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Broadcast facilities have lives that can get complicated, especially when certain sorts of events are to be found in their history. License revocations, failures, and other events lead to unique historical contours. Furthermore, when multiple licenses, especially in the same area, have used the same frequency, it can be hard to distinguish when more than one article is necessary.

This essay is designed to explain my own rationale for when a radio station article covers one or more full-service FCC licenses, and vice versa. Note that, as much as possible, a radio station license should generally be covered in one article, even if there were major format or programming changes made.

Multiple licenses in one article

Continuity

WBRL (AM) is about two separate licenses, the first of which was revoked by the FCC in the mid-1970s because of fraudulent billing practices. However, when the first WBRL closed, a new group took over the facilities, frequency and call letters, resulting in the establishment of a second WBRL license that broadcast through the 1980s. WTLC (AM) covers two licenses, but the station never went off the air in the transition. (Note that typically revoked station licenses result in very new successors; see below.)

A radio station article can cover two licenses if continuity exists between the two facilities: operating on the same frequency, not a lot of time off air, and involvement of equipment and especially personnel from the first incarnation in the second. Other examples: KKON (incorporates KONA), KTKN (incorporates KGBU).

We also like to keep one article per license as much as possible. Some early stations made rather long-distance moves, but they merit one article: for instance, KUMA (Arizona) moved across the state in 1932.

An AM expanded band station that migrated from a standard AM frequency will have two license records, e.g. KDMT (AM).

There are also a couple cases where a Class D FM license was switched out for a low-power FM that actually was a higher-power facility. In both cases, the move was essentially a frequency or facility change for the existing intellectual unit: KSWC-LP, KSWH-LP.

Short lifespan

Many early FM facilities did not last long, particularly standalone outlets. If a station later operated on the same frequency, which is likely, a note can be made. For instance, KOMR mentions the short-lived KTPM, which only operated for 7 months a decade prior. However, a more noteworthy station, such as a TV station, likely merits an article: WACH-TV (Virginia) doesn't belong with WTVZ, for example, because of the 24-year time gap and the existence of a more notable history.

No original programming

Many early FM facilities simulcast co-owned AM outlets with little to no deviation. They barely had any history of their own. WAMV (Illinois) incorporates information about the two different FM licenses that were all-simulcast and associated with the WTMV/WAMV/WBBR license, one in the late 1940s/early 1950s and another in the 1960s.

Certain kinds of facility swaps

In a few events, a facility swap in which stations "switch" positions requires that a license history be downplayed in favor of the intellectual unit history. There are good examples in television, like the WTVJ/ WCIX -> WFOR-TV swap of 1995. WFOR-TV operates on the old WTVJ license, but it's not WTVJ in any other way. Similarly, a station may move frequencies/channels on a new license, e.g. KSTU (television) or KEYZ (radio).

KSUA and KUAC (FM) cover two licenses. However, this is because these stations were licensed on commercial frequencies and later sold them to move to noncommercial frequencies. In the former case, there are three articles on two licenses by design: KUWL (Alaska) (which had also been off air more than three years), KSUA, KTDZ.

When multiple articles are merited

License revocation proceedings

License revocation proceedings, rarely heard of these days, were high-profile events in American radio history, and in major markets, they often spawned multi-year comparative hearings. For instance, WPOW is the successor to WMJX (Miami) (a minor frequency change was made for allocation reasons). However, they were separate entities, between which there was four years of silence on the relevant frequency. WPOW (originally WCJX) did take on the same moniker, but the format, facilities, ownership and personnel were all different from the prior outlet. In many cases, these have historically been one article on the encyclopedia; however, there is typically no continuity between halves of a revocation proceeding. (For instance, putting WOOK-TV in the WFDC article requires overlooking a 21-year gap!)

Some sources of lower quality, and prior revisions of relevant articles, may see stations in this situation as one entity. A prior revision of WUNC (FM) described its repeater, WRQM, this way: "At one time, this was an African-American public radio station called WVSP and licensed to Warrenton." WVSP (North Carolina), however, operated on a separate license and a separate basis from WRQM, and thus it has a separate article from WRQM. A former revision of KJMC had this contradictory statement: "The station was originally licensed as KLNQ on November 2, 1998. In the 1980s, it was under the call letters KUCB." KUCB-FM (Iowa) was a separate entity, and KJMC won its license by having challenged KUCB-FM for the frequency. (There was also a decided lack of continuity between the two stations in terms of personnel.)

Lengthy silence gaps

In 1996, the new Telecommunications Act instituted Section 312(g), which said that stations forfeit their licenses after 12 months off the air. However, certain lengthy gaps in operation prior to then can, on a case-by-case basis, merit new articles. When KGTO-TV channel 36 went off the air in 1973, it returned four years later as KTVP on channel 29. Between the four-year gap, the new nature of KTVP's operation (not a standalone station), and the channel change, these are really separate entities connected by a license history. The license of KUWL (Alaska) was sold in a maneuver to put KSUA on that frequency, but KSUA had an existing prior history; KUWL was off the air for three whole years; and at the time KSUA had initially launched, the noncommercial educational reserved band was not available for use in Alaska.

I made the same decision with WCAE, where the ingredients are very similar: a sale, channel change, and total new facility. There are more connections, but people are not likely to put two and two together.

Similarly, between WANC-TV signing off and WHNS finally signing on, there was a gap of five years or so and the facility was completely rebuilt with new studios and transmitter. However, not all cases can be seen the same: WYFI is one article despite having a seven-year period of silence in the middle. KZLN becoming KMBH included a new facility and calls too, but one article makes more sense here.

The gap was shorter (five months), but between KVDO-TV and KOAB-TV (covered as part of Oregon Public Broadcasting), much changed. KVDO-TV had an eventful history in Salem, Oregon, before it was moved to Bend. After that, it had a far less eventful history—so much so it's entirely covered in the network article. Much of the information about KVDO-TV in Salem, even when OPB owned it, does not belong there.

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