Steve Seline doesn’t just want to bring an AM in the Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE market back to life, he is also seeking to revive the three-letter call sign WOW for the station. Seline’s Walnut Radio says the call letters carry “a legacy that is both profound and uniquely tied to Omaha’s cultural and broadcasting history” as it asks the Federal Communications Commission to bend the rules requiring not only a four-letter call sign, but also one that starts with a “K” for stations west of the Mississippi.
Walnut Radio makes its case in a waiver request filed with the FCC. It says the station is one of the oldest in the country, signing on Nov. 27, 1922. After using the call sign WOAW for a short time, the owners — Woodmen of the World — secured the WOW identity in 1926.
With its 5,000-watt signal, Walnut says the AM became an iconic voice of the Midwest as it was an early adopter of the top 40 format with an influence that extended far beyond Nebraska. But that legacy was lost in 1999, when what it calls a “well-meaning, but misguided” program director changed the call letters to KXSP to reposition the station…