Why the American radio Station's name begins with the letter W?

Question

Why the American radio Station's name begins with the letter W?

Answer 1

They all don't, some start with K. Stations east of the Mississippi River start with W, while those west start with K. There are a couple exceptions, including WBAP in Dallas and KDKA in Pittsburgh (which is the oldest radio station in the world). Canadian stations start with C and Mexican stations start with X.

Answer 2

Arthur was partly right, but the W and K was more a result of maritime communication radios than aircraft.  Long before radios were practical in aircraft, the ships could tell what side of the country the shore stations that they were hearing were located on to make their contacts more meaninful and local.  The Direction finding also was easier when the navigoatrs knew what area the signal was coming from.  The W/K first letter carried over when Broadcasting first started, about the same time as larger airplanes could carry radios.  The three and four letter callsigns were carried over from shipboard calls.  Many other services now use the first letter for other things.  any US call sign might start with A,K,or W but the FCC determines the format.

Answer 3

They also start with K.

I'm thinking Wideband but I can't be positive.

Answer 4

Hi,

I'm a radio freak from Belgium in Europe. Over here we don't use call letters for radio stations but names. Like in my country we have are National State Radio Station VRT which  V stands for Vlaanderen in Dutch or Flanders in English  R stands for Radio and T stands for Television. No we have 5 Radio Networks in Flanders like all in Dutch. On are National TV we have NO commercials the take the tacks payers money to keep them on the air

VRT Radio 1 (News & Info also Sports)  AM + FM

VRT Radio 2 (Oldie's for the hole family) AM + FM

VRT Radio 3 (Classic Music) only FM

VRT Radio Donna (Pop Music Format ) only  FM

VRT Studio Brussel (Brussels) (Rock Music Format) only FM

  

In the French Part of Belgium also a National Network only in French also 5 Net Works

And some Commercial Local Radio Station only on FM the may not transmit on AM that's forbidden. The National Sate Radio Station's only have commercials just before or afther the news not in the news and some times in between the hours but very rare. The Local Radio Station may only have there commercial in block let say every 20 or 30 min (not like in the USA)

The best country for us to here real Commercial Radio Station is England or the UK there the play the commercials like in the USA.

At this link http://www.radio-locator.com/ you can find other station over here in Europe look at " find world radio "

Here you find Stations in Belgium

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/nat...

Let's hope you like this view for are Radio Station in Belgium - Europe i say your never to old to learn

Answer 5

Well, not all do -- those east of the Mississippi begin with W, those west of it begin with K. There's an international body that determines which countries get to use which initial call letters, and the US was assigned W and K.

That was established as an aid to airplane navigation, which was new around the time radio was in its infancy. If a pilot tuned into the radio, he could have an idea where he was based on the call letters.

That policy has since been dropped, since there are far better aids to navigation. Also, there are a few really old stations that got their call letters before the policy was established.