Evening star., 1925-07-05
STATION LETTERS
ARE REAL PUZZLE
Hoover Aide, Who Assigns
Them, Has Difficult
Task.
BY CARL IL. RETMAN.

BY CARL III. BUTMAN.
One phase of radio administration
under Secretary Hoover is akin to
the popular pastime of crossword
puzZling. 1t constitutes the creation
of radio calls of three and four letters
for the thousands of hroadcasting,
commercial. Government and ship
stations.
From the three initial letters n.
X and W, assigned to the United
states by the international Bureau.
at Berne, all American radio calls
except those for amateurs and eX.
perimenters. must be made. Con
Sdering that there is total of about
22,0OO stations on land and sea
owned or operated by citizens of the
United States, this job alone is a real
puzzle. When it is known that the
Navy requires all the calls beginning
with the letter n for its ships and
shore stations while the Army takes
large number of the Ws. and il is
explained that the United States does
not set all the X calls. the problem
becomes more complicated.
At the Department of Commerce,
In an office adjacent to Chief Super
visor w. d. Terrell's. sits man
named l.. A. Corridor, who is the
callletter aSsigner. or the crossword
puzzle man. He has several check
cred charts on which he works. He
is experienced in following the hori.
zontal and vertical columns, but he
follows sequence of letter guides
instead of numbers. His first broad
casting call charts started respec-
lively with the initial letters X and
w in the upper left-hand corners
Across the top of the 26 vertical
columns runs an alphabet, and down
the left hand side runs another. The
first call assigned on either chart
would ordinarily be KAA and WAA
in the first upper left-hand square,
but we may not use the X calls
above kDA, another country using
them. When broadcasting began, Mr..
corridor chose a vacant square
among the commercial and ship sta
ton calls, which already partly COW
cred his charts
KDKA Gets First Call.
The first call available was KDKA,
So Pittsburgh, the first licensed broad
caster, got that. Nowadays practic-
ally all of the X calls are assigned
To stations west of the Mississippi
and the Ws in the Eastern States,
giving a rough east and west identi-
fication. Later hundreds of other
broadCasting stations were assigned
calls in the vacant squares, according
= =.
extra sheets. bearing two initial
letters. IA and WA. had to be
started, the first two being filled, and
Mr.. Corridor is now down to calls
commencing with WV and kZ.
However. he also reassigns calls of
defunCt stations.
Blessed with a touch of humor, Cor
ridOn put one over one day. He was
searching on his X chart for a call
for Detroit police force broadcasting
station when he came upon an unlet-
tered square. Looking along the hori.
zontal column to the left of the chart.
he observed an 20" while at the top
of the column there was a 'P." Hence
''KOP" became the official call for the
Detroit police. Since then many OF
the calls assigned have certain sig
nificance. but none approaches his in
itial master stroke
When the Washington broadcaster
for the Radio Corporation was about
to go on the air. District Superintend-
ent Guthrie came to the department
seeking a good call. He wanted
WRCA, but this square was filled
with the name of a ship and unavail
able. A search revealed that call WRC
was not assigned, so that became the
identifying call Of the Washington
Radio Corporation station. Soon
afterward the Washington station of
the Chesapeake and Potomac Tele-
phone was assigned WCAP, Washing
ton Chesa peake and Potomac; later
on New York obtained WNYC. Wire
less New York City" and then the
deluge.
Initials Are Popular.
Applicants and owners wanted their
initials as call signals, which is OBJ
viously impossible unless their first
names began with X or w. Many
stations however. have secured calls
that were unmistakable and easily
recalled by fans. Some examples
follow: WCCO Identifies the Wash
burn Crosby Co.: WMBF, by tiny
stretch of the imagination, designates
that station as Wireless. Miami
leach. Fla. WPG at Atlantic City
indicates a slogan. worlds Play
Ground: and similarly. WGN, the
Chicago Tribune. stands for Worlds
Greatest Newspaper" WGBS is the
call of Gimble Brothers Store: WREO
that of the REQ Motors, and Wild
stands for Wireless James J. Davis,
chief of the Moose. and none other
than our genial Secretary of Labor.
Some Of the recently acquired w
calls include WSBF, the last letters
Signifying the owners "Sticks, Bear
and Fuller" of st. Louis. This station
other is the World Storage Battery
call WSBC. indicating World Storage
Battery Co." at Chicago; WODA
stands for Wireless O'Dea," a radiola
and victrola shop in Paterson, n. j.,
owned by James O'Dea. The Seventh
Day Adventists have recently changed
their old call WSAP, wholly inappro-
pirate to WSDA. Following WNYC's
plan. Radio News of New York Sc
NV
diCate their magazine as Radio New
York: Wits stands for Wireless Lane
Technical School at Chicago, and
WGCP is said to designate Wireless
Grand Central Palace" at Newark,
formerly WBS. WABC is a call for
merly assigned to another station,
which now designates the Asheville
Battery Co, in Asheville, n. c.
Case of X More Difficult
The X calls do not work out so
well. but the slogan of the Arlington
Hotel in Hot Springs, KUN to Hot
Springs" is carried out in the call
kTHS. Another X call KGTT is used
to identify the Glad Tidings Taber-
nacle in San Francisco; it was sub
stituted for the meaningless designa-
tion KEW. KIDS stands for the
Church of Latter Day Saints.
Of course, little significance can be
placed on either w or K as an initial
letter; although W often is interpreted
as standing for wireless, K is less
useful.
There is a limit to all this, how
ever. 1t is not always possible to as
sign calls desired by owners of sta
tionS. Frequently there is no possible
combination with the required initial
letters which can by even stretch of
imagination be made to fit the case.