In
commercial radio, a heritage station is an
AM radio station that has broadcast a specific format for a sustained period of time, since its beginning; usually since the 1930s or 1940s, in some cases the 1920s. Also, the
call letters will have remained the same for most of the station's life.
The "heritage station" term is sometimes used to describe some
FM radio
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...
stations that have broadcast a specific format for a sustained time, usually since the 1970s or 1980s or earlier. The term is often used to describe
Top 40 (CHR) FM stations that have retained the same format and branding for decades.
Heritage stations are usually recognized by the listening public as the dominant (or only) AM station broadcasting said format in each market. Heritage stations keep their
call letters and/or
brands intact for decades.
In most cases, there is only one heritage AM station per market. However, there may be more, in the case of multiple stations who have been competing for years. Some examples of major market heritage AM stations include
KOA
KOA (short for Kampgrounds of America) is an American franchise of privately owned campgrounds. Having more than 500 locations across the United States and Canada, it is the world's largest system of privately owned campgrounds. It was founded in ...
Denver,
WJR
WJR (760 AM) is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by Cumulus Media, with a news/talk format. Most of WJR's broadcast studios, along with its newsroom and offices, are in the Fisher Building in Detroit's New Center area. A ...
Detroit,
KDKA Pittsburgh,
WOI and
WHO Des Moines,
WBZ Boston,
WSB Atlanta,
WGN and
WLS in Chicago, and
KMOX St. Louis.
Some examples of major market heritage FM stations include
WQHT,
WHTZ and
WLTW in
New York City,
KLOS,
KIIS,
KOST, and
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock").
The stat ...
in
Los Angeles,
WBBM-FM,
WGCI-FM and
WCKL in
Chicago,
KRBE in
Houston,
WSB-FM in
Atlanta,
WIL-FM in
St. Louis, and
KQRS KQRS may refer to:
* KQRS-FM, a radio station (92.5 FM) licensed to Golden Valley, Minnesota, United States
* KYCR (AM)
KYCR (1440 kHz) is an AM radio station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It is owned by Salem Media Group ...
and
KDWB in
Minneapolis. In the UK, heritage radio stations include
Clyde 1 in
Glasgow,
Pulse 1 in
West Yorkshire,
Radio City in
Liverpool and
Capital Radio in
London.
However, there are many more heritage stations across the US in cities big and small.
Often, these smaller
daytimer stations are the true heritage stations, as they were once the only local voice in many communities for decades; true pioneers despite having to sign off at sunset—many still have their original call letters. Today, the FCC has given new life to many formerly daytime only AM channels, by allowing nighttime power at greatly reduced levels. This allows many stations to broadcast 24/7, often with astonishing nighttime coverage. There is a great variety of programming on AM radio for the listener to discover. Also see
PSRA In USA AM broadcasting, presunrise authorization (PSRA) and postsunset authorization (PSSA) are permission from the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast in AM on mediumwave using a power level higher than what would normally be permitt ...
and
PSSA.
References
Radio broadcasting
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