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Do call letters still have meaning?
- Thread starter Don CT
- Start date
Stations may still choose call letters that suggest or have a desired meaning.
Limitations apply, notably a combination that suggests bad taste would be disallowed.
Originally, call letters, back in the days of 3 letter calls, were assigned in an alphabetic sequential order, i.e. WAA, WAB, WAC, ..., WAY, WAZ, WBA, WBB, ... with surrendered call letters put back into the sequence for re-use.
When a station changed hands, the call letters were part of the negotiation of price, terms, etc. But the seller or former licensee could not keep a set of call letters without another station or an application to put them on.
Limitations apply, notably a combination that suggests bad taste would be disallowed.
Originally, call letters, back in the days of 3 letter calls, were assigned in an alphabetic sequential order, i.e. WAA, WAB, WAC, ..., WAY, WAZ, WBA, WBB, ... with surrendered call letters put back into the sequence for re-use.
When a station changed hands, the call letters were part of the negotiation of price, terms, etc. But the seller or former licensee could not keep a set of call letters without another station or an application to put them on.
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In many cases, stations do choose call letters that refer in some way to the town or community they're located in, or the format they air. As @DavidEduardo and others have mentioned, call letters are almost an afterthought at many stations and outside of the top of hour ID, they're never really mentioned. They're much better known by the "name" of the station (Power 101.5) or their positioning slogan. One station I used to work at has changed their calls I think 3 times in a 6 or 7 year span, changing call letters each time they'd change formats, in an effort to make the call letters "fit" or make reference to the new format. Novel idea, I guess, but I'm sure many listeners don't even make the (sometimes cleverly thought out) connection.
If one wants to split the meaning over Call Letters it would have to be divided into percentages over owner name, affiliation, city, branding and random assignment by owner.
KDKA, KQW, KFBK, KTVU, KTVK, KGTV would have to be random.
If it's by owner like KABC, KNBC, KCBS, KCPQ (Clover Public Schools Seattle), KRON ( Named after its founding owners San Francisco Chronicle),KTTV (Named after Los Angeles Times Television)
By City or State KTLA, KTSF, WNYW, KLAS, KLOS, KSAZ, KPHO
By Affiliation KPBS, KFOX, KBCW.
By Branding reasons, WFAN, KGMZ, KXJZ (Note Jazz was previously on KXJZ Sacramento before it became a full time NPR News/Talk affiliate as Capital Public Radio News)
Call letters used to be a sequence, like many others on here have said already; In the modern day however, stations can somewhat choose their letters.
KLWY is location based: K Laramie County, WYoming
KVAM is the previous owner of the station before a switch happened in July: K Victor A Michael
KOLT (formerly KOLZ) is entirely based on branding: KOLT (or Colt) is a young male horse, or a revolver, both definitions fitting the country theme of the station.
KLWY is location based: K Laramie County, WYoming
KVAM is the previous owner of the station before a switch happened in July: K Victor A Michael
KOLT (formerly KOLZ) is entirely based on branding: KOLT (or Colt) is a young male horse, or a revolver, both definitions fitting the country theme of the station.
It seems that stations have changed hands so many times in 60 years that the original call don't mean anything anymore.
WTIC Travelers Insurance Company. They hadn't owned the station since 1973.
With mass media ownership of legacy stations who even knows what the call letters mean anymore.
KDKA was the first available callsign in the KD-KZ block (the United States didn't get all the Ks until 1929; KA-KC was assigned to Germany in 1920). For the first few weeks, all broadcasting callsigns were 4 letters that began with K. Then they went to 3 letters, the same as coastal stations (W in the east, K in the west), before assigning 4-letter K and W calls.
Why was K west and W east? What not E and W?
The E block is split between Spain, Ireland, Ethiopia, and a few ex-USSR republics. I haven't been able to locate a prefix list from 1920, but my guess is that most or all of E was assigned to Spain at the time.
This dates back to naval times to identify ships, but beyond that, I haven't a clue. From Wikipedia:
It's not from the 1920s, but here is the first prefix list, from 1913.
The United States also owns the entire N block, but that's never been used for broadcasting except by NDXE, a pipe dream of a shortwave station that never reached the air despite advertising prominently in Passband to World Band Radio, a popular annual publication for SWLs in those days. Part of the A block is also allocated to the US. You'll find A and N calls on amateur stations today.
Canada uses C for it's call letters and Mexico uses X for their call letters as in XETV Tijuana/San Diego.
Philippines uses D for their call letters like DZMM.
Philippines uses D for their call letters like DZMM.
Canada is assigned CF-CK, CY-CZ, VA-VG, VO, VX-VY and XJ-XO. Only CF-CK are used in broadcasting, along with a couple remaining VO calls that were in Newfoundland prior to joining Canada.
Mexico has XA-XI, as well as 4A-4C and 6D-6J.
The Philippines only use DU-DZ in that block, as well as 4D-4I. Most of the D-block is assigned to Germany (they had the whole shebang prior to WW2), with another small block assigned to South Korea.
Here is a prefix history page: Call-Sign History
Canada, how did you get so lucky? Anyways, I notice how Australian provinces use a distinct numbering system for their call letters? Like, Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) is 1, New South Wales (Sydney) is 2, Victoria (Melbourne) is 3, Queensland (Gold Coast) is 4, South Australia (Adelaide) is 5, Western Australia (Perth) is 6, Tasmania is 7, Northern Territory (Darwin/Alice Springs)is 8?
Examples: 7PB is ABC News for Hobart, Tasmania, and 2RBH is a radio reading service in Newcastle, NSW.
It is interesting to note that
LAX is the Los Angeles International Airport and also an FM station in LA. I believe there are a number of stations with the last three letters of the calls the same as the airport abbreviation.
On that note, TV station WATL and Hartsfield Jackson Airport (ATL) share call letters. I bet this doesn't count, but 91.3 KCPR out of California, and Casper Airport (CPR) match.
WBOS Boston, WBUF Buffalo and WSYR Syracuse come to mind immediately. Of course those calls reflect the first three letters of the city's name. Providence has a WPRO and Portland, Maine, a WPOR, but their airports do not share the abbreviations.
If that FM were located in Mexico would the call be XLAX?
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