Why do radio/television station call letters start with “W” East of the Mississippi and “K” West of the Mississippi?
I know it’s an FCC regulation but my friends and I can’t figure out what the significance of “W” and “K” are.
Thanks.
According to the first several Google hits on “east west call letters mississippi,” the choice of letters was arbitrary. There are a few dozen stations that break the rule for various reasons, and the boundary was moved at one point.
A radio or television call sign or callsign is a unique designation for amateur, broadcast, and sometimes military radio use, as well as for broadcast television. Such call signs are formal, semi-permanent, and issued by a nation’s telecommunication agency.
Each country has a set of alphabetic or numeric International Telecommunication Union-designated prefixes with which their call signs must begin. For example:
* The U.S.A. uses the prefixes: W, K, N, and AAA to ALZ
* Canada uses the prefixes: CF-CK, CY-CZ, VA-VG, VO, VX-VY, XJ-XO
* The United Kingdom uses the prefixes: G, M, and 2
* France uses the prefixes: F, TM
* Germany uses the prefixes: DA to DR
* Chad uses the prefix: TT
* Italy uses the prefix: I
Source: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Television%20call%20sign
Further thread discussion on this topic may be found here:
MODERATOR COMMENT: Please note that this thread is from 1999, revived in 2000, 2001, 2004 and a couple of other times. Please don’t bother to post anything that was already posted, and please don’t expect answers from people who may have posted...
Rico
July 18, 2004, 7:07pm
6
W vs. K:
No real significance, other than the fact that the letters W & K are assigned to the United States.
If you listen to a Mexican station their callsign will start with X.
Canadian stations start with C.
From This Site: :
The first U.S. radio stations were allowed to select their own call letters beginning with either a W or a K. Also, early radio stations could select either a three-letter or a four-letter combination. Later, around 1928, the Federal Radio Commission formalized rules which required that all stations use four-letter combinations. Further, those stations east of the Mississippi were required to use an initial W while those stations west of the Mississippi were required to use an initial K.
Stations already on the air were allowed to keep their call letters regardless of number or location. Radio and later television stations such as KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; WGN, Chicago; WHO, Des Moines, Iowa; and WOW, Omaha, Nebraska, demonstrate their pioneer status and their unbroken ownership by being notable exceptions to the current rules. When WOR-TV, New York, was acquired by a new owner it was required to adhere to the four-letter requirement and became WWOR-TV.
Some of the 3 letter callsigns seem to be making a comeback. In Los Angeles, KHJ-AM was sold to a Spanish broadcaster, and they were forced to change the callsign. To keep the heritage of the station, they chose KKHJ. This led to a problrm, however, as the legal identification of the station started with the letters “KK.” As any good Spanish speaker will tell you, this is pronounced “CA-CA.” And we all know what “caca” is, don’t we? The FCC finally allowed the change back to KHJ.
But my favorite exception to the K/W rule is in Waco, TX. Yep, 99.9 FM is WACO-FM. It’s in the FCC records.
Q.E.D
July 18, 2004, 7:09pm
7
A good read on call letter history is to be found here .
Are the “N” callsigns used anywhere, or reserved for some future purpose?
Rico
July 18, 2004, 7:56pm
10
The only places I can think of the “N” callsigns are used are:
[ul]
