With TV and radio stations, the FCC assigns them an official identity via 4 letter call letters (a notable exception is New York channel 9 WOR-TV)
Stations east Of the Missisippi river start with a W,
West of the river start with a K
Who made up these rules, and who decides what letters are assigned to a particular station?
http://www.ipass.net/~whitetho/recap.htm
http://www.ipass.net/~whitetho/kwtrivia.htm
I don’t mean to be brusque, but you kinda start a lot of threads that can easily be answered by doing either a search of the archives or a Google search.
The only source of data I value comes from the Teeming Millions.
pldennison is not a teeming million?
It’s interesting to note what the call letters stand for. For example, WGN in Chgo: World’s Greatest Newspaper (it’s owned by the Tribune.} Also in Chgo, WLS: World’s Labor Station. I think it was WMBD in Peoria: World’s Most Beautiful Boulevard ( A US president described it like that. I think it was FDR.) Practically, WAG, that every station’s call letters stand for something. Sometimes, it’s just something mundane, like the city or state.
These boards have been over it, too, if you only want to use the search button on this site (a silly decision, but):
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=7689
And Cecil did an article on it, too.
Speaking of WAG’s concerning meanings of call letters, who has WAG?
Very basic answer:
radio/tv station applies for any call letters they want (within the K and W standards depending on their location), FCC either approves or denies request for said letters.
As a guy who’s worked off and on in radio since 1966, I have a huge interest in call letters. For many years I collected business cards, letterhead, playlists, bumper and window stickers, pens, pennants, keychains, etc. with station logos on them.
One of the periodicals devoted to the radio business used to publish an annual directory of radio stations in North America and I noticed that there were three stations in ST. John’s, Newfoundland that had a “V” prefix instead of the “C” found in the rest of Canada. So I got the nerve to write them and they patiently wrote back and explained to this Canadian-history-impaired yankee that up until the late 1940s, Newfoundland was a separate dominion with its own coinage and everything. Those three stations simply dated from that time, and were very proud of their unique status.
There are some anomalies in the “W”-for-east-of-the-Mississippi and “K”-for-west-of-the-Mississipi scheme, notably KDKA in Pittsburgh, but they were in place before the international prefix-assigning treaties and agreements were in place.
I have always classified existing call letters in various categories:
** Geographic **, referring to the city or state. Many stations strive for this as a further means of identifying with the locality. Here in Oregon, we have a number of stations that identify with a town: KTIL in Tillamook, KRSB in Roseburg, KIHR in Hood River, etc. and ones like KGON in Portland that pick up on the last half of the state’s name. The city of Eugene, Oregon even has a KUGN * and * a KEUG, which the FCC ruled were different enough not to confuse listeners. Others refer to regional nicknames like KKRZ in Portland, playing off the “Rose City.” or KROG in Grants Pass, referring to the Rogue River. Two of the most perfect in this category are WACO in Waco, Texas and KODY in CODY, Wyoming. KING in Seattle, which is in King County, also is a good fit.
** Words or word-equivalents ** Lots of fun in this
one with WIND in Chicago, which also manages to refer to a local phenomenon, as does KOIL in Oklahoma City. KYTE in Newport, Oregon also plays with the wind image. Spellings are often tortured so that the call letters can be pronounced as a word. KFXX is “Fox” in Portland, except for the legal IDs on the hour when they have to spell out the
call letters exactly. KZZU in Spokane is (or used to be) a “Morning Zoo” station, etc.
Acronyms These were popular in the early days to fit with a slogan of some sort. WIOD in Miami stood for the “Wonderful Isle of Dreams”, a Chamber of Commerce phrase if there ever was one. KOIN in Portland Oregon would be thought a category 2 unless you knew that it originally stood for “Oregon’s Independent Newspaper” when it was put on the air by the Oregon Journal in the late 1930s. The station founded by Dr “Goat Gland” Brinkley in the 1930s was KFKB for “Kansas First, Kansas Best” Others in this category are things like KPLU in Tacoma, Washington for “Pacific Lutheran University.”
