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LA Times Article On Call Letters

KGBS and WGBS those call letters have been in multiple cities in its history

KGBS - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

KGBS has been in Dallas, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and currently in use in Austin for a low power TV station.


WGBS - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Likewise WGBS has been in multiple cities in its history like New York, Philadelphia, Miami, and now Hampton, VA for a low power TV station.



KECA used to be in Los Angeles and originally meant Earl C Anthony but is currently used in Eureka, California for a CW affiliate managed by Sinclair.

en.m.wikipedia.org

KECA-LD - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
Given how many sets of call letters have been used over the years in Los Angeles (see below), we could easily fill page after page with "where those calls are now".

Please don't. It really doesn't matter.

History of FM Call Letters in Los Angeles

www.kmrichards.com www.kmrichards.com
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Doesn't matter to you, it may to others.
Click to expand...

But if a set of calls is now in another state, a case could be made that posting same is off-topic for this thread.

ChannelFlipper said:
Your opinion is not any better than theirs, just more highly self-regarded.
Click to expand...

Your opinion on that matters only to you. I get a lot of "likes" these days.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Doesn't matter to you, it may to others.
Click to expand...
Yet he went through the efforts to make a comprehensive list of those call letters. In other words, the wheel does not need to be reinvented.
 
Using the 1948 list does not take into account stations that came later and still have their original calls. KPFK, for example ...
 
Mia culpa. I did not know about KPFK. It appears they went on-air one year after the most recent station list on that site.

Wikipedia says KCRW went on-air in 1947, and KUSC on October 24, 1946. Unless your information says otherwise, that would appear to make KUSC's the oldest still active callsign in the Los Angeles region.
 
Not that it really matters how long a station has kept call letters, but here's something you need to keep in mind before celebrating:

From 1936 to 1946, FM used the 42-50 MHz band and the call signs were assigned by the FCC, consisting of K or W, a two digit number corresponding to the frequency (for example, K45LA operated at 44.5) and a one or two letter suffix corresponding to the geographic area. It wasn't until the move to the current band that the FCC decided on use of real call letters.

However, non-commercial educational stations had never been authorized on the old band, so every new station on 88-92 had a four-letter call. Therefore, as long as your example consists of non-comms, there has to be an asterisk next to it.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Not that it really matters how long a station has kept call letters, but here's something you need to keep in mind before celebrating:

From 1936 to 1946, FM used the 42-50 MHz band...
Click to expand...
IIRC, the Apex frequencies from 25 to 50 MHz started to be used in 1937, first with AM and later with FM. The 42-50 MHz band was first authorized for commercial use on 1/1/1941, with those "odd" call letters like W71NY being assigned, although there were still experimental stations in the band into 1942.

1940 list from Broadcasting Yearbook, showing both AM and FM stations (all experimental): U. S. High Frequency Broadcast Stations as of Jan. 15, 1940
K.M. Richards said:
...and the call signs were assigned by the FCC, consisting of K or W, a two digit number corresponding to the frequency (for example, K45LA operated at 44.5) and a one or two letter suffix corresponding to the geographic area. It wasn't until the move to the current band that the FCC decided on use of real call letters.
Click to expand...
Per the New York Times, the callsign changes happened on 11/1/1943, while the 42-50 MHz band was still in use. This page also includes another NYT article announcing the move to what was briefly 88-106 MHz: FM Broadcasting History - Various Articles
K.M. Richards said:
However, non-commercial educational stations had never been authorized on the old band, so every new station on 88-92 had a four-letter call. Therefore, as long as your example consists of non-comms, there has to be an asterisk next to it.
Click to expand...
The old band had five channels assigned to noncommercial use: 42.1, 42.3, 42.5, 42.7, and 42.9 MHz. Check the 5th article down on this page: FM Broadcasting History - Various Articles
 
KeithE4 said:
The old band had five channels assigned to noncommercial use: 42.1, 42.3, 42.5, 42.7, and 42.9 MHz.
Click to expand...

