In this letter to the editor, the author responds to the reader letter “The Art of the Top of the Hour ID.” Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

I read with much interest the K.M. Richards’ Letter: “The Art of the Top of the Hour ID” appearing on Radio World’s website. 

As a long time broadcast band long-distance “DX” listener, I find that the TOH Rule is perhaps the most violated of all the FCC’s rules. 

When I began participating in the BCB DX listening hobby as a teenager at the close of the 1950s, it was quite easy to identify a particular station to whom I was listening. There was so much live, local programming that IDs were often made every few minutes. 

Even if there were not frequent call letter IDs, identification of the station was fairly easy because of the locations given in various advertisements, weather information or news reports.

In recent years, local programming has become a thing of the past, so for much of the broadcast day, the only IDs that occur are at the top of the hour, which as most DX listeners know, often comes about 15 seconds after the signal has faded out! 

Many stations fail to ID at the TOH as required, or ID only with a slogan, such as “Country Corners 1510,” or only with the ID of their FM sister station, which may also only be a slogan, such as “The Canyon 95.3.”

At least on the FM band, those stations with RDS capability, may actually be reporting their call letters, even if not vocally. 

— Carl Dabelstein(KØSBV), Maple Grove, Minn

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