In the previous months, the professional and student staff of KWVA have been at the edge of their seats in anticipation of the new transmitter going LIVE in Oakridge, OR. Because KWVA is a legit low-powered FM station, they are required to follow the rules that the FCC sets for public radio stations. Some of these rules are specific to noncommercial stations. Others, are more broad, but nonetheless important. One of the most uncompromising of these rules is the requirement of top-of-the-hour station identification.
The FCC defines station identification (for FM radio) simply as: Call letters, followed by the area of license/operation. In production and programming, we refer to this as a legal ID. For the past 30+ years, KWVA's legal ID has been "KWVA Eugene." Now, as of December 6th 2025, it has become "KWVA Eugene (and) KOCR Oakridge."
Fun fact: the frequency letters, such as 88.1, or the type of signal (FM/AM) are not a required part of this Legal ID- although they may be optionally inserted in-between the Call Letters and area of license, but nothing else!
A Radio Culture of Legal IDs - "KWVA Eugene and KOCR Oakridge"
You may have heard other radio stations reciting their required Legal ID. Some, like Oregon's KLCC have multiple Legal IDs that must be aired on-the-hour per each of their stations/transmitter which rebroadcast their signal in various counties of Oregon, such as Corvallis and Albany. For KWVA, a College Station, we have recordings from as early as 1993 of various artists reciting our Legal ID, and they have become favorites for DJs to use on their shows. My personal favorites of these are from our earliest days as a station, featuring the voices of musicians such as Ice-T, Busta Rhymes and Les Claypool of Primus, recorded guerilla-style by young DJs, usually during a visit to the station or backstage at a concert. However, now that the new station in Oakridge has become a reality, our archive of Legal IDs, which are programmed to play at the top-of-the-hour, are now technically no longer considered Legal IDs. (because they don't include KOCR Oakridge!)
As Production Coordinator, this brought me a unique challenge, one that I was made aware of as soon as the paperwork was filed. Exciting, but also puzzling. This would prove to be not only a test of my technical skill, but also of my philosophical and moral ethics as a radio employee. A few things needed to be considered. We needed new Legal IDs, as many of them as I could make, as soon as possible. AND, they must be AT LEAST as-good (of quality) as previous IDs.
What to do? I Had a Few Options...
- Convert the "old" IDs into "new" IDs by adding "KOCR Oakridge" at the end of them. This was the most obvious of actions to take, as we didn't want to abandon our most popular IDs, some of which are decades-old. PRO: This would allow us to keep nearly all of our IDs in rotation. CON: Tampering with these nuggets of KWVA's history by tacking our new ID onto them is awkward at best, and controversial at worst.
- Use A.I. voice generation to artificially make voices say "KOCR Oakridge." This was actually suggested to me by many, but I remain skeptical. PRO: Could create a seamless transition to the new ID. CON: Using A.I. to clone people's voices raises important ethical concerns, and there is no guarantee that it would even work that well in the first place.
- Combine Vintage IDs into "compilations" which include a new voice saying "KOCR Oakridge." PRO: Allows us to keep the *essence* of these IDs and their history without having to add or change things about them. CON: Will definitely take the longest amount of time out of all the other options, and is subject to the most scrutiny from DJs.
