19th March 2007

Calling all Call Letters!!!

posted in General Subjects |

Hey, everyone. Here’s a bit of trivia for ya. I used to work with broadcasting pioneer, Mike Ross. He tipped me off to this tidbit.
You know those letters that radio and tv stations use to identify themselves? They may seem insignificant now, but in the early days of broadcasting the intent of those letters was to make it very clear to everyone listening (or watching) where the signal was coming from. Every letter had meaning that was a key to the station’s identity. For example…in Harrisburg:
WHP …. well that’s pretty obvious: “Harrisburg, Pennsylvania”
WTPA …. originally for TV channel 71 (then later 27): “Television for PA”
Now here’s one that’s a hit at cocktail parties: WGAL ….
“Garden Spot of America: Lancaster”.
Anybody know of any others in PA? Add ‘em, and keep this list growing.

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There are currently 5 responses to “Calling all Call Letters!!!”

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  1. 1 On March 19th, 2007, Administrator said:

    Excellent subject, so what does KDKA stand for? Just dying to know. WPHL- is obviously Philadelphia but how about WITF- the public TV letters, What do they mean. I have no clue.

  2. 2 On March 19th, 2007, Bored Member said:

    Not sure about those. I’ll try to find out. Oh, here’s another Harrisburg one that I know. I ran into someone at WGCB, channel 49, the Christian station in Red Lion, PA. They told me that their letters mean: “God, Christ, Bible”. I assumed that it was “Good Christian Broadcasting”, but they told me that it was the former.

  3. 3 On October 22nd, 2007, spark.9 said:

    WSBA - Susquehanna Broadcasting Appell - Rusty

  4. 4 On November 14th, 2007, John Summers said:

    Some call letter meanings are obvious; others are more obscure. Harrisburg’s Top 40 station in the 60s was WFEC. The new company that flipped the station to Top 40 was East Coast Broadcasting, and this was their first aquisition. The calls stood for “First East Coast.” Harrisburg’s former WCMB was originally licensed to Lemoyne in Cumberland County, hence CMB. Mike Greenwald told me, and he should know, that WITF stood for “Where It’s Top Flight.” One might think that the WHYL calls represent Harrisburg, York and Lancaster, but they really were the initials of the owner’s wife. Do the calls of WPDC in Elizabethtown stand for Pennsylvania Dutch Country? No. Charles Smith owned the station in the 70s and his daughters names were Patty, Debbie and Cathy. WGAL-TV got its calls from the former WGAL radio. The story goes that WGAL stood for World’s Gardens at Lancaster. Nice story but not true. According to FCC records, those calls were not requested but sequentially assigned, as the Commerce Department did in those days. Someone just made up that World’s Gardens story to match the calls. And here’s some Harrisburg radio history for you: WHP did not acquire the WHP calls until 1929. Prior to that it had been WMBS, which stood for Mack’s Battery Service, and licensed to Lemoyne. KDKA? That’s anyone’s guess.

  5. 5 On October 29th, 2008, studiokid said:

    Actually, Barry Mishkind at oldradio.com has a fairly complete listing on call letter meanings. I haven’t checked it recently but I think most local stations are there.
    It changes and sometimes stations get dropped if there is a unconfirmed conflict.
    That said, WSBA isn’t listed there.
    I’m pretty sure that I read somewhere that it was the initials of Sylvia B.
    Appell. It is interesting how you are told one thing for years and discover it means something else. I had been told years ago that WITF stood for Instructional Television Foundation. Years later, I heard the Top Flight response from Mike too.
    WPMT - Pennsylvania Movie Time
    (was an indy stn playing mostly movies)
    WHTM - Harrisburg Times Mirror
    (former owners)
    WLYH - Lancaster-Lebanon (cities of license) York Harrisburg (market area)
    WHP - as noted earlier Harrisburg, PA
    but I have heard people think it meant Harrisburg Patriot. Station was owned by a publishing company at one time, but they didn’t print daily papers.
    WRHY (92.7) Radio Harrisburg York
    WYCR (98.5) York County Radio
    WHVR (1280) Hanover
    WOYK (1350) Orioles York
    (former owners owned WFBR that was flagship for Orioles Network)

    There are more, but this is a start.

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