Radio call letters: What do they mean?
 

By Thomas Mulvoy, Jr.
October 3, 2004

I know that radio station WEEI took its call letters from the old Edison
Electric Illuminating Co. way back when. Do stations like WBZ and WNAC,
(which was a radio station, too, once), have any such corporate
connections? -- Mary L., Boston.

There's only one person to go to with your question, and she is Donna
Halper, a media historian and instructor in the Journalism Department at
Emerson College. Says Halper:

"Well, the short answer is some do have a unique history, but in Boston,
most do not. Back in the old days, before the FCC, the Department of
Commerce assigned the call letters, usually in sequential alphabetical
order. First, they had three letter calls, and when those ran out, they
moved to four letters, with W for stations in the east and K for the west.
Some call letters originally had belonged to ships at sea -- after the
tragedy of the Titanic, the Radio Act of 1912 said all ships had to have a
wireless station on board in case of emergencies. WBZ, for example, used to
belong to one of those ships in the era before commercial radio. Sometime in
the early 1920s, a few station owners asked the Department of Commerce to
give them special call letters that stood for a slogan. WGN in Chicago, for
one, was owned by the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which had as its slogan the
'World's Greatest Newspaper.'

"Although some myths have sprung up, WNAC in Boston (which went on the air
first as 'The Shepard Station' in late July 1922, owned by the Shepard
Department Stores and John Shepard III) didn't stand for anything. It was
assigned in alphabetical order (WNAA, WNAB, WNAC, etc).

"Greater Boston's first station, the pioneering WGI in Medford Hillside
(where Tufts College is) was sequentially assigned, too, also in 1922.
Before that, it used ham radio call letters, 1XE (the X stood for
experimental, because the government thought radio was going to be a fad).
The great old call letters of WBZ, which first went on the air in
mid-September of 1921 in Springfield, not Boston, didn't stand for anything,
either. And although the story exists that WHDH stood for 'We Haul Dead
Haddock' (the station originally went on the air in Gloucester), it, too,
was another set of call letters that didn't stand for anything in particular
when it was assigned in 1929.

Interestingly, the Gloucester station that was its predecessor did have call
letters that stood for something: The owners, the Matheson family of
Gloucester, originally went on the air in 1926 and requested the call
letters WEPS (for Ethel Pearl Stevenson, the maiden name of Mr. Matheson's
wife). Briefly, in 1927, there was a home shopping station (really!) in
Boston, owned by the Shepard Stores, and it used the requested call of WASN
(All Shopping News).

"In addition to WEEI, which was a requested call letter and did stand for
the original owners, Edison Electric Illuminating Co., there were others of
the same ilk. WNBH in New Bedford, for example, stood for the New Bedford
Hotel, where its studios used to be. Still, Ms. Halper said, most Greater
Boston stations just took whatever call letters the Commerce Department, the
Federal Radio Commission (after 1927), then the FCC (after 1934) handed out.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...do_they_mean/#

Mike Terry wrote:
By Thomas Mulvoy, Jr.
October 3, 2004

I know that radio station WEEI took its call letters from the old Edison
Electric Illuminating Co. way back when. Do stations like WBZ and WNAC,
(which was a radio station, too, once), have any such corporate
connections? -- Mary L., Boston.

There's only one person to go to with your question, and she is Donna
Halper, a media historian and instructor in the Journalism Department at
Emerson College. Says Halper:

"Well, the short answer is some do have a unique history, but in Boston,
most do not. Back in the old days, before the FCC, the Department of
Commerce assigned the call letters, usually in sequential alphabetical
order. First, they had three letter calls, and when those ran out, they
moved to four letters, with W for stations in the east and K for the west.
Some call letters originally had belonged to ships at sea -- after the
tragedy of the Titanic, the Radio Act of 1912 said all ships had to have a
wireless station on board in case of emergencies. WBZ, for example, used to
belong to one of those ships in the era before commercial radio. Sometime in
the early 1920s, a few station owners asked the Department of Commerce to
give them special call letters that stood for a slogan. WGN in Chicago, for
one, was owned by the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which had as its slogan the
'World's Greatest Newspaper.'

"Although some myths have sprung up, WNAC in Boston (which went on the air
first as 'The Shepard Station' in late July 1922, owned by the Shepard
Department Stores and John Shepard III) didn't stand for anything. It was
assigned in alphabetical order (WNAA, WNAB, WNAC, etc).

"Greater Boston's first station, the pioneering WGI in Medford Hillside
(where Tufts College is) was sequentially assigned, too, also in 1922.
Before that, it used ham radio call letters, 1XE (the X stood for
experimental, because the government thought radio was going to be a fad).
The great old call letters of WBZ, which first went on the air in
mid-September of 1921 in Springfield, not Boston, didn't stand for anything,
either. And although the story exists that WHDH stood for 'We Haul Dead
Haddock' (the station originally went on the air in Gloucester), it, too,
was another set of call letters that didn't stand for anything in particular
when it was assigned in 1929.

Interestingly, the Gloucester station that was its predecessor did have call
letters that stood for something: The owners, the Matheson family of
Gloucester, originally went on the air in 1926 and requested the call
letters WEPS (for Ethel Pearl Stevenson, the maiden name of Mr. Matheson's
wife). Briefly, in 1927, there was a home shopping station (really!) in
Boston, owned by the Shepard Stores, and it used the requested call of WASN
(All Shopping News).

"In addition to WEEI, which was a requested call letter and did stand for
the original owners, Edison Electric Illuminating Co., there were others of
the same ilk. WNBH in New Bedford, for example, stood for the New Bedford
Hotel, where its studios used to be. Still, Ms. Halper said, most Greater
Boston stations just took whatever call letters the Commerce Department, the
Federal Radio Commission (after 1927), then the FCC (after 1934) handed out.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...do_they_mean/#



Jeff Millers Radio/TV history pages have a section listed for call
letter meanings. It's at
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/call192x.html

A lot of those stations are long gone however.

