WXEP-LP San Antonio

[AnyHuman]

Since when did this LPFM station have call letters beginning with a W not a K?

https://fccdata.org/?facid=&call=wxep&ccode=1&city=&state=&country=US&zip=&arn=&party=&lmspf=&lmspl=&party_type=LICEN&latd=&lond=&lang=en

They also have a modification... Staying on 101.5 from the looks of it though not 96.5 like their former co-channel KEPJ-LP moved to.

 

[AnyHuman]

Apparently they changed call letters on August 12th. Still odd they have a W not a K at the beginning.

 

[BamaTX]

Apparently they changed call letters on August 12th. Still odd they have a W not a K at the beginning.

It could have been an oversight on the FCC's part. I can't recall the exact scenario, but I'm about 90% sure this has happened in the past. If memory serves me right, new call letters were re-issued when the problem was noticed.

 

[AnyHuman]

They used to be known as KMSW-LP before a few days ago. So maybe they'll go back to those letters. And how has WOAI lasted this long with the W at the start?

 

[b-turner]

About K and W Call Letters: East of the Mississippi Call Letters start with W. East of the Mississippi call letters start with K.

Before the rule about K and W call letters began, there were already many radio stations on the air. Many had call letters beginning with K or W. There's KYW in Philadelphia. There's WRR in Dallas. There are any more I can list. In each instance they begin with the wrong letter because of what side of the Mississippi they are on. As I said, these radio stations were already on the air when the rule began, they were allowed to keep their call letters or in other words, they were grandfathered in once the rule was made. Those stations frequently had three call letters instead of four. KDKA and WOAI are a couple of examples of 4 letter call signs.

 

[Kent]

They used to be known as KMSW-LP before a few days ago. So maybe they'll go back to those letters. And how has WOAI lasted this long with the W at the start?

When broadcasting was new, the Central/Mountain Time Zone line was the dividing line between the W and K calls. That's how WOAI and WBAP got their "W" calls. Same for WKY in Oklahoma City and WHB in Kansas City. I can't remember when the line was shifted to the Mississippi River, but I believe radio broadcasting was around for about 10 years before that happened.

As Turner mentions, some, like KYW and KDKA, even predate that system as they didn't start as broadcasting services. They were owned by Westinghouse and were originally used for communication between factories and offices. I believe WRR in Dallas also got its start as a communication system for the Dallas Fire Department. So, it might've received its calls under the same system that KYW and KDKA got theirs (KQV, too).

 

[fybush]

To be precise, the K/W line was originally along the western state lines of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas (including a few Mountain Time areas.)

Everything I could possibly say about the K/W anomalies and the way the line has moved? It's been done better by Thomas White, here:

K/W Call Letters in the United States