Flagship (radio)

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In the United States, a flagship station is a radio or television network's principal station from which programs are fed to affiliates (for television, see Television flagship stations).[citation needed]

The term derives from the naval custom where the commanding officer of a group of naval ships would fly a distinguishing flag.[citation needed] In common parlance, "flagship" now is used to mean the most important or leading member of a group, hence its various uses in broadcasting.

In sports broadcasting, the "flagship" is the sports team's primary station in the team's home market.[citation needed] For example, WHFS-FM is the radio flagship station of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, which feeds Orioles' games to 20 stations in Maryland and adjacent states.

For traditional radio networks, current flagship stations are:[citation needed]

Network East Coast flagship West Coast flagship
  ABC    WABC (AM) – 770 kHz, New York City       KABC (AM) – 790 kHz, Los Angeles, California   
  CBS    WCBS (AM) – 880 kHz, New York City        KCBS (AM) – 740 kHz, San Francisco, California   

Former flagship stations for now-defunct networks in radio's "Big Four" era were:

WNBC (AM) – 660 kHz, New York (now WFAN)
WYNY – 97.1 FM, New York (now WQHT)
KNBR – 680 kHz, San Francisco
KYUU – 99.7 FM , San Francisco (now KMVQ-FM)
WOR (AM) – 710 kHz, New York
WGN (AM) – 720 kHz, Chicago
KHJ (AM) – 930 kHz, Los Angeles

For syndicated radio programs, it refers to the originating station from which a program is fed by satellite or other means to stations nationwide. Flagship stations of prominent syndicated radio programs currently include: