WFAA's Call Letters

[fortmill]

The last new 3-letter call was issued to WIS (now WVOC) in Columbia, South Carolina in 1930. Since then, a literal handful (OK, maybe two handfuls) of 3-letter calls have been reissued to stations which once held them, or to stations with some kind of relationship to a station which once held them.

[/quote]

The WIS calls live on in Columbia. When Cosmos Broadcasting sold WIS (AM) they retained sister station WIS-TV/10. They retained the WIS calls on channel 10 and for good measure dropped the "TV" suffix, making WIS/10 the only three letter call used for a TV without the TV suffix. WIS remains the only three letter call in SC.

 

[bpatrick]

There are still quite a few radio stations with
three-letter calls (WBT Charlotte and WSM Nashville
come to mind) whose related (or formerly related) television
station has four letters, either because it sounds better
(like WBTV) or the TV station was sold (WSMV).

Offhand I can think of only a few television stations
left with three-letter calls:

KGO San Francisco
WRC Washington, DC
WSB Atlanta
WLS and WGN Chicago
WHO and WOI Des Moines
WWL New Orleans
WJZ Baltimore
WBZ Boston
WWJ Detroit (and believe me, there's no
resemblance to the original WWJ, now
WDIV)
KOB Albuquerque
WJW Cleveland (was WJKW until it got
its original call letters back)
KGW Portland, OR
WHP Harrisburg, PA
WIS Columbia, SC
WMC Memphis
KSL Salt Lake City
KHQ Spokane, WA
WHA Madison, WI

There are a few (mostly) low-power stations
that use the three-letter calls:

KDF Corpus Christi, TX
and I think there are a couple of others, one
in Austin and one in Fairbanks.

A few that no longer use three-letter calls:

KHJ (KCAL) Los Angeles
KOA (KCNC) Denver
KLZ (KMGH) Denver
KID (KIDK) Idaho Falls/Pocatello, ID
KSD (KSDK) St. Louis
WOW (WOWT) Omaha (somebody correct
me on this)
WJZ (WABC) New York
WOR (WWOR) New York (Secaucus, NJ)
WGR (WGRZ) Buffalo
WKY (KFOR) Oklahoma City
WSM (WSMV) Nashville

 

[newsmark]

There are a few (mostly) low-power stations
that use the three-letter calls:
KDF Corpus Christi, TX

Those LP stations are using 3 letters, but those aren't their legal calls. KDF, for example, is short for K47DF.

 

[CW]

There are a few (mostly) low-power stations
that use the three-letter calls:
KDF Corpus Christi, TX

Those LP stations are using 3 letters, but those aren't their legal calls. KDF, for example, is short for K47DF.

True, LPTV are either formatted as above (K47DF with the numbers being their channel) OR kxyz-LP with the kxyz following full service formatting but MUST include the -LP (which FOX64 in Beaumont does NOT in their IDs, nor does their digital which is K36ID-LD iirc).

 

[KERCAlum]

WFAA-TV actually began service as KBTV-Channel 8 before being purchased by A.H. Belo in late 1949. The FCC allowed the television calls to reflect the existing radio calls. Belo sold their radio interests in the mid-80s. Clear Channel's swap for then-KMOL-San Antonio after the Chris-Craft sale to Fox in the late-90s led to them recristening the station as WAOI, reflecting the heritage AM calls.

Interesting tidbit of information (assuming it's true): When I worked at KTXS-TV in Abilene, the chief engineer (who had been there since the tower was grown from a seedling) told me that Belo had been after them for years to try and buy the call letters for WFAA-TV. That was when the station was big into its "Spirit of Texas" campaign. Admit it - KTXS-TV, The Spirit of Texas, has a really nice ring to it. But they only offered $1 million for the letters, and KTXS held out for more money.

Personally, WFAA has as much history as KTXS (better history, given the fact KTXS had an anchor fall off his stool drunk during a newscast one night), and they'd be stupid to give up those calls now. Makes me wish KXAS-TV would switch back to WBAP.

 

[JayDavis]

Years and years ago, on KLBK TV Channel 13 in Lubbock, there was a weathercaster, named Kay Stella. She was reportedly the
"mistress" of then or former Governor Preston Smith, from Lubbock. One night, seems she was a little tipsy and had gas if you
catch my drip. A few "bombs" went out over the air and she dropped the hand-held mike a few times as well.

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

The WIS calls live on in Columbia. When Cosmos Broadcasting sold WIS (AM) they retained sister station WIS-TV/10. They retained the WIS calls on channel 10 and for good measure dropped the "TV" suffix, making WIS/10 the only three letter call used for a TV without the TV suffix. WIS remains the only three letter call in SC.

There are three such stations...KGW in Portland, Oregon, and WJW in Cleveland are the other two who dropped the -TV suffix affixed to their three-letter call signs. Personally, I think a three-letter call without the suffix doesn't look right.

 

[adafamily]

I believe the station you are referring to is WACO-FM, which is also one of only two stations in the United States where the call letters spell out the name of the city of license (the other station is WARE-AM in Ware, Massachusetts).

KADA- am and fm are named for Ada, Oklahoma.