Charlie

--
To respond by Email remove never- from address

Charlie wrote in message ...
Mike Terry wrote:
By Thomas Mulvoy, Jr.
October 3, 2004

I know that radio station WEEI took its call letters from the old Edison
Electric Illuminating Co. way back when. Do stations like WBZ and WNAC,
(which was a radio station, too, once), have any such corporate
connections? -- Mary L., Boston.

There's only one person to go to with your question, and she is Donna
Halper, a media historian and instructor in the Journalism Department at
Emerson College. Says Halper:

"Well, the short answer is some do have a unique history, but in Boston,
most do not. Back in the old days, before the FCC, the Department of
Commerce assigned the call letters, usually in sequential alphabetical
order. First, they had three letter calls, and when those ran out, they
moved to four letters, with W for stations in the east and K for the west.
Some call letters originally had belonged to ships at sea -- after the
tragedy of the Titanic, the Radio Act of 1912 said all ships had to have a
wireless station on board in case of emergencies. WBZ, for example, used to
belong to one of those ships in the era before commercial radio. Sometime in
the early 1920s, a few station owners asked the Department of Commerce to
give them special call letters that stood for a slogan. WGN in Chicago, for
one, was owned by the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which had as its slogan the
'World's Greatest Newspaper.'

"Although some myths have sprung up, WNAC in Boston (which went on the air
first as 'The Shepard Station' in late July 1922, owned by the Shepard
Department Stores and John Shepard III) didn't stand for anything. It was
assigned in alphabetical order (WNAA, WNAB, WNAC, etc).

"Greater Boston's first station, the pioneering WGI in Medford Hillside
(where Tufts College is) was sequentially assigned, too, also in 1922.
Before that, it used ham radio call letters, 1XE (the X stood for
experimental, because the government thought radio was going to be a fad).
The great old call letters of WBZ, which first went on the air in
mid-September of 1921 in Springfield, not Boston, didn't stand for anything,
either. And although the story exists that WHDH stood for 'We Haul Dead
Haddock' (the station originally went on the air in Gloucester), it, too,
was another set of call letters that didn't stand for anything in particular
when it was assigned in 1929.

Interestingly, the Gloucester station that was its predecessor did have call
letters that stood for something: The owners, the Matheson family of
Gloucester, originally went on the air in 1926 and requested the call
letters WEPS (for Ethel Pearl Stevenson, the maiden name of Mr. Matheson's
wife). Briefly, in 1927, there was a home shopping station (really!) in
Boston, owned by the Shepard Stores, and it used the requested call of WASN
(All Shopping News).

"In addition to WEEI, which was a requested call letter and did stand for
the original owners, Edison Electric Illuminating Co., there were others of
the same ilk. WNBH in New Bedford, for example, stood for the New Bedford
Hotel, where its studios used to be. Still, Ms. Halper said, most Greater
Boston stations just took whatever call letters the Commerce Department, the
Federal Radio Commission (after 1927), then the FCC (after 1934) handed out.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...do_they_mean/#



Jeff Millers Radio/TV history pages have a section listed for call
letter meanings. It's at
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/call192x.html

Missing from the list is "KSFO" for San Fancisco Oakland


A lot of those stations are long gone however.

Charlie

A few in our area -

WNBP = Newburyport, 1450 AM = NBP, obvious
WBOQ = Gloucester, replaced WVCA (Voice of Cape Ann), WBOQ orignally was
an all classical station and the BOQ was to represent "Bach".
WCCM = Haverhill, 1490 AM. The station was orignally at 800 khz in
Lawrence. "CCM" was supposed to somehow represent "800" in Roman numerals.
It's a stretch.
WLLH = Lawrence and Lowell (two synchronous transmitters at 1400 am) =
Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, but Haverhill never got a transmitter
WPAA-FM, Andover - Phillips Andover Academy, a low-power class D that's
still on the air

..

Greg and Joan wrote:

A few in our area -

WNBP = Newburyport, 1450 AM = NBP, obvious
WBOQ = Gloucester, replaced WVCA (Voice of Cape Ann), WBOQ orignally was
an all classical station and the BOQ was to represent "Bach".
WCCM = Haverhill, 1490 AM. The station was orignally at 800 khz in
Lawrence. "CCM" was supposed to somehow represent "800" in Roman numerals.
It's a stretch.
WLLH = Lawrence and Lowell (two synchronous transmitters at 1400 am) =
Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, but Haverhill never got a transmitter
WPAA-FM, Andover - Phillips Andover Academy, a low-power class D that's
still on the air

.

WPFB AM & FM in Middletown, Ohio was owned by Paul F Bradeon, and
another station he owned was WPBF so it is rather obvious he used his
initials.

--
Beware of those who suffer from delusions of adequacy!

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

WPFB AM & FM in Middletown, Ohio was owned by Paul F Bradeon, and
another station he owned was WPBF so it is rather obvious he used his
initials.

I could offer tons more, but isn't someone collecting these and putting them on
a website, or am I not recalling correctly?


--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"In case anyone was wondering, that big glowing globe above the Victor
Valley is the sun." -Victorville _Daily Press_ on the unusually large
amount of rain the Southland has gotten this winter (January 12th, 2005)

In message , Michael A. Terrell
writes
Greg and Joan wrote:

"CCM" was supposed to somehow represent "800" in Roman numerals.

