This is a historical quirk. “Flight Service Station” is nothing
more
than a 1980’s (or late 70’s) name-change for an animal that was
known
simply as the airport radio station. The operators were known as
“radio operators”, officially licensed under international rules, and
the site would be called “Brandon Radio”, or whatever. Back
then,
most airports of any consequence had one.
The job morphed somewhat as communication
facilities
for ATC centres improved drastically, and things like ATIS came to
be.
Perhaps the importance of “xyz Radio” as an extension of the old
ATC
Centre’s limited-range VHF diminished somewhat, but the basic provision
of weather, flight-plan-acceptance/termination, and air-ground
communications remained.
Transport then tried to highlight the “service” aspects of the job,
rearranged the responsibilities a little bit, and changed the name to
try to improve the image.... .
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