From: Several posters
Subject: Re: Call Letter Meanings
Originator: wdp@gagme
Organization: Airwaves
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 23:42:15 GMT


>From: jaslow@bissun.kodak.com (Russell Jaslow)
>Subject: Re: Call Letter Meanings
>Organization: Eastman Kodak


In article <1992Aug24.223853.22765@gagme.chi.il.us> kramerbr@ucunix.san.uc.EDU (Brian Robert Kramer) writes:
>
>I know that this is a newsgroup for radio, but one notible set of call
letters for a television station here in Cincinnati is worth mentioning.  Not
many people realize it down here, but I caught on...Channel 19 is WXIX (XIX
is the roman numeral notation for 19).

After all these years living in Rochester, NY, and it never dawned on me until
I read this post.  The PBS station here is channel 21 -- WXXI.  Talk about
missing the obvious...
-- 
Russell Jaslow          | Spec Racer #33  Finger Lakes Region | My employer
Eastman Kodak Company   |     In memorium: Andrew Spiller     | has nothing
Rochester, New York     |       Cynthia Bishop Halstead       | to do with
jaslow@bissun.kodak.com | Keep the damn drunks off our roads! | my drivel.


========

>From: roakes@nyx.cs.du.edu (Rick Oakes)
>Subject: Re: Call Letter Meanings
>Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.

In article <1992Aug24.224004.22898@gagme.chi.il.us> adam@wam.umd.edu (Adam L. Greenberg) writes:
>
>I believe that our AM carrier-current station, WMUC, used to go by Maryland's
>University Connection...but the FM alternative WMUC-FM never used that
>slogan.  (The AM station's format is CHR).

The Connection slogan must have been an afterthought.  When I worked there
MANY years ago (when the transition was made from low-power radiated to
carrier current), the derivation that led to the call sign was

	W
	Maryland
	University
	Campus

At the time, there were several other stations in the DC area, some
were fairly obvious (WWDC in Washington, DC), some were not:

WGMS 	Your Good Music Station

WHFS	In High Fidelity Stereo


--
Rick Oakes				CompuServe:  70475,333
				   Prodigy:  VXNX33A
UUCP:  {boulder, ncar, nbires, isis}!scicom!reo!rick
	or   reo!rick@scicom.alphacdc.com



=====


>From: bellcore!gizmo.bellcore.com!mo@uunet.UU.NET (Michael O'Dell)
>Subject: Re: Call Letter Meanings
>Organization: Center for Chaotic Repeatabilty

Add KVOO - the Voice Of Oklahoma to the list. Also,
I always wondered whether WBFD got assigned.  For years I've
heard the jingle in my head....

	Double-U Be Eff Deee - Big Deal Radioooooo

	-Mike

[Moderator's Note:  There is a whole bag of obscene or 'marginally obscene'
call letter meanings :-), but I doubt if some are in good enough taste for
this group :-).  But then again, who ever said broadcasters had good taste?
I assume the 'F' in WBFD stands for 'Friendly':-).]

=====

>From: sjsobol@tiny.com (Steven J. Sobol)
>Organization: The Tiny Software Company, Main Office, Cleveland, Ohio
>Subject: Call Letters

kramerbr@ucunix.san.uc.EDU (Brian Robert Kramer) writes:

>Great Trails Broadcasting has WGTZ in Dayton, Oh (The "GT being "Great
>Trails"), and in Colombus, they had a WXGT (but it changed call letters to
>become WCOL FM) 
>
>Summit Broadcasting has WONE AM and WTUE FM in Dayton.  When they first went
>on with those call letters, it was supposed to represent One and Two. (wONE &
>wTUE) They just couldn't get WTWO I guess.  WVUD was the Voice (of the)
>University (of) Dayton at one point, but I know that is no longer the case. 

Right, I believe they were just sold. Summit Broadcasting also has
WONE-FM in the Akron/Canton market ("The One For...."). Wonder why they
didn't put WONE-AM and FM in the same place? Was it planned as WONE and
WTUE from the start in Dayton?

Columbus, Ohio: WNCI-FM, the flagship station of Nationwide Communications 
Inc.

