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Anybody Know About Call-Letter Origins?

V

valkyrie777

I know why the "W" stations start with a "W" and why "K" stations start that way, too. What I don't understand is why some stations defy logic and start with the letters diametrically-opposed to their locations either East or West of the Mississippi River.

KYW in Philadelphia and WFAA in Dallas come immediately to mind. (There are others.) Can anyone tell me...definitively...why these stations went against the norm with their first letters?

Thank you.
 
> I know why the "W" stations start with a "W" and why "K"
> stations start that way, too. What I don't understand is why
> some stations defy logic and start with the letters
> diametrically-opposed to their locations either East or West
> of the Mississippi River.
>
> KYW in Philadelphia and WFAA in Dallas come immediately to
> mind. (There are others.) Can anyone tell
> me...definitively...why these stations went against the norm
> with their first letters?
>
> Thank you.
>

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/general/kwtrivia.htm

Most detailed explanation you'll find.

The K/W dividing line was moved from the TX/NM border to the Mississippi River in 1923, which is the reason for WFAA (also WBAP, WNAX, WAOI, and others)

KYW was once a portable station licensed to Chicago, but it shouldn't have had K calls then either. The reasons are lost.

There are 21 AM stations with anomalous calls.
 
> There are 21 AM stations with anomalous calls.

There were stations licensed BEFORE the K/W rules went into effect.
Hence KDKA, etc...
 
> > There are 21 AM stations with anomalous calls.
>
> There were stations licensed BEFORE the K/W rules went into
> effect.
> Hence KDKA, etc...
>

The rules already existed, however for several months in 1920-21, they switched to assigning KDxx-KUxx maritime calls to all land stations.

KDPM in Cleveland (del. 1926) was apparently the only other station for which this caused an anomaly later.
 
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