Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The FCC Said K-What? (wtf?)

Oh you're going to love this one! Have you heard the one about FCC and the call letters snafu?
Okay, so this broadcaster walks into a bar...just kidding.

It's really not a joke but there are quite a few floating out there about it. KM Communications in Skokie, IL applied for call letters for 2 planned TV stations, one in AZ and one in Maui. The station in AZ was issued KWTF and the one in Maui was issued (earmuffs, kids) KUNT.

Yup, those are the call letters. The media has been all over the Maui call letters for obvious reasons but the AZ call letters hasn't attracted as much attention (guess it's not as obvious). The funny thing about this is that KM Communications didn't even blink an eye when they requested these call letters (yes, they requested both of them). It wasn't until a columnist called the company about it that the company finally noticed and said, "oops, we didn't mean to offend anyone."

So how did this snafu occur? Was FCC asleep at at the wheel? It's obvious those at KM Communications were, unless it was their intention to get some free publicity. But the reason why these got through the FCC was because the process has been automated. (Who said it's so easy a caveman can do it?) Broadcasters can apply for new call letters online and as long as the call letters are available (and they were), they can have it.

But this isn't the first time this has happened. (Surprise, surprise) There's an FM station in Aspen, CO that's been on the air as KCUF-FM. If you don't get it, look at the call letters closely. If you still don't get it, look at it backwards. Ta-da!

Some articles are saying they can see how it got missed. pa, right! I can see FCC's reason for not catching it because it's automated. Personally, I like KWTF because that would be so fitting, wouldn't it? (Thanks for tuning in to Barefoot radio, K-wtf is going on today in the world!)

Whoever said showbiz is a dirty business was right.

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