C = 100
CC = 200
M = 1000
CC before M = 1000 - 200 = 800
You know it makes sense!
Ian.
--

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Greg and Joan wrote:

A few in our area -

WNBP = Newburyport, 1450 AM = NBP, obvious
WBOQ = Gloucester, replaced WVCA (Voice of Cape Ann), WBOQ
orignally was
an all classical station and the BOQ was to represent "Bach".
WCCM = Haverhill, 1490 AM. The station was orignally at 800 khz
in
Lawrence. "CCM" was supposed to somehow represent "800" in Roman
numerals.
It's a stretch.
WLLH = Lawrence and Lowell (two synchronous transmitters at 1400
am) =
Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, but Haverhill never got a
transmitter
WPAA-FM, Andover - Phillips Andover Academy, a low-power class D
that's
still on the air

.

WPFB AM & FM in Middletown, Ohio was owned by Paul F Bradeon, and
another station he owned was WPBF so it is rather obvious he used
his
initials.

WMAL - Washington, DC - for the M A Lease Optical Company They sold
the station to NBC in the 1930s, but the call persists to this day.

Steve Sobol wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

WPFB AM & FM in Middletown, Ohio was owned by Paul F Bradeon, and
another station he owned was WPBF so it is rather obvious he used his
initials.

I could offer tons more, but isn't someone collecting these and putting them on
a website, or am I not recalling correctly?

Steven J. Sobol

Sorry, but I stumbled across this thread and just added a couple
calls that I knew about. I'm disabled now, but I was a radio and TV
broadcast engineer in the '70s, '80s and '90s

As far as someone creating a website, I like the idea. Btw, WSM in
Nashville claims it means "We Shield Millions" because it was started by
an insurance company.

A local Christian TV station bought an existing low power station in
Lake county Florida. The call letters were WIYE so they cam up with "We
Inspire You Everyday" Later, they went full power and changed their
call to WACX for "ACTS TV" because it was as close as they could get to
what they wanted.

My first job in radio was at the 980 Khz AFRN station at Ft Greely,
AK in '73 and '74. It was 95 percent tube equipment and had a really
worn out Gates BC250 transmitter that was patched together by countless
emergency repairs that were never done right. The studio was a real
dump, and over the years someone had put layer after layer of house
paint on the audio board and some of the other equipment. It was a case
study in how not to do radio or TV.

We also had a 500 watt B&W TV station on Ch 8 that was a joke. A lot
of equipment failures that put it off the air every night and the
typical military attitude of not letting yo fix a problem, and not
allowing any downtime. Those were the days! :)


--
Beware of those who suffer from delusions of adequacy!

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

There are some that I came upon:
WGY 810 kHz, Schenectady, NY "G" for General Electric, "Y" last letter in
Schenectady.
KGO 810 kHz, San Francisco, CA "G" for GE, "O" last letter in San
Francisco. GE owned both stations many years ago.
WROW 590 kHz, Albany, NY "Row!" (like a dog growling) "Watchdog of the
Capital District".
WPTR 1540 kHz, Albany, NY (back in the 1960s), Patroon Broadcasting Corp.
WROV 1240 kHz, Roanoke, VA (back before 1990s) "RO" for Roanoke, "V" for
Virginia.
WSLS 610 kHz, Roanoke, VA (Before 1980), Shenandoah Life (insurance) Station
WQBA 1140 kHz, Miami, FL (Spanish speaking) Q, pronounced "coo", BA as in
"bah". Said together, it is "Cuba" as said in Spanish.

On 23 Feb 2005 03:24:41 GMT, "Blue Cat" wrote:

There are some that I came upon:
WGY 810 kHz, Schenectady, NY "G" for General Electric, "Y" last letter in
Schenectady.
KGO 810 kHz, San Francisco, CA "G" for GE, "O" last letter in San
Francisco. GE owned both stations many years ago.
WROW 590 kHz, Albany, NY "Row!" (like a dog growling) "Watchdog of the
Capital District".
WPTR 1540 kHz, Albany, NY (back in the 1960s), Patroon Broadcasting Corp.
WROV 1240 kHz, Roanoke, VA (back before 1990s) "RO" for Roanoke, "V" for
Virginia.
WSLS 610 kHz, Roanoke, VA (Before 1980), Shenandoah Life (insurance) Station
WQBA 1140 kHz, Miami, FL (Spanish speaking) Q, pronounced "coo", BA as in
"bah". Said together, it is "Cuba" as said in Spanish.


WEAF (later WNBC, WRCA and WFAN) was next in sequence after the call
letters that the FCC originally offered and the owners rejected -
WDAM.

WEVD (now WEPN) stood for Eugene V. Debs, the labor union leader who
helped found the Socialist Party and was jailed for criticizing World
War I.

WCFL (I'm not sure what that is now) was Chicago Federation of Labor

WLS (then owned by Sears) was the World's Largest Store

KYW doesn't stand for anything but it has an interesting migratory
history, having originated in Chicago, then Philadelphia, Cleveland
and back to Philadelphia.

WJZ is another call associated with AT&T and Westinghouse which has
done some migration. Originally the NBC Blue Network (later ABC) call
in New York, it is now the call for the Westinghouse (later CBS) TV
station in Baltimore.

I don't think you can actually buy a call from one station to use on
another station but Ted Turner bribed the MIT student radio station
WTBS (Technology Broadcasting System) to change its call to WMBR so
that the call WTBS would become available to his TV station.

Also, are there any sets of calls in which the AM/FM and TV stations
are hundreds of miles apart other than for KCBS?

KCBS is in San Francisco. KCBS-TV (originally KNXT, from KNX for the
Los Angeles Evening Express) and KCBS-TV are in Los Angeles.

On 23 Feb 2005 03:24:41 GMT, "Blue Cat" wrote:

WROV 1240 kHz, Roanoke, VA (back before 1990s) "RO" for Roanoke, "V" for
Virginia.
WSLS 610 kHz, Roanoke, VA (Before 1980), Shenandoah Life (insurance) Station

For future historical reference with these two:

The WROV calls landed on 96.3 Martinsville, VA, which inherited 1240's
history as "The Rock of Virginia" for the Roanoke/Lynchburg market.
1240 is now WGMN ("The Game", sports), simulcast with Lynchburg's
WVGM/1320.

