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East of the Mississippi: KDKA, KYW, KQV, KFIZ

G

Gregg.

The list of W stations west of the Mississippi is about 30, mostly dating back to the earliest years of broadcasting. They were assigned W call letters and still have them today, along with some co-owned FM and TV outlets. Stations like WOAI San Antonio and WHO Des Moines did not get incorrect call signs when they debuted on the air. Until the mid 1920s, the K-W dividing line was in the middle of the Central Time Zone, so those W call signs were appropriate.

But not so east of the Mississippi. The dividing line was never in the East. So how do KDKA, KYW, KQV and KFIZ have those call signs? We know the answer for KDKA but not the others.

The same week the Westinghouse station in East Pittsburgh got its K call letters, that government office also made incorrect K call sign grants for other stations as well, some for broadcasting, some for ship-to-shore communications. All those other incorrect call signs are gone by now, while KDKA remains. And it shares its call sign with KDKA-TV and KDKA-FM.

But there's no good explanation for KYW, KQV or KFIZ. KQV Pittsburgh says it went on the air even before KDKA, as an experimental station in 1919. KFIZ Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, signed on in 1923. Neither can say how it got a K call sign. KYW is an even more complicated story. It went on the air in Chicago in 1921, also owned by Westinghouse. It later moved to Philadelphia, then Cleveland, then back to Philadelphia. But all those cities are well east of the Mississippi. So how did it get a K call sign? It's likely we will never know.

BTW, I am not counting K stations in markets or states that straddle the Mississippi, such as KJMS Olive Branch MS or KUUL East Moline IL. Stations in a handful of markets, such as Memphis and the Quad Cities, as well as the states of Minnesota and Louisiana, can choose whether they want K or W call signs, regardless of which side of the river they are licensed.
 
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Surely SOMEONE knows. Depending on stations' "About Us" pages or Wikipedia entries may not be sufficient, especially for information that's far behind the stations' ownership, format, air staff, etc. on the list of things that would interest the average listener looking for information about the station. But where do those answers lie?
 
Prior to 1929, calls starting with KA thru KC were assigned to Germany, and the US had KD-KZ. The 1927 World Administrative Radio Conference gave the US the entire K block, effective in 1929. Note that there were no three-letter calls assigned between KAA and KCZ.
 
ThePowerCow said:
89.7 KRLE "moved" from Kansas to Carbon Hill, Alabama several years ago. Now there's a K call in Alabama.
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There's WRVX in Cameron, Missouri, an FM that went on the air around 2011. It was my understanding that this was a deliberate choice on the then-owner's part, who first requested the WTJT calls. VCY has it now but has retained having a "W" call.
 
CTListener said:
Surely SOMEONE knows. Depending on stations' "About Us" pages or Wikipedia entries may not be sufficient, especially for information that's far behind the stations' ownership, format, air staff, etc. on the list of things that would interest the average listener looking for information about the station. But where do those answers lie?
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I you go to fcc.gov and perform an AM Query search, put information in for the station you're interested in, I usually select call sign and state of license and then select detailed information. Once the station's data is loaded, on the Links & Maps tab is a selection for "History Cards" for that station. Here is the link to KYW's page with the history cards listed as a selection: https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?call=KYW&arn=&state=PA&city=&freq=530&fre2=1700&type=0&facid=&class=&list=0&NextTab=Results+to+Next+Page/Tab&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&NS=N&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&EW=W&size=9

click on the history cards and a .pdf document with all the old records for the station will download as a .pdf file that you can view. KYW's history goes back to 1927.
 
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CTListener said:
Surely SOMEONE knows. Depending on stations' "About Us" pages or Wikipedia entries may not be sufficient, especially for information that's far behind the stations' ownership, format, air staff, etc. on the list of things that would interest the average listener looking for information about the station. But where do those answers lie?
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I have not seen more than a handful of wikipedia radio station articles that are accurate or complete.
 
I didn't know until now that there were any other K stations east of the Mississippi besides KYW and KDKA.

I grew up with my father always listening to KYW and I liked that teletype sound effect they had in the background.

 
At Union City, TN there's KYTN 104.9, which has those call letters because they're near the state line between KY and TN. They called the station that even before it was their official call letters.

Also in my area there's WGCQ 98.7 in Hayti, MO. It had been WTRB 94.9 in Ripley, TN and was bought by EMF and the call letters were changed to WKVZ and carried K-LOVE. Later in changes EMF made in West TN they changed the format to Christian country and the call letters to WGCQ, and moved it to 98.7 in Hayti. Later it was changed to Air 1, then it was sold to Pollock Broadcasting and is now on the America's Best Music network.
 
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