Radio call letters: What do they mean?
 

"Gerard M Foley" wrote in message
...
The old call signs, like WBZ, WTIC, WEAF, WJZ, WCAU, KDKA, WGY, WGN, WOO,
KYW, KOA, KFI didn't mean anything. The three and four letter call
signs
were shared with coastal stations, point-to-point stations and ships.
Broadcasters got what was left. WLIT, Lit Brothers Department Store in
Philadelphia was the first station I remember that had a call sign that
meant anything.

73


Broadcasters could get the calls originally assigned to ships for their
radio stations.

"The Tribune obtains the call letters WGN (World's Greatest Newspaper) from
Great Lakes skipper Carl D. Bradley."

http://wgngold.com/timeline/1920s1930s.htm

Frank Dresser

Radio call letters: What do they mean?
 

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
sd wrote:

and the "LI"s: WLIM, WLIR, WLIX, etc., (Long Island)


WTBS, Tech Broadcasting Station from the mass. instutite of TECHnology,
(MIT) later sold to Turner.

WIBG (I believe in G-D) a relegious radio station in Philly, latter a
Rock and Roll station in the 1960's.

KYW (doesn't mean anything, was K for the U.S. Y for experimental, W for
Westinghouse), I assume at one time they had a KXW, there were four stations.

As Gerard said, most older calls didn't mean anything. Most of the
three-letter calls, and four-letter calls with A or B as the second
letter, especially. I'm pretty sure WIBG is one of these assigned in
order by the government calls.

It was not unusual for a station to choose a slogan *after* receiving
its assigned call letters from the government. For example, that's
where WSM's "We Shield Millions" came from: the government chose WSM
first, then WSM chose a slogan to match. They could just as well have
ended up assigned "WSI" - "We Sell Insurance". Some stations held
contests, asking the public to come up with a slogan. (I believe I've
read that's where WSB's "Welcome South, Brother" came from)

Let's see, the four original Westinghouse stations?:
KYW, Chicago (yes, Chicago - it moved to Philly later)
KDKA, East Pittsburgh
WBZ, Boston
WBZA, Springfield

Y was actually for educational institution stations, like W9YT
(University of Wisconsin), W0YC (Univ. of Minnesota), W9YH (U. of
Illinois), etc.. And only with the "ham-format" number-letter calls.
Experimental stations were X, and still are - at the time, calls like
W9XM. (also operated by the U. of Wisconsin) Today experimental
stations get something like KC2XIM. X & Y in all-letter calls like KYW
had no special significance.

KYW is somewhat of a mystery, not falling into any of the known
categories of how a Eastern station got a K call. Them and KQV, Pittsburgh.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

Radio call letters: What do they mean?
 

There's always WSB, "Welcome South, Brother" and WCMP-FM, "We Can't
Modulate Properly."
--scott


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

Radio call letters: What do they mean?
 

Steve Sobol wrote:
WXIX Channel 19 Cincinnati, Ohio. XIX is the Roman numeral 19.

WXIX was originally in Milwaukee, but its owners dumped it after its
channel was changed to 18. Then it became WUHF.