The WSLS calls are still on TV channel 10, the R/L market's NBC
affiliate. 610 eventually became WSLC, for decades the area's
dominant country station. The format and WSLC calls migrated to FM
94.9, where it exists today as "Star Country". For a time, WSLC/610
simulcasted the new FM country signal, and is now WVBE(AM)... the AM
and Roanoke simulcast of Lynchburg-targetted urban FM station "Vibe
100" (WVBE[FM] 100.1).

That station was once WLYK ("Lynchburg's K", I presume), and IT used
to simulcast Roanoke top 40 WXLK/92.3 before breaking out on its own
with the new format in 2001.

"Blue Cat" wrote in message
...
There are some that I came upon:

Interesting list... here's another:

WCCO, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (830 KHz). W-C-CO stands for Washburn Crosby
Co.,
a milling company that eventually became the food giant, General Mills.

Jackie

Followups set to rrb only, because I don't know how applicable this is to
shortwave.

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Steve Sobol wrote:

I could offer tons more, but isn't someone collecting these and putting them on
a website, or am I not recalling correctly?

Steven J. Sobol


Sorry

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

A local Christian TV station bought an existing low power station in
Lake county Florida. The call letters were WIYE so they cam up with "We
Inspire You Everyday" Later, they went full power and changed their
call to WACX for "ACTS TV" because it was as close as they could get to
what they wanted.

WSVN Channel 7 Miami, Florida. WSYX Channel 6 Columbus, Ohio. WTHR Channel 13,
Indianapolis, Indiana. WFOR Channel 4 Miami. And WFOR used to be WCIX Channel 6...

WEWS-TV 5 Cleveland, Ohio, owned by Scripps-Howard and one of the first TV
stations in the country. Callsign stands for "Edward W. Scripps."

WOIO Channel 19 Cleveland. I've never asked but I always assume the calls stand
for "Ohio."

WXIX Channel 19 Cincinnati, Ohio. XIX is the Roman numeral 19.

WIII Channel 64 Cincinnati. "The Eyes of Cincinnati." (Eyes... I's... heh...
someone had a rather cheesy sense of humor.)

W-One and W-Two: WONE-AM 980 Dayton, Ohio and WONE-FM 97.5 Akron, Ohio, and
WTUE-104.7 Dayton. All used to be owned by Summit Broadcasting. Clear Channel
now owns the Dayton stations and a local broadcaster, Rubber City Radio, owns
WONE-FM in Akron.

WLQT 99.9 Dayton used to be WVUD, broadcasting from Kennedy Union at the
University of Dayton. WVUD was the "Voice of UD" and was licensed to the
university until 1993 when the station was sold to Clear Channel.

Incidentally - I didn't realize this until doing a Google search, but the
University of Dayton campus radio station (where I used to do an airshift that
you could almost hear in the dorms if you were lucky) has hit the airwaves.
WDCR used to be carrier-current only. Now they're WUDR-99.5/98.1... "The
Udder". (no, I'm not kidding, see for yourself: http://flyer-radio.udayton.edu/)

WEOL-AM 930, Lorain County, Ohio, serving Elyria, Oberlin and Lorain.
WELW-AM 1330, Lake County, Ohio, serving Eastlake and Willoughby.

There was a Christian radio station on 1260 for a while in Cleveland, with the
calls WRDZ ("Words"). (It's now Radio Disney.)

How about WZAK-93.1 Cleveland, currently owned by Radio One but previously the
flagship station for Cleveland-owned Zapis Communications.

And WJW-TV 8 Cleveland, which became WJKW for a number of years in the 80s
after it was sold to a different company from the one that owned WJW-AM 850,
and then became WJW again after WJW-AM was sold and changed calls. Not notable,
except that they were allowed to go back to three-letter calls. I'm not sure
how that happened, or if a lot of strings had to be pulled to make it happen.

In the area where I now live, KHWY 98.9 Essex, CA. Part of the "Highway Radio"
group of stations catering to people driving the highways between SoCal and
Laughlin, NV, and SoCal and Las Vegas. (KHWY is on the way to Laughlin.)

I'm sure I'll come up with some more later...

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"In case anyone was wondering, that big glowing globe above the Victor
Valley is the sun." -Victorville _Daily Press_ on the unusually large
amount of rain the Southland has gotten this winter (January 12th, 2005)

Joel Rubin wrote:
On 23 Feb 2005 03:24:41 GMT, "Blue Cat" wrote:


There are some that I came upon:
WGY 810 kHz, Schenectady, NY "G" for General Electric, "Y" last letter in
Schenectady.
KGO 810 kHz, San Francisco, CA "G" for GE, "O" last letter in San
Francisco. GE owned both stations many years ago.
WROW 590 kHz, Albany, NY "Row!" (like a dog growling) "Watchdog of the
Capital District".
WPTR 1540 kHz, Albany, NY (back in the 1960s), Patroon Broadcasting Corp.
WROV 1240 kHz, Roanoke, VA (back before 1990s) "RO" for Roanoke, "V" for
Virginia.
WSLS 610 kHz, Roanoke, VA (Before 1980), Shenandoah Life (insurance) Station
WQBA 1140 kHz, Miami, FL (Spanish speaking) Q, pronounced "coo", BA as in
"bah". Said together, it is "Cuba" as said in Spanish.



WEAF (later WNBC, WRCA and WFAN) was next in sequence after the call
letters that the FCC originally offered and the owners rejected -
WDAM.

WEVD (now WEPN) stood for Eugene V. Debs, the labor union leader who
helped found the Socialist Party and was jailed for criticizing World
War I.