** Nothing ** No specific meaning, but sound “good” or “sexy” etc when you say them. Keep in mind that over the 80+ years of radio stations being constructed in the US, there have been all sorts of people choosing the call letters they would apply for. In later years, call letters would often be changed with major format changes for a complete “image makeover.” The FCC, the arbiter of all things radio, doesn’t mind changing, though there is a hefty filing fee and I believe it can’t be done too often. (A year or two minimum between chances, IIRC). The letters “X”, “Q” and “Z” are considered “sexier” and more exciting than say “I” or “L”. You get things like KZOK in Seattle, or KWWW (which went by “KW3” on the air) etc.
No doubt I’ll think of more, but you get the drift.
barbitu8, I believe WLS stood for World’s Largest
Store. You may have confused the association of
Labor with WCFL (Chicago Federation of Labor).
That station is actually WWOR, your local UPN (aka Everything Fox Rejected station. 
Yes, WOR is really WWOR. Thee are a lot of weird abbreviation that have confused me over the years, such as station 3WG (which turns out to be WWWG – clever, huh?).
An interesting exception to the “W East of the Misissippi” rule is WKRP. Yes, there REALLY is a WKRP, as they kept drilling into our heads when the started t up. But it’s not in Cincinnati. It’s in Salt Lake City. Which is where Gordon Jump is from. I wonder if there’s a connection.
There’s also WFAA-TV in Dallas and WBAP-AM in Dallas, as well.
An interesting situation exists in the Twin Cities because the Mississippi cuts right through the area. Most stations start with a K, even the stations that are in St. Paul (east of the river). A notable exception is WLOL-FM, that recently took that call sign after a format change. Seems WLOL has been a fixture in the Twin Cities for so long that the FCC allowed it.
Robin
Hometownboy, looks like we have something else in common besides rock ‘n’ roll.
To your list of call letter origins, I would add personal vanity. I decided to pursue a career in broadcasting in the first place due to the influence of my aunt and uncle, both of whom worked at our local NBC affiliate, WFMJ – which stood for the founder’s intials (William F. Maag, Jr.).
Of course, they’re both spinning in their graves now to see what broadcasting has become – but that’s another thread.
WMUC: University of Maryland, College Park Campus.
WHUR: Howard University Radio.
Specifically in reply to HomeTownBoy’s post, which was very surprising (I didn’t think many folks knew about our three rogue stations :)) - however, not all date from pre-confederation (when we tagged along with Canada, in 1949). I work for one of the stations, so I suppose I’m ‘in the know’ - VOFM, or what’s currently known as “Magic 97” has not been incorporated for that long. I can’t remember offhand how long it’s been, but I’ll update this upon my next shift. I suppose I could be mistaken, but I think we’ve only been around 15 years or so, if I remember the dates on the CRTC docs on the wall.
Our sister station, VOCM, has said its call letters stand for Voice of the Common Man. The meaning was butchered by the public in the past due to a lawsuit involving a staff member as ‘Voice of the Child Molestor’ - I’ll comment no further.
VOAR is the third station. I can’t comment on it, since I don’t even know the tag offhand… it’s a religious station, I think.
And I agree with the folks who point out that the OP could have found out the answers with a simple search… this post is more for HometownBoy’s benefit.
Funk-D.
WWOR was WOR but in the early 80s RKO lost its TV licences. I belive it was Ch 9 in Los Angeles as well. Disney bought it then had to sell it when Disney bough ABC at the time you couldn’t own (maybe you still can’t) own two TV stations in one of the top 10 or 20 markets.
So when WOR (RKO owned) was lost the new licencee to avoid confustion chose WWOR tv.
North Texas State University broadcasts from KNTU, naturally enough. But when the school changed its name to the University of North Texas (10-15 years ago?), their radio station’s call letters never changed. I’ll leave it to the reader to figure out why.
Another example of three call letters to four is WJW, Channel 8 in Cleveland, long-time CBS affiliate (though they switched to Fox a few years back). Somewhere along the way, they also became WJKW.
Are there any three-letter stations still using their original designation? How about WLS? KYW?
Wait, just answered my own question…WSM, Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry!
Interesting, Cal. Here in Dallas GEORGIA there was also a WKRP. They are off the air now, but the Salt Lake City station must have had it when Dallas, Ga. applied for it. Can the FCC assign the same call letters to two stations/
Thanks
Quasi