The Origin Of Call Letters

Ever wonder how radio and TV stations got their call letters?

Call letters are oftentimes legendary in nature. Prior to 1928, stations that were on the air could select anything they wanted, either a three letter or four letter call sign. When the Federal Radio Commission was established (now known as the Federal Communications Commission), rules were established that stations east of the Mississippi River would have call letters staring with a "W" and stations west of the river would start with the letter "K". Stations that were already on the air could keep their existing call letters.

CBS has two radio and two television stations in particular that have the "K" calls east of the Mississippi: KDKA-AM/TV in Pittsburgh and KYW-AM/TV in Philadelphia. KYW Radio is still allowed to retain its three letter status but the FCC generally requires four letters. The only exception with a station that returned to its original 3-call letters in recent history was WJW –TV in Cleveland (was known as WJW originally, then became WJKW, then reverted back to WJW).  My first boss, Dave Whitaker, who was the long time GM of WJW, was the guy that was able to pull this off.

Here locally, WFAA Channel 8, WBAP 820, and WRR-FM are the only stations that still have a "W".

Call letters often times have some meaning. For example, WLS in Chicago stands for "World's Largest Store" because of its ties to Sears Roebuck & Company. WSM in Nashville stands for "We Shield Millions" as it was originally owned by the National Life & Accident Insurance Company. Locally, KRLD stands for Radio Laboratories of Dallas. And WBBM in Chicago stands for "World's Best Batteries Manufactured" or "We Broadcast Better Music", depending on who you ask!

Today, most radio stations use a combination of their call letters to reinforce their image, such as our station, KLUV or "K-LUV". The reference to the word "love" is very powerful. Others only use the call letters for airing station identifications as required by law. Our radio station, KVIL, is now known as "the new 103-7 LITE FM", not "103.7 K-V-I-L" as most people remember. Other stations have call letters that have little or no reference to their format, such as our station KRLD-FM, because it is known as 103.5 The Fan, or our Spanish formatted station, KMVK-FM, because it is known as "Mega 107.5"  The KMVK calls were used for a hip music format with a fast-paced rhythmic bent called "Movin 107-5".

TV stations today tend to use their only for legal IDs but refer to themselves in a manner that associates them with their network, like KTVT, which is simply known as "CBS11". Yet our sister TV station, KTXA, uses it calls to be known as TXA21.

See you next time.