WCFL (I'm not sure what that is now) was Chicago Federation of Labor

The WCFL refered to above is now WMVP and is owned by ABC and is
ESPN Radio
WLS (then owned by Sears) was the World's Largest Store

Also in Chicago, there is WMBI, Moody Bible Institute
WGN which stands for Worlds Greatest Newspaper (Chicago Tribune)
WIND does not stand for Windy City, but stands for Indiana where it was
first licensed.
Downstate in Champaign-Urbana, IL there is WILL which is licensed to the
University of Illinois and stands for Illinois.

In South Bend Indiana WSBT stands for South Bend Tribune and
WNDU (now only TV) stands for Notre Dame University who owns it
through a commercial subsidiary.

KYW doesn't stand for anything but it has an interesting migratory
history, having originated in Chicago, then Philadelphia, Cleveland
and back to Philadelphia.

WJZ is another call associated with AT&T and Westinghouse which has
done some migration. Originally the NBC Blue Network (later ABC) call
in New York, it is now the call for the Westinghouse (later CBS) TV
station in Baltimore.

I don't think you can actually buy a call from one station to use on
another station but Ted Turner bribed the MIT student radio station
WTBS (Technology Broadcasting System) to change its call to WMBR so
that the call WTBS would become available to his TV station.

Also, are there any sets of calls in which the AM/FM and TV stations
are hundreds of miles apart other than for KCBS?

There is an AM & FM in Michigan that are about 175 miles apart.
WKLZ-AM, Kalamazoo and WKLZ-FM, Petosky. They are not commonly owned.

KCBS is in San Francisco. KCBS-TV (originally KNXT, from KNX for the
Los Angeles Evening Express) and KCBS-TV are in Los Angeles.


Early call letters and their meanings can be found at the top of the
page at Jeff Miller's Broadcasting History site at
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/jeff.html

Charlie

--
To respond by Email remove never- from address

..

Also, are there any sets of calls in which the AM/FM and TV stations
are hundreds of miles apart other than for KCBS?

KCBS is in San Francisco. KCBS-TV (originally KNXT, from KNX for the
Los Angeles Evening Express) and KCBS-TV are in Los Angeles.


First, an answer to that last question. I've got one here in Utah.

KJZZ TV 14. Larry Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz, got permission from
Rio Solado Community College to use KJZZ for the TV station. The calls
were first seen in 1980 in Phoenix. KMCR 91.5 (Maricopa College Radio)
first used them.

And here's a stack more...

KBAQ 89.5 (soon moving to 89.1 in frequency swap with EMF) Phoenix.
K-Bach. Classical station. Oddly, they originally were assigned
'KBQA' when someone forgot to request calls within a certain amount of
time back in 1992.

EMF '*LV', 'LV*', and L*V' calls. Loads of these, all for 'Love' as in
K-Love. See the whole list for yourself at klove.com. Their sister
network, Air1, uses 'RI' for that name in some of their calls. But the
most interesting of these is KAER 89.3 Saint George Utah. Yes, there
is also a 'KLOV' in Winchester, OR, used to feed their translators.

University calls. Plenty abound, loads of other examples, but here's
one not obvious to some. KBYU Provo (kbyufm.org) is obvious, but did
you know they were KBRG originally for 'Brigham' because KBYU was a
ship call. KSL was once assigned KZN but that was because of the same
reason.

I was responsible for the KXCI calls in Tucson. XCI stands for 91 in
roman numerals. Station is now on 91.3 but once was on 91.7. More
info may still be on kxci.org

Othere.

KUUU 'U-92'. More for identity.
KRAR 'Rock and roll', hard rock station in Utah in late 90s. Left the
air as rock station in an expletive filled hour in late 90s, became 50s
oldies until CC got it and ran KOSY 'Cozy' on it before selling it last
year.
KHTB 'Hot 94.9, the Blaze' 'Hot 94.9 was dropped two months later.
KMDG 'Mad Dog' active rock station.
KDUT 'La Gran D' (the Big D) Utah.
KZZA. Opened last night with 'Hurban' format in Dallas. They got
'Casa' (Spanish for house) out of that one. Was KKDL up until last
night.
WEAK-LP. Obvious. LPFMs run with weak power, 100 watts at 100 feet
HAAT.
KRIM-LP 'Rim' as in Mogollon Rim in Arizona. Natural landmark
related.
KNRJ 'Energy' Dance format. energyarizonafm.com.
Various 'Edge' nicknames. KEDG, KEDJ, etc. Common alternative format
name and identity in calls.
Salt Lake's 'zoo', all stations owned by Citadel.
KUBL 93.3 K-Bull, country
KBEE 98.7 'B98.7 or 'Bee 98.7'. Based on honeybee/beehive in state
seal.
KBER 101.1 Chris Devine of 3 Point Media came up with this in the 80s.
Bear.
KKAT 860 (earlier 101.9). Cat. 'Kat Country.
and they have 'pop' now, KPQP, 'Pop-FM'.
Two 'Oasis's. KOAI Dallas, KOAS Dolan Springs/Las Vegas. Both smooth
jazz formats.
'Vegas'. KVGS, KVEG. Both rimshotters, neither is in Las Vegas
itself.
'Luck' or other similar gambling-related stuff. KLUC, KLUK, KWNR.
KSOS. 'Sounds of the Spirit' (old KILA) on 800 (defunct) in Brigham
City. Might have stood for 'S*** on a shingle' but it's not known if
the original owner that took the calls ever meant that anyway, although
its signal reached a nearby military base.
KMTI 'Manti, Utah'. The town name comes from a location mentioned in
'The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ'.
KVVA 'Viva' 107.1 Apache Junction/Phoenix. Spanish word.
KUTR 'Utah'. Two stations had it in the late 80s, early 9os, will
soon be heard again this spring when Bonneville puts 820 on the air in
Salt Lake.
KLGN 'Logan Utah'.
KVNU 'Voice of Northern Utah', station in Logan, Utah.
KEVA short for 'Evanston' Wyoming.
KUDD I doubt had anything to do with the Simpsons episode that parodied
KOME in the Bay Area. KOME had a liner that said 'Don't touch that
dial, it's got KOME all over it'. The Simpsons episode had 'KUDD', may
have been a reference to cow cuds. The KUDD calls are in Roy, Utah on
107.9 (docket 04-427 proposes move to Henefer Utah), and the D's stood
originally for 'Dianna' and 'Power D'. Station still uses Power 107.9
but has segued from CHR/Pop to hot AC lately.
KKFR 92.3 Glendale/Phoenix. K-Fire. Used for short time in mid-80s.
Now another 'Power', as a rhythmic CHR.

