Something I’ve always wondered, why are US radio stations typically called a four letter acronym starting with ‘K’. And what does ‘K’ stand for?
In the UK, radio stations are called all sorts of things, like ‘BBC London’, ‘Absolute 80s’, ‘Talksport’, ‘Capital FM’ or ‘Heart FM’. I.e. something which tells you something about the music style, subject or area covered.
read this: United States Callsign Policies
basically American radio stations were originally named the same way telegraph stations and ships were. W is used for east of the Mississippi, K for west.
A K West of the Mississippi, a W on the East, I don’t think it works out quite exactly that way, but it’s a good approximation. (Think WKRP in Cincinnati.)
it is call letter assigned to each station by the FCC. every radio transmitter that needs a license gets assigned a call letter, US can start with A (some),N,K,W (determined a century ago by international treaty). in the USA commercial broadcast station have call letters starting with W or K. the station will often ask for available letters that form something that can be pronounced for marketing purposes.
Except for KDKA in Pittsburgh.
the exceptions to W east and K west occurs both because some stations were named before there was a convention and the line separating the W and K was changed after the convention was started.
UK stations have call sign as well ( most start with a V) they just don’t use them as brands or titles the way US stations do. Think of a call sign as an ISBN number; in the UK they give the channel a proper title and in the US they often just use the unique code for the channel.
In particular, there are some K stations in the east that existed before the US decided to divide the K and W call signs allotted to it this way. For instance, KDKA, Pittsburgh.
ITU Prefixes are an international standard:
For instance, CKLW is a very powerful AM station that can be heard over a large section of the United States. The C is because it’s Canadian, broadcasting out of Windsor, Ontario.
ETA:
OK, a bunch of articles slipped in while I was answering. In particular, the link to Cecil’s detailed article on the divide.
To elaborate, stations are required to identify themselves using the call letters periodically (IIRC once or twice an hour?). Most US stations do have descriptive names as well, but since they have to transmit the call letters anyways, it makes sense from a branding point of view to just combine the call letters and the descriptive name. So instead of wasting air time with a dry announcer saying “you are listening to KQWE 93.3 FM” or something you can make a slick spot saying “This is Classic Rockin’ KQWE 93.3 <guitar riff>” that both meets the government requirement and acts as an ad for your station.
Interesting, thanks!
There are some other things that are going to be confusing for many foreigners about U.S. radio stations. There are at least four things that you need to know about a given radio station if you want to understand it. First, there are the call letters, starting with W east of the Mississippi and K west of the Mississippi (and C in Canada, incidentally, although I’m not sure how much Canadian radio is otherwise like American radio). Second, there’s the nickname for the station, which often includes part of the call letter, the city or region where it’s broadcast from, and the type of programming it does. Some stations don’t have a nickname. Third, there’s the format for the station, which tells what kind of things it does:
Fourth, there’s the network the station is associated with (although some stations aren’t associated with a network):
Sometimes the network owns some or all of the stations which belong to it, but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the station’s programs come mostly from the network, but sometimes there will be nothing except perhaps some small amount of news from the network.
Yes, oftentimes part of the call sign or the frequency is developed as a ‘brand’. For example, CILQ 107.1 FM in Toronto calls itself Q107, The Mighty Q, or Toronto’s Classic Rock. CFNY 102.1 FM calls itself Edge 102. Canadian radio is a lot like US radio in this respect.
Don’t forget CISS a.k.a. Kiss FM and CKIS a.k.a. KiSS 92.5.
Cincinnati is ~400 miles east of the Mississippi. Perhaps you were thinking of KDKA in Pittsburgh as a counter example?
And WKRP is fictional, for what it’s worth.
Once an hour, at or near the top of the hour, with their call letters, immediately followed by the name of the municipality where they are licensed. As you note, they may add other things to that (nickname, frequency, tagline, etc.), but the call letters and city are the requirements.
and KYW in Philadelphia. Bonus points for using only 3 letters.
Or KOME in San Francisco. “Don’t touch that dial, you’ve got KOME on it!”
WKRC Cincinnati… WKRC (AM) - Wikipedia
Any bonus points for mentioning “clear channel” stations? Such as KOMX in St. Louis, the Mighty Mox.