Radio Call Letters Do They Mean Anything?

[calguy]

On a funnier note, I read somewhere that a station was given the call letters KUNT...True story

How about that station in Anaheim with the unfortunate longtime calls KLIT. Not surprisingly, they were a soft AC targeting... women!

I believe the station was in Los Angeles at 101.9 not Anaheim. It was when Gene Autry still owned it and they only used the call letters at the top of the hour, preferring to call the station Lite FM.

 

[FightingIrish]

On a funnier note, I read somewhere that a station was given the call letters KUNT...True story

How about that station in Anaheim with the unfortunate longtime calls KLIT. Not surprisingly, they were a soft AC targeting... women!

I believe the station was in Los Angeles at 101.9 not Anaheim. It was when Gene Autry still owned it and they only used the call letters at the top of the hour, preferring to call the station Lite FM.

It looks like we're both correct. The KLIT calls were at 101.9 for awhile, later picked up by 92.7 and ditched for KJLL earlier this year. They're now at a non-com in New Mexico.

http://www.fccinfo.com/CMDProFacLookup.php?calls=klit&tabSearchType=Historic+Call+Search

 

[rickradio]

In the vein of call letters that imply profanity/obscenity, I don't think many people know that KFAX's original call letters in 1925 were KFUQ, which, for obvious reasons, they got changed (wouldn't you?) after a month to KJBS for Julius Brunton & Sons, a battery shop in San Francisco.

 

[jonbruce]

Before 101.9 in L.A. had KLIT, 1220am in Pomona had those call letters in 1978 and 1979. The format was religion !! Owner Hal Gore had a sense of humor.

 

[michael hagerty]

Before 101.9 in L.A. had KLIT, 1220am in Pomona had those call letters in 1978 and 1979. The format was religion !! Owner Hal Gore had a sense of humor.

I had friends working at Golden West when 101.9 had the calls...I'd always say "Please tell Gene Autry that while KLIT spells something, it isn't K-Lite."

---Michael Hagerty

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I think they [NBC] did that because they wanted to use KNBC on their TV station in L.A.

As I said, this was already covered in great detail in another recent thread here.

I don't think KFRC was a sequentially-issued call.... My guess is it stands for "F<something> Radio Company".

The station was owned by Radioart Studio (James Threlkeld, Jr., and Tom Catton) when it first went on the air. They applied for a license and, when it was approved by the Radio Division of the Department of Commerce, the paperwork arrived back in San Francisco with KFRC listed as the call letters.

Want to try out another theory? And no, the Federal Radio Commission didn't even exist when KFRC went on the air.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

In the vein of call letters that imply profanity/obscenity, I don't think many people know that KFAX's original call letters in 1925 were KFUQ, which, for obvious reasons, they got changed (wouldn't you?) after a month to KJBS for Julius Brunton & Sons, a battery shop in San Francisco.

One of the great myths in radio is that the notorious racist/white supremacist William Riker, who founded the Holy City colony up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, requested KFQU for his station there back in 1924.

In fact, they too were issued randomly by the Radio Division. Part of the reason that the Bruntons changed their station's call letters to KJBS (aside from the obvious) is to avoid confusion with Riker's station.

DJ

 

[semoochie]

I always thought they stood for "san FRanCisco" or "san FRancisCo"!

 

[rickradio]

I think they [NBC] did that because they wanted to use KNBC on their TV station in L.A.


As I said, this was already covered in great detail in another recent thread here.

For those interested, here is the thread to which DJ is referring:

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,74386.0.html

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I always thought they stood for "san FRanCisco" or "san FRancisCo"!

Although the KFRC call letters were randomly assigned to the station, it's quite possible that someone in the Radio Division looked at the available list and said "Hey! Those fit!"

I sometimes have trouble* wrapping my brain around the knowledge that, back then, all of the Radio Division's records were kept manually in ledgers. Nowadays, all anybody has to do is go to the FCC website and punch in a few letters to see if a particular callsign is available.

In those days, someone at the Radio Division might go through the book and see that another station's license had been recently returned, so it was easier to simply reassign those digits to a new station rather than trying to find which letters were next in sequence for assignment.

A case in point: KGO's call letters had been assigned to another station, and were available when General Electric applied for the station. There is an old tale that GE had wanted KGEO as its call letters (for General Electric Oakland), but were declined and got KGO instead because only three-letter calls were being assigned. I'm not sure what the genesis of that story is.

* -- Made even more difficult as the result of my head having recently exploded.

 

[DavidKaye]

WLS -- World's Largest Store (Sears owned it)
WGN -- World's Greatest Newspaper (Chicago Tribune)

I'm not sure if these were given by the FCC or requested. KGO's callsign was requested by GE, the former owner, after the callsign was made available from a deletion of a station in Altadena.

By the way, KFRC was sequentially issued; it does not stand for "Frisco" or "Known For Radiating Cheer". It was issued within the same month as KFRB and KFRD.

KXOA
KXOB
KXOC -- All sister stations in Northern California (KXOA became KIID Radio Disney, KXOB became KJOY, KXOC became KPAY)

These were named after KXO in El Centro. An early owner was trying to create a network out of these stations.

Among the other original and early vanity callsigns in the Bay Area that were issued were:

KKHI (now KKCY) the HI point on the dial
KVSM (now KTCT) the Voice of San Mateo
KSMO (now KYCY) San Mateo
KOFY (now KTCT) along with KUFY (now KSAN) and KAFE (now KISQ) were all coffee-related promotional ideas
KDFC (still KDFC) named for the owners -- one of them was Ed Davis; I don't know the others
KIOI and KIQI represented FM and AM dial positions respectively
KTAB (original sign of KSFO) for Tenth Avenue Baptist church in Berkeley (or was it Oakland?)
KRON (FM is now KOIT, TV is still extant) for SF Chronicle, original owner
KOIT after Coit Tower

 

[BossRadioDJ]

By the way, KFRC was sequentially issued; it does not stand for "Frisco" or "Known For Radiating Cheer". It was issued within the same month as KFRB and KFRD.

Ha ha! Told you so! I was right and you were wrong! Neener neener neener!

Whoops. Sorry. Long night last night.

Welcome to the dark side, DK. Never thought I'd see you over here in the swamp, but it'll be great to see your thoughts about radio things in this forum. I have yet to see Apple-Fried Rabbit EarsTM discussed here...

Which is a good thing.

DJ

 

[mikecroaro]

Acording to www.radioonlione.com the KYA-FM calls are being used by a radio station in Greenville, Kentucky. The station is owned by Starlight Broadcasting and is at 105.5 FM. Format: Oldies.

Mike

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Acording to www.radioonlione.com the KYA-FM calls are being used by a radio station in Greenville, Kentucky. The station is owned by Starlight Broadcasting and is at 105.5 FM. Format: Oldies.

Mike

Mike,

Get your info from the FCC, not from radioonline.com. The station in Greenville, KY, is WKYA. They may call themselves "KYA-FM," but that's not what their license says.

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=wkya

DJ