Radio Waves Podcast #116

February 26, 2016

It’s been a while since my last edition of Readers Revenge, a time when you get to add to the conversation either covering things I missed or want to embellish.

As it turns out, call letters mean a lot to you as they do me, and quite a few responses came in with call letter meanings as well as stories of early broadcasting. Some of the meanings mentioned:

KUSC - broadcasting form the University of Southern California, which reader Bill Cosso claims has broadcast classical music since it went on the air. 

KGIL - named after original owner Gil Paltridge, says legendary programmer and DJ Chuck Southcott.

KECA - Earle C. Anthony, who owned what would later become KABC (790 AM), which itself is named after its later owner, the American Broadcasting Company. Thanks, George Lee of La Crescenta.

Adding to the KECA story is Steve Thompson of Glendale, who writes, “In 1929, Earle C. Anthony, a Packard automobile distributor and founder/owner of KFI, bought KPLA (1430 AM) and changed the call letters to KECA, after his initials. Ten years later he bought KEHE-780 from the Evening Herald-Express newspaper. He promptly took the station off the air and moved KECA to 780.  Anthony then moved the studios of KFI and KECA from his Packard dealership in Los Angeles to the former KEHE studios at 141 North Vermont. KECA moved to 790 in 1941 and today is KABC.” A complicated story, essentially confirmed by longtime reader of my column, George Schwenk.

Don Ward added a few: KJLH (originally on AM): John Lamar Hill; KMGM - owned by Metro Goldwin Mayer film studios, later to become KCBH - Crawford’s Beverly Hills (music store) and eventually KJOI - for the obvious K-Joy; KOCS - Ontario City Service; KSOM - Sound of (beautiful) Music.

KMAX - named after the owner, Max (and MaryAnn) ... “can;t remember their last names,” said Deanne Davis of Sierra Madre. Dacis and her husband John lauched a station in yucca Valley from 1988 to 1994 called KROR ... “The Mighty Roar of the desert.”

KPOP - The Popular Station, submitted by Phil Keosababian. KPOP was the original call sign for what later became KGRB and KTNQ.

KFWB - “Keep Filming Warner Brothers” or something related to “Westinghouse Broadcasting,” as both companies were owners at one time or another. Turns out to be more mundane - random sequential letters, says Wikipedia.

Joe McDonald of Whittier asked if three-call letter combinations were meant for “clear channel” stations, those with no other stations on the same frequency that cover large areas of the United States.Locally, KFI (640 AM) and KNX (1070 AM) are clear channel stations. Alas, while a good theory, it turns out that there were four-letter clears as well as three-letters that were not. KHJ (930 AM), for example, is not a clear channel. Three-letters were just what was issued in the early days of broadcasting.

Cory Moore of Compton noted a mis-spelling ... Auburn automobiles are spelled with a “u,” not with an “o” as wrote with Auborn ... I’m going to pretend I did that on purpose.

Next week: some interesting information on early FM broadcasting, including the problems with early stereo.

February 19, 2016

Kindness, Happiness and Joy. George B Storer. Ten-Q. “Kiss-FM.” Power 106. What do all of these have in common? They are all “names” for stations, or more accurately, variations of their call letters. 

Well, sort of.

 

I’m a call-letter guy, in the sense that I like when stations use their given call letters instead of a generic name that can be heard anywhere. But that idea tends to get lost as marketing managers do anything they can to stand out, even if standing out means being a carbon-copy of your co-owned station in Atlanta. Or San Diego. Or Pittsburg. Or all of the above.

But call letters have a certain mystic, due mainly to the fact that only one AM, FM or television station can have the same call sign. Anywhere. For example while you can find “My FM,” (one of the top winners in the stupid name contest) in Los Angeles; Independence, Kansas; Chicago, Illinois; or even Idaho Falls, Idaho, there is only KBIG-FM.

So what do call letters mean? And why?

First, the basics. In the United States, call signs begin with the letter K, W or N. N is reserved for military and government use, so we are left with K, generally for stations West of the Mississippi River and W for those East. But it wasn’t always that way: prior to January, 1923 the dividing line was the Eastern borders of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. And the rule was not always fully enforced anyway, so there are some Eastern K stations and Western W stations, though few and far between. According to mentalfloss.com, the most Eastern of the Ks is KYW/Philadelphia, still using the same call sign, and the most Western W station was WLAY/Fairbanks Alaska, which broadcast in 1922 and ’23.

Three letter call signs were all issued in order, similar to ho license plates are issued for cars. Originally, four-letter calls were issued in the same way ... KDKA followed by KDKB, then KDKC, etc. Soon the Federal Radio Commission, precursor to the Federal Communications Commission, allowed stations to request specific call letter combinations, and that’s when the real name game began. And while the original assignment for three-letter calls was arbitrary, after the requests were allowed, stations could request three-letter combos as they became available.

And even the arbitrary letters had marketing meaning ... old timers may remember when KHJ used the slogan Knowledge, Happiness and Judgement; or later Kindness, Happiness and Joy. Supposedly, KFI stood for Farm Information, but like KHJ and KNX, the KFI calls were issued randomly. Other meanings, for stations that may or may not still exist locally:

KGFJ - Keeping Good Folks Joyful

KMPC - MacMillan Petroleum Company

KFAC - Fuller, Auborn and Cord (automobile dealershios owned by station owner E. L. Cord)

KGBS - George B. Storer

KIIS - Not “kiss” but instead “K Double-I S,” chosen because the letter IIS look like 115, the AM frequency that once was the home of the station.

KFSG - Four Square Gospel church.

KPPC - Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

KPCC - Pasadena City College.

KRLA - Radio Los Angeles (KTLA Channel 5 stands for Television Los Angeles).

KCSN - Cal State Northridge.

KBIG - “Big.” The station has one of the most powerful FM signals in Los Angeles.

KBRT - “Bright.” Once paired with KBIG playing beautiful music as Big and Bright.

KEZY - “Easy (listening).”

KTNQ - Ten Q, the ten meaning the rounded-off frequency, 1020 AM.

KROQ - The “rock” of Los Angeles in the 1970s as an AM station; Rock of the 80s later.

KMZT - K-Mozart.

KPFK - named for the owner, Pacifica.

KRKD - broadcasting from the “Arcade” building in downtown Los Angeles.

KLSX - Classics.

KPWR - Power (106).

KRTH - formerly KHJ-FM; named “K-Earth” in the early 1970s due to a format that never happened, harkening back to the attitude that eventually launched earth day.

KSWD - Sound, as in “The Sound.”

KSUL - Cal State University Long (Beach).

KSBR - Saddle Back (College) Radio.

KDAY - “Day,” once a daytime-only station on AM

KGRB - Gloria (and owner) Robert Burdette

KBOB - Bob (Robert Burdette owned this one as well)

I am running short of space so I’ll stop for now. I know, absolutely, I am missing more than a few. If you would like to add to this list please drop me a line. Even if it is out of town but perhaps still well-known. The Chicago Federation of Labor’s WCLF comes to mind, as does once-owned-by-Sears WLS ... World’s Largest Store.