Cleveland: WCLV (guess what it stands for). The old Power 108 was
WPHR-FM (Power Hit Radio). Classic-rock WNCX originally was the "North
Coast eXpress to Rock-n-Roll" (Cleveland being on America's 
"North Coast"), and before that it was owned by GCC Communications and the
call letters were WGCL; GCC also owned Chicago station WGCI. Cleveland has
a bunch of college stations such as WBWC (Baldwin-Wallace Colleg), WRUW (Case 
Western Reserve University), and WUJC (John Carroll University), and WCSB
(Cleveland State). WRDZ-AM stands for "Words"; they play religious programming. 
I assume "Words" refers to the words of the Bible.

Cleveland TV station WEWS's call letters come from the name 
Edward W. Scripps (it's a Scripps Howard station). There's WAKR-AM in Akron 
and also WAKC-TV (AKron-Canton). There's Hot 101, WHOT-FM in Youngstown.

Questionable: WZAK in Cleveland (owner is Zapis Communications, don't know if
that's why they picked those call letters), and WMMS (Malrite Communications
flagship). I know there is a WMMR in Philly but I don't know if Malrite owns
that too...

Also an innumerable number of stations around the country with call letters
like WYHT (Mansfield, Ohio) which used to play "Hits". 

>I know that this is a newsgroup for radio, but one notible set of call
letters for a television station here in Cincinnati is worth mentioning.  Not
many people realize it down here, but I caught on...Channel 19 is WXIX (XIX
is the roman numeral notation for 19).

yep, Malrite (owner  of WXIX) owns WOIO-TV 19 in Cleveland (stands for Ohio
too, I suppose)....

>Other TV letters in Dayton are WRGT, which is for the Wright Brothers who
>lived Dayton, and WDTN, which is just an abbreviated (sp?) Dayton.  

There is a WKRQ-FM in Cincinnati. Did it come after or before the "WKRP"
show? There is also an AM and a TV station with the call letters WKRC...
are they owned by the same company as WKRQ? (not real familiar with the
market down there...)


-- 
***  **  ** | The Tiny Software Co.  23707 Glenhill  Cleveland OH 44122
 *  *   *   | Steve Sobol * President * sjsobol@tiny.com or tiny!sjsobol 
 *   *  *   | Alternate addresses: sjsobol@wariat.org or ag510@po.cwru.edu
 *    * *   | Disclaimer: I *AM* the Tiny Software Company. 
 *  **   ** | **Welcome to Ohio, the Land of the Orange Construction Barrel**



=====

>From: Steve Bacher <seb@draper.com>
>Subject: Re: Call Letter Meanings

Here are a couple for the Boston area...

WGBH	- Great Blue Hills, which is where their transmitter used to be

WCRB	- Charles River Broadcasting

WCGY	- presumably after Curt Gowdy, who owns (owned?) the station

Also, since someone else mentioned a Roman numeral TV station,
there's also WLVI, Boston's Channel 56.  I didn't notice that
until I was doing some math stuff with my daughter one day...

 - Steve Bacher
 - Draper Laboratory
 - Cambridge, MA


-- 

======

>From: nelson@nomad.kodak.com (Bruce D. Nelson)
>Subject: Re: Call Letter Meanings
>Organization: Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY

A few call letter "meanings" I'm familiar with:

WXXI  Channel 21 (XXI)  Rochester, NY
WEVD  Eugene V. Debs    New York City
WROC  Rochester, NY
WMRV  Merv Griffin (former?) owner, Endicott, NY
WICZ  Guziewicz (sp?) owner,   Binghamton, NY
WBNG  Binghamton, NY
WRUR  Radio of Univerity of Rochester
WRSG  Rockin' Solid Gold,  Binghamton, NY
WHEC  Hickson Electric Company, Rochester, NY
WSKG  Rev. Stanley Kiehl Gambell,  Binghamton, NY


--
Bruce Nelson                            | Phone: (716) 726-7890
Rochester Distributed Computer Services | Internet: nelson@kodak.com
Eastman Kodak Company                   |
Rochester, NY 14653-5221                |

Newsgroups: rec.radio.broadcasting