From: fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us (Scott Fybush)
Subject: More Call Letters and Rumor Control
Originator: wdp@gagme
Organization: WBZ radioc
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 08:03:46 GMT

Time for some debunking.  It's true that *some* call letters were
indeed chosen for their mnemonic value, but a few statements have been
made here that stretch the bounds of credibility.

W and K are *NOT* in honor of Westinghouse and Kaiser Broadcasting.
This topic was done to death about a year ago over in rec.radio.shortwave,
and while I have neither archive files myslef nor ftp access to the
archives at funet, I can tell you that W and K were *randomly* assigned 
in 1909 by a predecessor organization to today's International 
Telecommunications Union.  Note that Westinghouse did not begin its
involvement in broadcasting until twelve years later, and Kaiser didn't
come on the scene for more than forty years.  Also please note that
Westinghouse's first two stations were Ks, KDKA Pittsburgh and KBZ
Springfield MA.  Yes, that's KBZ folks.  It wasn't until a few months
later that the calls became today's WBZ, and not for more than a 
decade would those calls move to Boston.  And yes, they're random.
(Although the correspondent who suggested that they were Westinghouse
Broadcasting's 26th "Z" station deserves a medal for imagination :-)

We should also strive to distinguish between calls chosen to stand
for something, such as Rochester NY's WHEC (1925), owned by the
Hickson Electric Company, and calls that were assigned randomly
but later had a slogan worked around them.  Most 3-letter calls,
such as WIS (1930) for "Wonderful Iodine State" probably had
calls randomly assigned and then created slogans to fit.

Having relieved myself of that...some calls from my native
upstate New York:

WBBF Rochester (1953) Benjamin B. Forman, owner (scion of
the family which owns the B. Forman department store).

WHAM Rochester (1922) Chosen by George Eastman of Kodak fame
when he bought the former WHQ radio.  The calls don't mean
anything...Eastman thought they sounded nice.  The companion
FM from 1943 until 1985 was WHFM.

WVET Rochester (1947) The Veterans Broadcasting Company, owned
by WW2 vets.  Also WVET-TV from 1953 until 1961.

WSAY Rochester (1935).  Another classic "sounds-good" call.
Station later became WRTK (1982), "Rochester's Talk", and then
WXXI (1984), sister station to Channel 21 (XXI) TV.

WWWG Rochester (1978).  Calls were chosen to replace WAXC for
the then-rock and roller.  The station was known as "3WG".
When the station was sold a year later and became religious, the
new owners decided the calls stood for "Where We Worship God".

WQKA Penn Yan (1983).  Named after nearby Keuka (pronounced
KYOO-ka) lake.  Station is now WYLF, playing music of your life.

WGMF Watkins Glen (1968).  Watkins Glen - Montour Falls (the
next village over).

WDKX Rochester (1974).  Rochester's first black-owned station.
Calls stood for Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and
Malcolm X.  This is one of my favorite calls...it also sounds
good on air!

and finally...

WADD Brockport (1970).  The station called itself "Radio Plus."
Cute, huh?  (station later became WJBT and is now WASB (Albion-
Spencerport-Brockport).

More as they occur to me...

Scott Fybush -- fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us

Newsgroups: rec.radio.broadcasting