I'll post more later. Keep all the stories coming.

snip

WTIC is Travelers Insurance Company, although back in the 70's I also heard it
explained as "Watch Travelers Ignore Claims".

Joel Rubin wrote:
Also, are there any sets of calls in which the AM/FM and TV stations
are hundreds of miles apart other than for KCBS?

KCBS is in San Francisco. KCBS-TV (originally KNXT, from KNX for the
Los Angeles Evening Express) and KCBS-TV are in Los Angeles.

Yep: for one example, WWVA-AM in Wheeling, West Virginia: WWVA-FM in an
Atlanta suburb. There are other examples.

But to the best of my knowledge, KCBS was the *first* station to "split"
their calls like that.

--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

A few from my previous stomping grounds, Northeastern Oklahoma/Northwest
Arkansas.

KRMG (AM 740) - Originally owned by Kerr McGee oil company
KVOO (now KFAQ 1170AM) - stood for Voice Of Oklahoma - I believe these
calls are now parked on the sister FM at 98.5.
KMOD - acronym for Middle Of the Dial (97.5FM)
KELI (used to be AM1430) - if memory serves, Kelly was the name of the
original owners' daughter.
KXOJ (100.9 FM) - Christian easy listening station - ironically, the calls
stood for eXcited Over Jesus.
KCFO (AM 970) - Christian talk station, the calls stand for Christ For
Oklahoma - originally these calls were parked at 98.5FM as "Love 98".

KXUA (88.3 FM) - University of Arkansas
KUAF (91.3 FM) - University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

KAMO (94.3 FM) - The story I was told was that when the station signed on in
the late 60's, it was the only FM in the region that could be heard in all
four of the following states - Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

KBVA (106.5 FM) - Licensed to Bella Vista, Arkansas.

KURM (AM 790) - I've actually met the original owner, and his first name
was/is Kermit.

WRVA 1140 in Richmond VA shares those calls with an FM in Raleigh NC on
100.7. I think they're both CC properties.

WERO 93.3 in Washington NC had flipped to WBOB (they call themselves
Bob933) but flipped back to the former when the FCC folks realized there
was already a WBOB in Florence KY that had not been consulted about it.

Also in NC, there is a WANG AM-FM in Havelock NC, and years ago the
1250 signal out of Farmville NC was assigned WFAG.


GTTyson




Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
Joel Rubin wrote:

Also, are there any sets of calls in which the AM/FM and TV stations
are hundreds of miles apart other than for KCBS?

KCBS is in San Francisco. KCBS-TV (originally KNXT, from KNX for the
Los Angeles Evening Express) and KCBS-TV are in Los Angeles.


Yep: for one example, WWVA-AM in Wheeling, West Virginia: WWVA-FM in an
Atlanta suburb. There are other examples.

But to the best of my knowledge, KCBS was the *first* station to "split"
their calls like that.

WCBS AM radio was originally licensed to Springfield Illinois but
when the CBS radio network was formed, a deal was made to change the
call letters in Springfield so New York could get WCBS. The
Springfield calls were changed to WCVS and until the 1980's the
station logo included an asterisk over the V and a small print
addition at the bottom to say 'formerly WCBS'.

WTMC in Ocala Florida, the first radio station there, stood for
Welcome To Marion County. Calls were changed in the nineties.

WXCV FM in Crystal River, Florida calls were invented by one of the
owners. Because the station was at 95 on the FM dial, roman numberals
were used for 95. XC=90 V=5

WHBO AM in Tampa Bay was designed to spell out Hillsborough, the
county of license.

WAFC in Clewiston Florida was picked by one of the founders from the
AFC switch (automatic freq control??) located on the front panel of
the GE Super Radio unit.

WSMD (long since gone) in Chicago was a jazz station that supposedly
stood for Smack Dab in the Middle as they were in the middle of the FM
dial (exact freq I dont recall, but around 98)

Steve Sobol wrote:

Followups set to rrb only, because I don't know how applicable this is to
shortwave.

Cleveland stations:

WNCX -- "North Coast"
WCLV -- "Cleveland"
WUAB -- "United Artists Broadcasting"
WKBF -- "Kaiser Broadcasting" (looong defunct)

others, that I'd have to think on -- I haven't lived in Cleveland in
15 years.

--
Eric F. Richards

"The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm doomed."
- Dilbert

Steve Sobol wrote:

Followups set to rrb only, because I don't know how applicable this is to
shortwave.

Could be very applicable, as in the case of HCJB "Heralding Christ Jesus'
Blessings" in Ecuador.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Kristopher Chase wrote:



WCBS AM radio was originally licensed to Springfield Illinois but
when the CBS radio network was formed, a deal was made to change the
call letters in Springfield so New York could get WCBS. The
Springfield calls were changed to WCVS and until the 1980's the
station logo included an asterisk over the V and a small print
addition at the bottom to say 'formerly WCBS'.

WTMC in Ocala Florida, the first radio station there, stood for
Welcome To Marion County. Calls were changed in the nineties.