Did anyone use them, and did they also have the frequency-based calls? I don't remember off hand, and this has gone too far down a siding for me to be motivated to research further.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Did anyone use them, and did they also have the frequency-based calls? I don't remember off hand, and this has gone too far down a siding for me to be motivated to research further.
Click to expand...
Per the 1943 Broadcasting Yearbook, commercial stations used the frequency-based calls, while educational stations used "normal" calls. What the reasoning for that was, I have no idea.

There were 7 educational stations in the 42-43 MHz segment authorized by the time the 1943 YB was published, although not all were on the air yet. One of them, WBKY/42.9 Beattyville KY, was AM rather than FM.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Here's a few more not covered in Patt's column. It would probably take multiple columns for her to list everything, actually:

Television:
  • Channel 4 was originally KNBH ("NBC Hollywood", when it was at Sunset & Vine), then KRCA when it moved to Burbank. Those last calls now belong to channel 62 in "Riverside California" (its COL).
  • Channel 2 started off as an experimental authorization, but its first actual call letters were KTSL, for original owner Thomas S. Lee.
  • Similarly, the KCET calls on channel 28 stood for original licensee Community Educational Television of Southern California.
  • Channel 40 is KTBN, for Trinity Broadcasting Network. (Its original calls of KLXA was a tribute to KXLA/1110 radio, where original owner Angel Lerma Maler had started his career)
  • Channel 18's KSCI calls originally stood for "Science of Creative Intelligence", a nod to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose religious organization put it on the air in the late 1970s.
  • KMEX on channel 34 is ... well, obvious.
  • Channel 52 is a double header; its original calls were KBSC, for Kaiser Broadcasting System Corona (or California ... no one has ever said for certain which), and its calls since the mid-1980s have been KVEA ("vea" translates to "see").
  • The L.A. City School District operates channel 58 as KLCS.
Radio:
  • KIIS was originally supposed to stand for "K-115" until Chuck Blore noticed the similarity to the word "kiss". On the FM side, 102.7 had been KKDJ as a top-40 station, changing from KRHM in 1971 (those calls stood for Ruth & Harry Maizlish, who founded it when it was on 94.7).
  • Similarly, when 100.3 was KIQQ, that was Bill Drake and "K-100".
  • When KFAC was Classical, it originally belonged to Fuller/Auburn/Duesenberg auto dealer E.L. Cord.
  • Of course, KGBS was owner George B. Storer. We all know why the AM became KTNQ a few years before he sold it, and we also know that the FM later became KLSX as the first Classic Rock station in the market (it was KHTZ "K-Hits" and KBZT "K-Best" in the interim).
  • We all know why KROQ has its call letters, but they were changed from KPPC, Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
  • Few people now alive ever understood why 710 had the call letters KMPC under Gene Autry ... those derived from the company he purchased it from, the MacMillan Petroleum Company.
  • And KJLH was named after the man Stevie Wonder purchased it from, John Lamar Hill. (Yes, 102.3 has had only two owners in its entire existence ... not a bad achievement for a Class A FM.)
I left out a lot of obvious ones, such as KOST, KLOS, KPWR, KTWV, and KUSC.
Click to expand...
Interesting stuff...Way back when, I worked at Ch 52 and we always assumed that KBSC simply stood for Kaiser Broadcasting Southern California. When the station was first established, the calls were KMTW, for Mt Wilson, as for a short time the entire operation was on the mountain!
 
TomásEstefan said:
Interesting stuff...Way back when, I worked at Ch 52 and we always assumed that KBSC simply stood for Kaiser Broadcasting Southern California. When the station was first established, the calls were KMTW, for Mt Wilson, as for a short time the entire operation was on the mountain!
Click to expand...

It might have stood for that, too. After 50+ years, I'm afraid the actual answer is lost to history.

