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