Experience College radio: program director and general manager, WCMO, Marietta; WMRT, Marietta (OH); Announcer, WPAR; WIBZ, Parkersburg, WV; Announcer, newscaster, WMOA, Marietta and announcer, copywriter, newscaster at WVOS, Liberty, NY. Announcer, newscaster, WERA, Plainfield, NJ
Education/Credentials BA degree in Mass Media/Management (Radio?TV & Business) at Marietta College;
Courses in webpage dsign for the internet
Expert: Andy Blatt Date: 1/25/2008 Subject: US TV/Radio
Question Hi there,
I'm not American so I wonder about the 4-alphabetical name of local radio and tv stations like KUVA, WCWJ, WJXX and the rest. How does the coding work?
Answer Normally, when radio stations (and TV) first came on the air, they were started by companies either in media or in newspapers. Sometimes the station would take the call letters of the location. Here's some examples: WMCA 570 am in NYC was located in the McCalpin Hotel; WGN in Chicago was started by The Chicago Tribune, "The World's Greatest Newspaper"; WPIX was owned by The NY Daily News, NY's Picture Newspaper, etc. Sometimes, stations abbreviate their frequency in their call letters (such as WLVI channel 56 in Boston) and WSBK was owned by Storer Broadcasting. WTAF-TV in Philadelphia was owned by Taft Broadcasting. In the beginning, stations could take call letters that began with a K or a W. Beginning after World War Two, the FCC (or Federal Radio Commission initially) dictated that no longer could stations use three letters (they had to use four from now on) and no longer could Eastern stations use a K to start their calls (the implemented rules that only stations east of the Mississippi could begin their calls with a K). There are some left over from the old days: KYW in Philadelphia and KDKA in Pittsburgh. Canada begins their calls with a C and Mexico uses an X. Not sure about KUVA, but WCWJ calls represent that it is a CW network affiliate in Jacksonville and WJXX is an abbreviation for Jacksonville. Nowadays, stations' call letters represent their affiliation. There were a lot of stations that had "WB" in their calls because of their affiliation with the WB.