And when 52 started operation with the KMTW call letters, the programming was almost entirely promotional travelogues, obtained free of charge, and aired in black-and-white on a minimal 5:00pm to 9:00pm schedule. The reason was that Kaiser had in hand the franchise for Zenith's Phonevision pay-television system in the L.A. market, but the FCC had put any such "supplemental" operation on hold after WHCT in Hartford threw in the towel at the end of January 1969 (Kaiser changed the calls to KBSC a year later, added color, and went to its now famous schedule heavy on Japanese animation, Three Stooges and Little Rascals shorts, and Doctor Who).

It was because they had the authorization in hand when they applied, and the FCC had licensed them in a way that automatically authorized subscription television if and when the Commission gave the go-ahead that KBSC was not included when Kaiser Broadcasting merged with Field; they instead held out until Oak bought them (and installed ON TV) in 1977 ... and even then it almost didn't happen, as KWHY filed a protest because Zenith had itself tried to buy 22 a few years earlier and even though that didn't happen (Coast even sued Zenith over backing out) they were already in negotations to lease their prime-time and weekend hours to the company that eventually launched DirecTV a year or so later.

And of course, as you and I both remember, in 1984 the two STV services merged, 52 was sold to Telemundo, and 22 limped along for about another five years. gradually losing subscribers to cable until it was no longer profitable.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Did anyone use them [42.1 through 42.9 MHz], and did they also have the frequency-based calls? I don't remember off hand, and this has gone too far down a siding for me to be motivated to research further.
Click to expand...
From the KALW San Francisco website:

"1941:
The First FM Station
West of the Mississippi

"After demonstrating its experimental “frequency modulation” radio technology at the 1939-40 San Francisco International Exposition on Treasure Island, RCA sold its equipment and transmitter to the San Francisco public schools [today the San Francisco Unified School District, still KALW's licensee]. In March of 1941, the FCC licensed KALW to go on the air as the first FM station west of the Mississippi. On September 1, regular broadcasts begin from studios at Gompers High School."

So it seems the answer, in at least this case, is yes.
 
K.M. Richards said:
It might have stood for that, too. After 50+ years, I'm afraid the actual answer is lost to history.

And when 52 started operation with the KMTW call letters, the programming was almost entirely promotional travelogues, obtained free of charge, and aired in black-and-white on a minimal 5:00pm to 9:00pm schedule. The reason was that Kaiser had in hand the franchise for Zenith's Phonevision pay-television system in the L.A. market, but the FCC had put any such "supplemental" operation on hold after WHCT in Hartford threw in the towel at the end of January 1969 (Kaiser changed the calls to KBSC a year later, added color, and went to its now famous schedule heavy on Japanese animation, Three Stooges and Little Rascals shorts, and Doctor Who).

It was because they had the authorization in hand when they applied, and the FCC had licensed them in a way that automatically authorized subscription television if and when the Commission gave the go-ahead that KBSC was not included when Kaiser Broadcasting merged with Field; they instead held out until Oak bought them (and installed ON TV) in 1977 ... and even then it almost didn't happen, as KWHY filed a protest because Zenith had itself tried to buy 22 a few years earlier and even though that didn't happen (Coast even sued Zenith over backing out) they were already in negotations to lease their prime-time and weekend hours to the company that eventually launched DirecTV a year or so later.

And of course, as you and I both remember, in 1984 the two STV services merged, 52 was sold to Telemundo, and 22 limped along for about another five years. gradually losing subscribers to cable until it was no longer profitable.
Click to expand...
Having worked for the folks, most of us felt that for various reasons Oak Industries really didn't understand "television". They were an electronics design and hardware manufacturer that new absolutely nothing about broadcasting.

Speaking of early KMTW/KBSC I faithfully watched the Three Stooges almost every afternoon after I got home from school. It was something I looked forward to every day. My dad bought UHF converters for our televisions so we could watch KCET, but I had other ideas.
 
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