.  Since then I think they have been QSLing. 73 Bob

>Regards,
>Aart Rouw
>Bühl, Germany


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