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Do call letters still have meaning?

RadioPatrol said:
Yes KIIS Los Angeles was named after their former frequency 1150 AM. It's a station where the dial is referenced in the call letters. On the TV side KXTV Sacramento the X stands for 10 and WPVI Philadelphia the VI stands for channel 6.


KIII-TV stands for Channel 3 in Texas.
WDIV stands for Channel 4 Detroit.
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For Sacramento KTXL also stands for Television 40 when founding owners ran TV 40 as an independent station prior to Reinasannce, Tribune and Now Nexstar running KTXL as a Fox Affiliate in the Valley.

KRBK Sacramento under previous management originally stood for Robert Koplar it's former owner. Note KRBK also went to Springfield, Missouri for a Nexstar owned Fox affiliate.

en.wikipedia.org

KRBK - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I doubt most people except people who lived in the Sacramento area in the 1980's understand what KRBK was.

KQCA Sacramento yes "Q" under Kelly Broadcastings ownership originally included Q to mean Quality television California which itself was a reference to Kelly Broadcastings Seattle outlet KCPQ 13 now known as Fox 13 Seattle as Quality in the branding of the call letters.
 
RadioPatrol said:
KRBK Sacramento under previous management originally stood for Robert Koplar it's former owner. Note KRBK also went to Springfield, Missouri for a Nexstar owned Fox affiliate.

en.wikipedia.org

KRBK - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I doubt most people except people who lived in the Sacramento area in the 1980's understand what KRBK was.
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As mentioned in the Wikipedia article that you linked, KRBK-TV in Springfield, MO was also owned by Koplar Communications, the former owners of KRBK Sacramento, CA (Now KMAX-TV.), from 2009-18.
 
Last edited:
KABL- Oakland/San Francisco stood for Cable Cars
KMEX-TV Los Angeles stands for Mexico
KNSD- San Diego (NBC San Diego)
KNTV- Random assignment
KNBR- San Francisco NBC Radio
KFOG-San Francisco
KBAY San Jose (San Francisco Bay)
 
A friend did an extensive study at Kent State University and uncovered that unless the call letters spelled something the listener was far more likely to remember the frequency many times over compared to the calls.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Winston-Salem NC has two TV stations which use their analog/virtual channel number. WXII is Channel 12, and WXLV is Channel 45. Neither call letters are the originals.

In the same market, WLXI was on Channel 61 but for some odd reason its virtual channel is 43, which was its digital channel.
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Except for trying to figure out the Superbowl designation, does anyone really identify and understand Roman numerals any more?
 
Radio Bob said:
A friend did an extensive study at Kent State University and uncovered that unless the call letters spelled something the listener was far more likely to remember the frequency many times over compared to the calls.
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Likewise, Arbitron used to compile diary mentions by type.

Many diary entries were for slogans such a Z-100 or Easy 105. Quite a few had morning show or talk show names, such as "Rush" or "Rick Dees" or "Scott Shannon". Of course, there were some of "Howard Stern KLSX" or "Howard Stern on Rock 102".

Very few had call letters, around 8%. And those were mostly for stations that had no name other than the calls... WGN, WSB, KFI. And those were mostly traditional AM stations. Practically no station that had a name got diary entries that were for the calls or included the calls.

Over 80% had the dial position or the dial position and a name; mostly dial position though.

Today, there is an issue with dial position because so many listeners are not "tuning in" on a radio but seeking by name on some kind of a streaming device. Stations that did fine as "FM 100" in their local market will find that such a name is not a help in calling up a stream as there may be a whole bunch of stations with that name.

I was told by the long-time diary experts at Arbitron that as digital radio dials grew in popularity, call letter mentions declined and dial position ones increased. But that was a slow process that took about two decades to evolve.

Is your friend's study available? (I'd even love to have it for the ratings section of www.worldradiohistory.com!)
 
DavidEduardo said:
Except for trying to figure out the Superbowl designation, does anyone really identify and understand Roman numerals any more?
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In that case, I must be a geek. Speaking of super bowls, Denver's three wins are in the years MCMXCVII, MCMXCVIII, MMXV, and hopefully MMXXI (3-0 ;))
 
KVIE Sacramento PBS (VI stands for Six)

KIXE Redding PBS stand (IX stands for Nine)

KPBS San Diego (Public Broadcasting San Diego) and not owned by PBS itself. In reality KPBS Productions is owned by San Diego State University.

KFOX- TV El Paso, TX (Fox Affiliate owned by Sinclair)

WFOX-TV Jacksonville, FL (Fox Affiliate owned by Cox Media)
 
thebek said:
They're actually states, not provinces, plus a couple of territories in Australia. Yes, 8 is for the Northern Territory.
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IIRC, Australian broadcast callsigns are structured similar to ham callsigns, but with a VL prefix printed on the license that isn't used in branding or on-air. Keeps the ITU happy, but there is little other reason for it.
 
CTListener said:
Likewise, Connecticut Public Broadcasting slapped the impressive WNPR call on its flagship FM station (90.5 Meriden/Hartford) when NPR itself is not the owner.
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knpr.org

About Nevada Public Radio

Nevada Public Radio is NPR in Las Vegas and includes News 88.9 KNPR, Classical 89.7 KCNV, and Desert Companion magazine.
knpr.org knpr.org

Likewise Nevada Public Radio the owners of KNPR Las Vegas use the call letters KNPR to mean it's owner (Nevada Public Radio) and its affiliation (National Public Radio) which turns out to be two different entities at the same time. Yes NPR itself does not own KNPR.
 
CTListener said:
I still have a few dozen, broadcast and ham, that I've saved since the late '60s/early '70s. Recognize these?
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Some shortwave QSLs? Looks awesome! I have received WWVH before, below and above WWV's strong-ish signal here.
 
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