• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Call Letters Pronounced Like a Word (but not a word)

S

Stanislav

Thinking about stations whose calls do not spell an actual English word, but are frequently spoken as a pseudo-word as part of on-air branding/sloganeering.

An example from my home market is WESH Daytona Beach-Orlando, which has done this for as long as I can remember. ("Wesh" is, obviously, not an actual word.)

I can also think of a non-English example, though still in the U.S. (territories). WAPA San Juan has done this for much of its history. There is no word "wapa" in Spanish; indeed, "W" is not used in any native Spanish words at all, only in loan words borrowed from other languages. However, the word "guapa" (meaning "good-looking") does sound very similar, especially when spoken rapidly. Unknown whether this is just a coincidence, or was consciously intended as a subtle pun-ny characterization. (I.e., to identify verbally as "wapa televisión" is to imply that they are "good-looking television.") ;)

Other examples?
 
Assuming we can use some radio calls here as well.... WOWO in Ft Wayne, IN would have to be one of the better known ones - often pronounced as "whoa-whoa." I can recall when KWAM in West Memphis, AR played country music back in the 60's and it was often called K-"Wham" by the DJ's.
 
The board is Classic TV....if we included radio stations, it would sure be a long list!

I'll throw one in....similar to "Wapa," WLTV 23 was known as WAJA-TV 1967-71. They had a Spanish block in the evenings, and the announcer would proudly announce the WAJA call letters in Spanish, and then say "Wah-hah! Canal Veintitres...."

I think I recall the English announcers occasionally calling it "wah-juh" on the air, but it was never really adopted.

cd
 
KOMO 4 Seattle (although for many years it was pronounced Kay OH Em OH). KONG 16 Seattle (Sister station to KING 5) KIRO 7 Seattle (although for many years it was pronounced Kay Eye Arr OH). ;D
 
Houston's KTRK rather famously had the kiddie TV host "Kitirik" ("kittie-rik"), a slinky young woman dressed up in a catsuit. I don't think the station was ever known by that name otherwise, though.

KRON in San Francisco is often pronounced "Chron," which is only fitting considering the calls came from the original owner, the San Francisco CHRON-icle.

Hasn't KATU in Portland, Oregon gone by "Kay-Two" in the past?

KREM in Spokane definitely pronounces the calls as a word. So, I believe, does KOLO in Reno.
 
Scott Fybush said:
KRON in San Francisco is often pronounced "Chron," which is only fitting considering the calls came from the original owner, the San Francisco CHRON-icle.
Click to expand...

I thought I heard someone also calling the station as "K-Ron".

Also to include: KOLR ch.10 in Springfield, MO, which was known for many years as "Color 10", even into the digital age. The station adopted the calls in 1970 after the station began showing local programs in color.
 
azumanga said:
Scott Fybush said:
KRON in San Francisco is often pronounced "Chron," which is only fitting considering the calls came from the original owner, the San Francisco CHRON-icle.
Click to expand...

I thought I heard someone also calling the station as "K-Ron".

Also to include: KOLR ch.10 in Springfield, MO, which was known for many years as "Color 10", even into the digital age. The station adopted the calls in 1970 after the station began showing local programs in color.
Click to expand...

As Well As KULR 8 In Billings, MT
 
WAGA was pronounced "Wagga" for years; it even had a Scotch
terrier named Waga as its mascot. WQXI, Atlanta's big top-40
radio station in the '60s and '70s (now sportstalk) and the call
letters of Ch. 11 before it became WXIA, was known as "Quixie
in Dixie."
 
I wonder if during promos, that WISH-TV says Wish-TV in Indianapolis.

I didn't see this one, but I remember during an original network broadcast of Punky Brewster, that one of the pictures shown from a viewer was from KING-TV in Seattle, & Soleil Moon Frye said King-TV. I'm sure they (KING-TV) say the same thing during their promos.
 
Dave said:
I wonder if during promos, that WISH-TV says Wish-TV in Indianapolis.

I didn't see this one, but I remember during an original network broadcast of Punky Brewster, that one of the pictures shown from a viewer was from KING-TV in Seattle, & Soleil Moon Frye said King-TV. I'm sure they (KING-TV) say the same thing during their promos.
Click to expand...

"Wish" and "King" (and "Koin" and "Kare") are actual words, though.
 
I can't think of any examples here in Connecticut. Up north, you have WNNE-TV (NBC) channel 31 of White River Junction, VT, which is in the Burlington (VT)/Plattsburgh (NY) DMA. I've never heard them say "Winnie" or anything like that. In fact, the N-N-E part of the letters simply meant "Northern New England." Also, WBIN-TV (IND) channel 50 of Derry, NH was once WNDS-TV. I seem to remember them once saying "The Winds Of New England" or something like it.
 
WANE-TV in Fort Wayne (self-explanatory). Also, there's a station in Wichita, Kansas (I think) called KAKE...Has it ever been referred to as "Cake"?
 
Has KOTA 3 been mentioned yet? Also, was KARD 14 in El Dorado, AR area ever pronounced as "Kard"-like Card?

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
Has KOTA 3 been mentioned yet? Also, was KARD 14 in El Dorado, AR area ever pronounced as "Kard"-like Card?

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

I don't know, but "KARD" was once the home of ch 3 in Wichita. There is a video online of a rare 1950s color videotape NBC special opening, beginning with the KARD-TV ID (as K-A-R-D), with some "face cards" (like in a deck of cards) on screen.

cd
 
KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, did often refer to itself as "K-Four" after it adopted the callsign in 1990, though it has fallen out of use within the last five years. I'm surprised though, that its rival KOCO never chose to prounounce its calls since it sounds like "cocoa". There's also KEYE ("K-Eye") in Austin. Three radio examples also come from OKC, with KATT-FM having long called itself the "Katt", KYIS-FM referring to itself as "KISS FM" and KOMA (both the present-day FM and former AM stations) pronouncing its calls as "Coma". Yes, these three pronounce real words, but the callsigns obviously aren't correct spellings of them.
 
WJET/24 in Erie, PA has been calling itself "Jet TV" or "Jet ABC24" over the past 10-15 years. Another station in Erie, WSEE/35, has a word in its call letters but I've never heard the station referred to that way.
 
They did on the C-Band broadcast. I think they called it "SEE CBS."

M.J. said:
Another station in Erie, WSEE/35, has a word in its call letters but I've never heard the station referred to that way.
Click to expand...

-crainbebo
 
AlbumOldies said:
Assuming we can use some radio calls here as well....  I can recall when KWAM in West Memphis, AR played country music back in the 60's and it was often called K-"Wham" by the DJ's.   
Click to expand...

KWAM is a news/talk station now, but they still refer to themselves as K-Wham.

WDXI in Jackson, TN still calls themselves Dixie 1310.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom