My Diseased Mind

Utter BS

This is a great story, but seriously, it was an accident?

THE call letters KUNT have landed at a yet-unbuilt low-power digital television station in Wailuku, Maui.

The same station owner also received KWTF for a station in Arizona.

Wow, that’s amazing. The same company requested two humorous and borderline obscene sets of call letters. It couldn’t have been on purpose or anything.

Alarmingly similar to a word the dictionary says is obscene, the call letters were among a 15-page list of new call letters issued by the Federal Communications Commission and released this week.

Sweet, we’ve got verification that the word is bad. The dictionary say so! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known.

From Skokie, Ill., comes a sincere apology “to anyone that was offended,” said Kevin Bae, vice president of KM Communications Inc., who requested and received KUNT and KWTF. It is “extremely embarrassing for me and my company and we will file to change those call letters immediately.”

He thanked your columnist for bringing the matter to his attention and pledged to, “make sure I don’t fall asleep on the job when selecting call signs again.”

Ok, fine. I can believe that KUNT might have been an accident. I can also believe that KWTF might have been an accident. What I absolutely cannot accept is that they both are. Thanks for the heaping helping of horseshit, KM Communications!

The call letter snafu was a source of great mirth for Bae’s attorney.

“I can’t tell you how long he laughed at me when he learned of my gaffe,” Bae said.

That’s the laugh of a man who’s going to make a lot of money at your expense.

KCUF-FM near Aspen, Colo. got its F-word-in-reverse call letters in August of 2005 and has been on the air since December, “Keeping Colorado Uniquely Free,” its Web site says. Uh, yeah.

See, now that’s a station who doesn’t make any bones about it. That couldn’t have possibly been more obviously intentional.

The Code of Federal Regulations allows applicants to request call letters of their choice as long as the combination is available. Further, “objections to the assignment of requested call signs will not be entertained at the FCC,” it states.

We can’t say it on the air, but we can put it on the building in giant letters and spell it out over the air twice an hour. Yeah, that sounds about right.