[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Aug 8 2004, 11:14 PM\']
Did that mean the TV station and the radio station had the same call letters? I thought that wasn't allowed...
[/quote]
I believe it was either 1976 or 1977 when the FCC required radio & TV stations to split the call-letter sharing if they did indeed share the same calls.
The only ado that was created in Cleveland was that there was a WJW-AM 850 on the dial, and a WJW-TV 8 on the idiot box. Channel 8 wedged in a K into their name, becoming WJKW, allowing 850 to remain the same.
The 'K' remained into the early 80s when 850 changed calls to WRMR. Channel 8 then reverted back to it's old calls. This might have been around the same time when Storer Broadcasting sold their radio & TV properties.
In Akron, their lone TV station (and Cleveland's 2nd ABC station, so to speak), WAKR-TV-23 was related to WAKR-1590 AM. Again the TV station switched calls to WAKC (AKron/Canton) and "Whacker" 1590 remained, and still does. TV 23 died in the early 90s with no warning, and only when PAX was looking for a local Cleveland outlet did Channel 23 re-emerge as WPVX.
Meanwhile, over in Toledo, another Storer property shared the WSPD moniker between its TV channel, WSPD-Channel 13, and radio combo WSPD-AM 1270 and WSPD-FM 101.5 "Speedy Radio". Again the TV station did the changing and became WTVG, which it still remains today, as does the WSPD radio combo.
IIRC, Toledo also had another incident with WOHO-1470 AM and WOHO - Channel 24, where Channel 24 switched calls to WNWO "The Star of Northwest Ohio"
The only change in recent years was the affiliation trade between WTVG and WNWO -- WTVG took ABC and WNWO took NBC in the early 90s.
And then there was the FCC rule that you cannot change call letters into a new 3-letter call unless your station previously had those call letters at one time in the past. That's why WJKW could revert back to the 3-letter WJW call. Chances are if you know of any station nowadays with 3-lettered calls, odds are you'll never see them changing their calls --those IDs are collectors items!