No matter how long you’ve been in the business, it’s got to be an exciting day when the Federal Communications Commission sends word that a new call sign is all yours.
A fair number of new call signs were handed out across the country in April: in the Lone Star State, in the Beaver State and in the Golden State. In the sunny climate of San Miguel — home to one of California’s original 18th Century missions that is now home to about 2,300 people — the licensee Hispanic Target Media was assigned the call sign KEGT(FM).
Two hundred miles north, the licensee Modesto Peace/Life Center was assigned the call sign KCBP(FM) in the teeny hamlet of Westley, Calif., population 603.
But the frontier town of Lima, Mont., has them both beat: Licensee Rubin Broadcasting, which received the call sign KBOQ(FM) from the commission in April, will set up shop in the semi-arid climate of Lima, a waypoint for hikers and bikers attempting to conquer the Continental Divide. Population? All of 224.
It was a busy month for other licensees too, especially the Educational Media Foundation, whose stations went through a number of call sign modifications in locales like California, North Dakota, Oregon and Virginia. Other educational broadcasters who made last month’s list include former WDPE(LP) in Dover, Ohio, situated in the northeast corner of the Buckeye State, which is owned by Dover–New Philadelphia Educational Broadcasting and received the modified call sign WDNP(LP).
Back in Montana, there was more station news. In Big Sky Country, the licensee Roundup Community Radio Association saw former KLMB renamed as KQPZ(FM) in Roundup, Mont., while less than 10 miles away in Klein, Mont., licensee Bill Edwards saw KZMO reassigned as KLMB(FM).
New voices will get a chance to be heard in West Texas now that Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, a U.S. American Indian tribe has received the new call sign KUEH(LP) outside of El Paso, Texas.
Radio will continue to emanate even from the most equine of the hamlets: a 37-square-mile coastal Virginia island. The town of Chincoteague, famed for its annual pony roundup and auction, is where Jackman Holding Co. will continue to broadcast as WIEZ(FM), which was formerly WOWZ.