WXCV FM in Crystal River, Florida calls were invented by one of the
owners. Because the station was at 95 on the FM dial, roman numberals
were used for 95. XC=90 V=5

WHBO AM in Tampa Bay was designed to spell out Hillsborough, the
county of license.

WAFC in Clewiston Florida was picked by one of the founders from the
AFC switch (automatic freq control??) located on the front panel of
the GE Super Radio unit.

WSMD (long since gone) in Chicago was a jazz station that supposedly
stood for Smack Dab in the Middle as they were in the middle of the FM
dial (exact freq I dont recall, but around 98)

WLBE for Leesburg-Eustis (Florida)

--
Beware of those who post from srvinet.com!

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Kristopher Chase wrote:



WSMD (long since gone) in Chicago was a jazz station that supposedly
stood for Smack Dab in the Middle as they were in the middle of the FM
dial (exact freq I dont recall, but around 98)



The Chicagoland Radio History web pages at
(check it out for just about anything in Chicago area
broadcast history)

http://www.angelfire.com/nm/negativfan/callhistory.html

give the answer to this question:
Quoting from their pages:
WSDM -- was on 97.9, "Smack Dab in the Middle" from the mid-60s to
1976, when the all-female ez/jazz station was thrown for a WLUP.
Presently the call is being used in Brazil, IN.

Charlie
the old engineer
--
To respond by Email remove never- from address

Eric F. Richards wrote:
Steve Sobol wrote:


Followups set to rrb only, because I don't know how applicable this is to
shortwave.


Cleveland stations:

WNCX -- "North Coast"
WCLV -- "Cleveland"

I forgot about those. Actually, WNCX = "North Coast eXpress to Rock and Roll"
and that's how they ID'd themselves when they signed on in 1987.

WUAB -- "United Artists Broadcasting"
WKBF -- "Kaiser Broadcasting" (looong defunct)

These, I didn't know about.

others, that I'd have to think on -- I haven't lived in Cleveland in
15 years.

Lessee, there are a couple more. KKJZ Long Beach, California - "K-Jazz",
simulcasting on KUOR Redlands, owned by the University of Redlands. KKJZ is
licensed to Cal State, Long Beach, IIRC.

Apropos of WCLV, Los Angeles's classical station is KMZT 105.1, "K-Mozart."

Los Angeles also has Kiss 102.7 (KIIS) and "Coast" 103.5 (KOST).

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"In case anyone was wondering, that big glowing globe above the Victor
Valley is the sun." -Victorville _Daily Press_ on the unusually large
amount of rain the Southland has gotten this winter (January 12th, 2005)

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

I worked for Gene Autry's KMPC for 22 years call letters
K McMillan Petrolum Company. Also KECA owned by ABC was
K Earle C. Anthony now KABC
Roger Carroll

Darned good listing. Here are some more.

KTUC 'Tucson'.
KAIR old easy listening station. 'Drive with KAIR, Everywhere'.
KNST 'News Talk'. They tried for KNSI for 'News Sports Information'
but those had been snapped up two weeks before by a station in
Minnesota for the same format.
KGVY 'Green Valley'.
KRQQ 'Rock'. Goes by 'KRQ', often had promotions where listeners would
have to find the missing Q.
KWMT 'Mountain'. Others I've heard of include KUMT Centerville Salt
Lake. This one and the others before are all from Tucson at one time.

How about something hitting the fan?

KFNZ, KFFN, KFAN, and others.

KJQS 'Jocks', an all-Sports 'toilet' in Salt Lake. Never shows up in
the arbs.
KJQN went by 'KJQ' until recently, now it stands for 'Jack' like in
Jack-FM.
KIQN 'KIQ' News, Information and TEchnology'. Station went bankrupt
last year, now is KCPW AM, as an NPR/PRI/APM affiliate.

Stars: KSTJ, KSRR, multiple others.

KSOP. Just celebrated 50th anniversary, FM side was first country FM
in the nation. Both are still country, same owner even. Stands for
'Salt lake, Ogden,
Provo.

Magic: KBMG 'Magica 106.1' Evanston WY/Salt Lake (rimshot), supposedly
goes on with a tropical/Spanish pop hybrid tomorrow. Others. KMGX
(now KNST), KMGR, four stations in 17 years in Utah). KAMJ (now KZON).
Plenty of these to be had.

'The Zone'. KZON, KZNS, others.

Old 'Z-Rock' heavy metal format: KTZR 'Tucson's Z-Rock'. Now belongs
to Spanish hits station in Tucson.

WKRP anyone? We had a 'KRPN' that used a W before the official calls
in the early nineties. Oddly, they simulcasted KZHT for a while.
There were a few titters about the vulgar words you could also get out
of those two. But yes, broadcasters did call KZHT 'K-Zit' for a while
anyway. KZHT first appeared in 1989, and is still a CHR/Pop.

Joel Rubin wrote:

KYW doesn't stand for anything but it has an interesting migratory
history, having originated in Chicago, then Philadelphia, Cleveland
and back to Philadelphia.


I once read that it stood for "Know Your World".


Bob Radil
A ?subject=KYW" E-Mail /A

BobRadil(at)comcast.net
BobRadil(at)aol.com
BobRadil(at)yahoo.com
BobRadil(at)netscape.net

A station in Dallas GA, a suburb of Atlanta, held the WKRP calls for a
while. The following information is from Georgia Tech's local radio
history page at:

http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~mleach/radio/am.html




1500 - WDPC - Religion - Dallas GA

Simulcasts AM 1520. The station's frequency is the 2nd harmonic of 50 kW
WSB-AM, generally making reception impossible in Atlanta. The station
went on the air in August 1979, with the calls WKRP. The engineer who
put it on the air was Tom Hayes, a student who worked for a while for me
as a lab assistant. The owner was a Dallas, GA, businessman. The
original management hoped to penetrate the Atlanta area with a top-40
format. The station changed hands several times and then went dark. It
is back today with a religious format. The original calls were obtained
only after it was pointed out to the FCC that Mary Tyler Moore
Productions was neither a permittee, nor a licensee. Therefore, the
'hold' on the calls WKRP, from the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati", was
null and void. None of the invited TV cast members accepted an
invitation to the opening ceremonies where the first record was
unintentionally played at the wrong speed.


