Steve Sobol had written:
|
| No, don't be! I was just curious, because we have this discussion once every
| year or two. In fact, I'll add some...

Yes, it's a waste of time, but it's a *fun* waste of time!

So here goes:

San Francisco area:
KSFO - from the airport abbreviation (KSFO)
KNBR - from previous ownership by NBC (presumably NB(C) Radio)
KCBS - from current (sort-of) ownership
KCBC - actually in the Modesto market, owned by Crawford
Broadcasting Company (CBC)
KGO -- supposedly, "General (Electric) Oakland", from its original
owner and city of license (also on KGO-TV)
KABL - was at 960 kHz, now exiled to a suburban East Bay FM signal,
meant to evoke the "cable" cars, complete with cable-car bells!
KIQI - originally KIOI, after its dial position at 1010 kHz.
Similarly, KIOI(FM) is at 101.3, but Clear Channel trashed the
longtime "K-101" moniker for the cookie-cutter "Star 101-3"
KTCT - "The Ticket" but now often simulcasts KNBR
KFAX - an early 1960s effort at an all-news station, it has kept
the calls (K-Facts) long after that format expired
KLOK - San Jose, once called "Radio Reloj", but had those calls as
an English-language station, too
KOIT (AM/FM) - after the Coit Tower, a San Francisco landmark
KSRO - Santa Rosa, for, well, Santa Rosa (SRO)
KVTO - "Voice of the Orient", a Berkeley brokered station with
programs in many Asian languages
KEST - presumably "East", a San Francisco brokered station similar to KVTO

KQED (FM/TV) - "QED", Latin for "that which was to be proved", the
tagline of many a mathematical proof
KPOO - "Poor People's Radio", a San Francisco noncommercial FM
KFJC - "Foothill (Junior?) College", a South Bay station
KUSF - University of San Francisco
KCSM (FM/TV) - College of San Mateo
KSJO - San Jose, for the city, (or now that it is "La Preciosa", has
it changed calls?)
KNGY - Alameda, "Energy" (dance format)
KPFA - *The* original Pacifica station
KYLD - "Wild" (urban format)
KZBR - "The Bear" (country format)
KLLC - "Alice" (20-something format)
KISC - "Kiss" (R&B oldies format)
KFOG - After the fog in San Francisco
KITS - "Hits", remnant of a long-gone Top 20 format
KSAN - historically for "San" Francisco, but now on a station licensed
to San Mateo, so I guess it still works
KVYN - "Vine", an FM station in Napa

KRON - "Chronicle", the newspaper that was the original owner of
the TV station
KTSF - Television San Francisco
KMTP - Minority Telecommunications Project, the owner of the station
KBHK - HK for "Henry Kaiser", the industrialist who put the station
on the air
KFTY - Santa Rosa, for its dial position on channel 50
KTLN - Novato, for "Total Living Network"

A little farther afield:
KVEC - San Luis Obispo, for the Valley Electric Company (original owner)
KPRL - Paso Robles, for Paso Robles

Even farther afield over to Missouri and nearby:

KCSP - Kansas City, "Kansas City Sports", originally was WDAF, the
calls now are on FM
KCMO - Kansas City, Missouri (AM or FM)
KCTV - Kansas City TV, originally KCMO-TV. The calls were chosen in
1982 after Meredith spun off the radio stations and persuaded a San
Angelo, Texas TV station to give up its KCTV calls
KMBC - "Midland Broadcast Central", now just on TV but originally on AM
KMBZ - Smart move by Bonneville when it bought KMBC(AM) in 1967
KCKN - Owned for many years by the "Kansas City Kansan" newspaper
KCNW - "Kansas City News", remnant of a brief period as an all-news
station affiliated with the NBC News and Information Service
KSFT - "Soft", a St. Joseph station originally on FM, its original
calls, KKJO were swapped with that FM station in the late
1980s when the KKJO rock format moved to FM

And, no, WHB did not originally stand for the "World's Happiest
Broadcasters". That slogan was retrofitted to the calls more than
30 years after WHB first took to the air.

KCUR - "Kansas City University Radio", an FM station originally put
on the air by the University of Kansas City, which is now a
part of the University of Missouri
KJHK - "Jayhawk", a student-run station at the University of Kansas
KMXV - "Mix", a CHR station
KUDL - "Cuddle", a soft-rock station, but that the calls
originally were on an AM Top 40 station (now KCNW)
KCFX - "The Fox"
KBEQ - A length explanation: originally KBEY-FM, sister station
of KBEA(AM), which was put on the air by real estate
developer Thomas Beal (BEAl)

KSHB - "Scripps Howard Broadcasting", the second owner for which
channel 41 was named. The first was KBMA for the Business
Men's Assurance insurance company.
KQTV - The St. Joseph station was originally KFEQ-TV, when it
split from KFEQ radio, the "Q" remained

KTPK - For Topeka
KLWN - For Lawrence
KLZR - "Lazer", a Lawrence FM station
KANU - "Kansas U(niversity)"

Elsewhere in Missouri:

KTVO - A TV station licensed to Kirksville, Mo. but which, for many
years, had its main studio and offices in Ottumwa, Iowa
KRCG - Richard C. Goshorn, the published the
of the Jefferson City newspaper that established the TV
station
KMIZ - "Mizzou", after the University of Missouri in Columbia
KHQA - "Hannibal-Quincy", a TV station licensed to Hannibal, Mo.
but based in Quincy, Illinois
KOLR - "Color", a Springfield, Mo. TV station

KBIA - "Columbia", now the calls for the University of Missouri's
NPR station, originally the calls for a commercial AM station
KCOU - "COU", the airport abbreviation for Columbia, another
university station
KOPN - "Open", a Columbia station originally founded as an
open-access volunteer operation
KTGR - "Tiger", the mascot of the University of Missouri (original
calls, KBIA!)
KWOS - "Keep Watching Our State", a Jefferson City station named
in commemoration of state-owned station WOS ("Watching Our
State") which had its plug pulled in 1936 under mysterious
circumstances

The whole K[letter]MO series:
KFMO Flat River
KGMO Cape Girardeau
KHMO Hannibal
KJMO Jefferson City
KMMO Marshall
KSMO Salem -- and *also* KSMO-TV Kansas City (for "Kansas/Missouri")

And the "Keep Tuned To" series:
KTTN Trenton
KTTR Rolla
KTTS Springfield

KWTO Springfield - "Keep Watching the Ozarks" (a radio station,
never a TV station)

A few from Iowa:

KCOG Centerville - "Keep Calling of God", because it used paid
religious programs to stay afloat during its early days
KOTM Ottumwa - OTM for Ottumwa
KRNT Des Moines - "RNT", the Register and Tribune, the station's
former longtime owner
WSUI and KSUI Iowa City - SUI for "State University of Iowa", the
old name for the University of Iowa
KMA Shenandoah - "MA" for Earl May, the nurseryman who put the
station on the air

OK, that's enough for now!

--
Mark Roberts