[BC] KFRC becomes KEAR

[Alan Kline]

I do know with certainty that it's Family Radio...there was an audio file making the
rounds last spring of the last few minutes of Infinity ownership followed by the first
few of Family Radio.  I think the "UPN Stations" reference may have been some Viacom
in-house shuffling prior to the sale--the KFRC spinoff also included, IIRC, transfer
of an FM property from Family to Infinity.  UPN, of course, is another part of the
happy Viacom family...

I believe the change of ownership was in April or thereabouts.  KFRC (AM) continued to
carry Oakland A's baseball through the remainder of the season, to honor an existing
contract.  It may have retained the old call through that time, but as you say, the FCC
database makes that hard to determine, and I'm no longer in the Bay Area to find out
firsthand...

I think it's ironic that Les Moonves is making such grand statements to the press about
the history of CBS Radio, and the pride the company has in that history, when it allows--
in fact required--another part of that history to be trashed.  There was no good reason
for Infinity to demand that the call be stripped from the AM, as it's quite common these
days for the same call to be used by different owners in different services.

ak

------ At 12:40 AM 12/16/2005 -0700, The Most Honourable Barry Mishkind wrote: -------
>At 08:59 PM 12/15/05, Alan Kline wrote
>>Speaking of Family Radio, I see from the FCC database that the 
>>dreaded day has come,
>>and KFRC (AM), after 80+ years with that call, is now KEAR (AM)...
>>
>>So much for history...
>
>         Is it Family, or something called UPN Stations?
>
>         The FCC database is really poor at tracing ownership
>         changes ... because the way they programmed it is
>         to show only the current owner on most files.
>
>         It looks like it changed hands (or corporate names)
>         three times this past spring.
>
>         Any know the dates/companies for sure?


Alan Kline, CBT, KN?H
akline at netins.net or kn?h at arrl.net (home)