What are call letters?

Question

What are call letters and where does it separate at?

Answer 1

Right along the Mississippi (and further in a few cases) there are a few very-old stations on the east side that start with "K" and vice versa. But for the most part, W is east of the miss.; "K" is west; C is in Canada; X is in Mexico,.

Did you know that stations can (and do) ask for certain call letters in their application? As long as no one else has  them and they are within the bounderies, those requests are usually granted in the US by the FCC.

That way a station calling itself "Star 94" can try to get call letters that might spell out the word "star." Like WSTR (Which is Star 94 in Atlanta).

One last bit of trivia. Having only "Three-Letter Calls," like KWK or WLW has always been something of status symbol as those were sharply reduced once 4-Letter calls became the norm. WLW still exists, whereas my old Alma Mater, KWK, sadly does not. KWK was one of those "across the river" K stations - originating from nearby Illinois with enough power to cover most of St Louis, then  eventually moving into studios and towers on the west side of the 'Ol Miss-yet retaining the valuable call letters (but that's another story).

-a guy named duh

Answer 2

The call letters for WTOP switch 1978 is W for Washington,D for D.C,V is for Federal,M is for Metro States. It's WDVM!

On this switch it's WTOP to WDVM

Answer 3

Almost every radio operating in the US has to have a FCC license number. For hams, it's numbers and letters for instance (a little different way but numbers and letters for say your local police also).... However major Radio and TV stations are assigned letter only callsigns 4 letters long. It's a way for the FCC to identify the station doing the broadcasting.

The seperation of K and W is as someone said the Mississippi river (and a imaginary line if I remember above the Mississippi in Minnesota)

Some old radio stations years ago were issued 3 letter callsigns before the numbers of stations multiplied (Most date from the 1920s and 1930s)..as long as the callsign is never changed, it can keep the shorter call (Such as WWL New Orleans. Same thing goes for some callsigns that don't follow the Mississippi river rule of K west of it and W east of it. (such as WOAI in San Antonio,Tx)

Answer 4

We have  call letters because call letters are assigned station identification, W goes for the east of the Mississippi and K goes for the West.