Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!attctc!vector!telecom-gateway From: munnari!ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au!U5434122@uunet.uu.net Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Radio Station Names (Wxxx - Kxxx) Message-ID: Date: 20 Sep 89 03:09:00 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: The University of Melbourne Lines: 59 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 388, message 7 of 8 Can some kind soul please tell me if there is any rhyme or reason to radio and television station call signs in the USA? What are the 'K' and 'W' for? In Australia, each state has a number: 2 New South Wales 3 Victoria 4 Queensland 5 South Australia 6 Western Australia 7 Tasmania Postcodes in the state are of the form Nxxx, where N is the state number and xxx are three digits. Radio station call signs are of the form N-cc for AM and N-ccc-FM for FM eg in Sydney (NSW) there are 2BL, 2WS, 2ABC-FM, 2JJJ-FM, 2-DAY-FM etc and in Melbourne (Vic) there are 3LO, 3AK, 3MMM-FM (triple M) 3-FOX-FM (the Fox) etc. The call signs of country stations usually reflect their location, eg 3GL in Geelong, 2PK in Parkes. This means that if you hear the call sign of a radio station, you instantly know which state it is from, and can hazard a guess at the area too. Is there a system in the USA? Daniel u5434122@ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au [Moderator's Note: We covered this pretty extensively several issues ago. Check old messages with the 'Radio Station Names' title. In a nutshell: The first letters are assigned all over the world by international agreement. The United States gets W and K mostly; Canada gets C; Mexico gets X, etc. In the United States, broadcast stations in the eastern part of the country use W. In the western part of the country, they use K. The W or K is followed by two or three other letters, assigned by the Federal Communications Commission. The dividing line between W and K is the Mississippi River, a large body of water which runs the length of our country from north to south. There are some exceptions to the W/K rule, but not many. The two or three letters following the W/K are often specifically requested by the station. If they are not already assigned the FCC will usually give them out. Frequently they will be the initials for the name of the owner, or have some other significance to the owner of the license. Quick examples in Chicago: WGN = World's Greatest Newspaper (owned by Chicago Tribune) WLS = World's Largest Store (from long ago when it was owned by Sears Roebuck) WMBI = Moody Bible Institute WCFL = Chicago Federation of Labor WBBM = We Broadcast (from the) Broadmoor Ballroom WVOA = The Voice of America (in Red Lion, PA -- not Chicago) Every country gets one or more letters assigned for the first letter. In Equador, the starting letter is H; thus a very loud shortwave station heard all over the world from Quito, Equador is HCJB. And who will be the first TELECOM reader who knows what those letters mean? :) PT]