Radio Call Letter meanings

[lfcsuuite100]

I thought some might find this web site intersting:

http://www.smecc.org/call_sign_letter__meaning.htm

 

[yonkstur]

Here are a few local ones:
WGBI (God Bless the Irish)
WBAX (We burn anthracite Exclusively).
WRKC FM (Radio King's College)
WILK (Wilkes Barre)
WBRE (ditto)
WNAK (nanticoke)
WSGD (solid gold)
WWDL (Doug Lane)
WSCR (Scranton)
WEJL (Edward J. Lynett)
WPTS (Pittston)
WARD (Jim Ward)
WCDL (Carbondale)
and last but not least

WARM Since Citadel bought them, (We Are Really Morons).
Yonkstur

 

[ThomasCarten]

New promotion for 730 AM:
Get WNAK'ed at home, in the office and when relaxing in the park.

For the old 93 FM, before Magic took it over:
Are you tense? Take a WYZZ break at work or when stuck in traffic.

WWDL ... for that nice feeling all over.

 

[NigelWick]

WBRE is actually named for the first owner, the Baltimore family.

 

[notalkallstatic]

WBRE is actually named for the first owner, the Baltimore family.

According to Wikipedia.com..."WBRE Call Letter Meaning...Baltimore Radio & Engineering (Original owners, call sign was kept when WBRE was sold and it unofficially means Wilkes-Barre)"

Also according to Wikipedia.com..."WYOU Call Letter Meaning...Why? Because You're YOU. Working for YOU"

Also according to Wikipedia.com..."WNEP Call Letter Meaning...W North East Pennsylvania"

I was thinking WNEP meant..."We're North Eastern Pennsylvania."

 

[midazey]

WNAK actually stands for Nanticoke - Ashley - Kingston

 

[lfcsuuite100]

My ex-fiance used to work and WWDL and, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the full meaning of WWDL:


Wonderful World of Doug Lane??

I used to work part time at WARD and they used to say the same thing there.

 

[Tiger1983]

Got one...

WLNP-Lite Northeastern Pennsylvania(or Lite Northeast PA)
WSJR-Wilkes-Barre's Scranton's JR(During the station's stunt
when 93.7X moved to 97.9, it was jokingly meant Who Shot JR?

 

[ThomasCarten]

.

WNAK actually stands for Nanticoke - Ashley - Kingston

And that's with their daytime power. Nights, the Lower Cross Valley / Route 11 junction.

 

[NigelWick]

When 104.9 was going on the air, Lane wanted WDVL, which are his initials. The calls belonged to a station in NJ at the time. WWDL was his second choice.

 

[ThomasCarten]

Quite some time ago, he was featured in a full-page ad for, I think, an automation company. He was in the photo, along with some woman who was seated at what could have been an automation input console. I don't think she was a secretary, as the ad was only about the system.

 

[NigelWick]

Doug was always so proud of that system.

 

[Rockin Rob]

When 104.9 was going on the air, Lane wanted WDVL, which are his initials. The calls belonged to a station in NJ at the time. WWDL was his second choice.

And that station is now WVLT "Cruisin' 92.1" and the calls at one time stood for "We're Vineland's LiTe" (at one time they ran a Lite AC format).

 

[Riley_dfwm]

That magazine ad was circa 1979, the young woman depicted was Carol Beezup, receptionist/traffic manager. It was a testimonial for the Shafer 7000 system. Edit, Spacebar, Query.

 

[ThomasCarten]

This thread has made Beale's Bites, fwiw. Stand by for massive counts.

 

[masterg]

Some WARM people dating back to the 50s/60s swear the calls stood for Anthracite Regional Mining. Always found that a bit tough to swallow. WARM is a great set of calls, the only shocker is that no one grabbed them in the 40s or early 50s. WeBurnAnthraciteXclusively(WBAX) also sounds fishy. The problem is, in many cases the origins of some calls might be lost forever. WDAU was named such because it's owners at one time were the same owners of WCAU in Philly. Originally, WDAU was WGBI-TV.

 

[ThomasCarten]

When I was reading about early radio, it appeared that stations back then tended to have "A" as the third letter in their calls. That being the case, owners would make the call sign mean something. I think you might still submit three choices with the FCC going down the list, giving you the first available; from there, you make the phrase.

It's like a ham radio call. "What the heck to I do with K1PZU??" Purple Zippered Underwear? Maybe that's why I stayed on cw.

 

[masterg]

When I was reading about early radio, it appeared that stations back then tended to have "A" as the third letter in their calls. That being the case, owners would make the call sign mean something. I think you might still submit three choices with the FCC going down the list, giving you the first available; from there, you make the phrase.

I'd bet you have it 100%, Tom. A lot of calls were completely arbitrary, and any meaning was created and applied after the fact.

 

[lfcsuuite100]

Here is another intersting web page about local radio, doesn't really get into meanings but has some info that I'd bet many of you already know.


http://www.geocities.com/strippens/radio_answers.html

 

[travist102]

lfcsuuite, when did ur ex work there?

For those of us who were there weekdays, WWDL could have meant When Will Doug Leave the FM control room, since he took so long to track his show...