Another side note: Apparently one of the creators of "WKRP In
Cincinnati" worked at WQXI in Atlanta during its Top 40 glory days and
based the show and several characters on his memories of it.

GTT





(snippage)

WKRP anyone? We had a 'KRPN' that used a W before the official calls
in the early nineties. Oddly, they simulcasted KZHT for a while.
There were a few titters about the vulgar words you could also get out
of those two. But yes, broadcasters did call KZHT 'K-Zit' for a while
anyway. KZHT first appeared in 1989, and is still a CHR/Pop.

G.T. Tyson wrote:
only after it was pointed out to the FCC that Mary Tyler Moore
Productions was neither a permittee, nor a licensee. Therefore, the
'hold' on the calls WKRP, from the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati", was
null and void. None of the invited TV cast members accepted an
invitation to the opening ceremonies where the first record was
unintentionally played at the wrong speed.

Another side note: Apparently one of the creators of "WKRP In
Cincinnati" worked at WQXI in Atlanta during its Top 40 glory days and
based the show and several characters on his memories of it.

Leads me to wonder whether Q102 (WKRQ-FM Cincinnati) was named after the show.
I've wondered for a long time whether the calls were based on the show or
whether it was the other way around.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

"Steve Sobol" wrote in message
...
| G.T. Tyson wrote:

| only after it was pointed out to the FCC that Mary Tyler Moore
| Productions was neither a permittee, nor a licensee. Therefore, the
| 'hold' on the calls WKRP, from the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati", was
| null and void. None of the invited TV cast members accepted an
| invitation to the opening ceremonies where the first record was
| unintentionally played at the wrong speed.

| Another side note: Apparently one of the creators of "WKRP In
| Cincinnati" worked at WQXI in Atlanta during its Top 40 glory days and
| based the show and several characters on his memories of it.

| Leads me to wonder whether Q102 (WKRQ-FM Cincinnati) was named after the show.
| I've wondered for a long time whether the calls were based on the show or
| whether it was the other way around.

As I've always loved this show (inasmuch as it had its own Ginger/Mary Ann
debate....Bailey - Jennifer) I can tell you that the connections to Cincinatti
radio ran deep. Not only WQXI, but also WLW and WKRC. But WKRQ (the last two
letters suggesting Rock, which of course was the format then, and probably
still) was simply a variant of the AM, WKRC, and both stations were owned by
Taft (as in the President, and descendents, including Senator Robert)
Broadcasting, which it'd owned for many, many years. So in this case WKRP was,
at best, suggested by the previous knowledge of WKRC/WKRQ. I'm sure there's a
fan website out there that is more accurate and expansive than my memories of
it.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by
evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious
encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." -- Justice
Brandeis
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-

Steve Sobol wrote:

Leads me to wonder whether Q102 (WKRQ-FM Cincinnati) was named after the show.
I've wondered for a long time whether the calls were based on the show or
whether it was the other way around.

WKRC was there before the show :)

--
Cyber stalking is a crime!

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

WFOR was (is?) a small 250W AM station in Hattiesburg, MS (FORrest
county). WFOR-TV is in Miami, no connection I think.

Joel Rubin wrote:
On 23 Feb 2005 03:24:41 GMT, "Blue Cat" wrote:


There are some that I came upon:
WGY 810 kHz, Schenectady, NY "G" for General Electric, "Y" last letter in
Schenectady.
KGO 810 kHz, San Francisco, CA "G" for GE, "O" last letter in San
Francisco. GE owned both stations many years ago.
WROW 590 kHz, Albany, NY "Row!" (like a dog growling) "Watchdog of the
Capital District".
WPTR 1540 kHz, Albany, NY (back in the 1960s), Patroon Broadcasting Corp.
WROV 1240 kHz, Roanoke, VA (back before 1990s) "RO" for Roanoke, "V" for
Virginia.
WSLS 610 kHz, Roanoke, VA (Before 1980), Shenandoah Life (insurance) Station
WQBA 1140 kHz, Miami, FL (Spanish speaking) Q, pronounced "coo", BA as in
"bah". Said together, it is "Cuba" as said in Spanish.



WEAF (later WNBC, WRCA and WFAN) was next in sequence after the call
letters that the FCC originally offered and the owners rejected -
WDAM.

WEVD (now WEPN) stood for Eugene V. Debs, the labor union leader who
helped found the Socialist Party and was jailed for criticizing World
War I.

WCFL (I'm not sure what that is now) was Chicago Federation of Labor

WLS (then owned by Sears) was the World's Largest Store

KYW doesn't stand for anything but it has an interesting migratory
history, having originated in Chicago, then Philadelphia, Cleveland
and back to Philadelphia.

WJZ is another call associated with AT&T and Westinghouse which has
done some migration. Originally the NBC Blue Network (later ABC) call
in New York, it is now the call for the Westinghouse (later CBS) TV
station in Baltimore.

I don't think you can actually buy a call from one station to use on
another station but Ted Turner bribed the MIT student radio station
WTBS (Technology Broadcasting System) to change its call to WMBR so
that the call WTBS would become available to his TV station.

Also, are there any sets of calls in which the AM/FM and TV stations
are hundreds of miles apart other than for KCBS?

KCBS is in San Francisco. KCBS-TV (originally KNXT, from KNX for the
Los Angeles Evening Express) and KCBS-TV are in Los Angeles.