Talk:WAYS (1500 AM)

Requested move 5 May 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Vaticidalprophet 07:54, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

WRWM → WAYS (1500 AM) – I did not catch at the time that requested the move to this title in May 2020, three months after I had moved it to the title I am proposing once more.

When this station's license was surrendered, the owner opted to keep the call sign "WAYS" and move it to another station, which had been WRWM, so that, when it surrendered the license, it retained the WAYS call sign and gave up WRWM instead. The call sign change was effective in FCC databases a week before license cancellation, typical of this kind of "Viking funeral", and it is not the first time this has happened (documented instances reach as far back as the 1990s). Titling this page WRWM violates the principle of least astonishment, because the station broadcast a grand total of one week—its last—as WRWM. It had been WAYS for the preceding 15 years. The proposed page title correctly disambiguates from the current station WAYS, which is in the same city.

Generally, we title defunct broadcast station articles at the last call sign under which they meaningfully broadcast, and switches as part of a license surrender (as in this case) or after the station made its final broadcast (e.g. KSUN (Bisbee, Arizona)) would lead to titles that would surprise readers, like WRWM in this case. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 04:55, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Support page move per nom.--Tdl1060 (talk) 19:40, 5 May 2021 (UTC)