Why do US radio stations always start with "W" or "K"?

Question

Was curious to know...thanks

Answer 1

In this country radio call letters are assigned by the Federal Communications Commission. There are corresponding government agencies in other countries that assign call letters in those countries.

The "W" and "K" designations for U.S. radio stations go back to the Federal Radio Act of 1934. By international treaty, other countries and areas have their own distinctive designations - "C" in Canada, "X" in Mexico, etc.

"W" was the designation for stations East of the Mississippi and "K" for stations West. Before that rule was firmly established, some stations East took "K" calls (like KDKA, Pittsburgh) and others West took "W" calls (like WMT in Cedar Rapids, IA and WHO in Des Moines, IA).

In the early days stations could also take three-letter calls, but for several decades new stations have had to take four-letter ones. If a three-letter station goes "dark," those calls are retired and cannot be reused.

Hope this gives you a little bit of radio history to go on!

Answer 2

W is east of the Mississippi River and K is West.


K and W originated early in the 20th century as part of a worldwide index of ship radio stations. K stood for ships on the East coast, W for ships in the Pacific. For some reason, when the letters were extended to land-based stations, they were reversed, with the Mississippi River eventually adopted as the dividing line. Ever since 1923, stations west of the river start with a K, those east of it start with a W.

Answer 3

Long ago, when radio broadcasting was started, there was KDKA in Pittsburg. Later, it was decided to make all stations East of the Mississippi start with 'W', and West of the Mississippi, start with 'K'.. This has changed after the 1940's, and now there are W and K stations West...The East Coast is still 'W'.... This is regarding Broadcast stations only. Other radio services have all kinds of prefixes now.

Answer 4

Originally W were stations west of the Mississippi river, K were west of it. The ITU (international telecommunications union) assigns prefixes to all radio stations for every country. American stations are all prefixed with W, K, A, and N.

Answer 5

Radio stations east of the Mississippi start with a w and west of the mississippi start with a k.

Answer 6

Radio stations start with "K" representing the West Coast (Pacific time zones and Mountain time zones)
Radio stations start with "W" representing the East Coast (Central time zones and Eastern time zones)

Answer 7

i know this one. it's based on which side of the Mississippi River they are located on. the stations on the east side of the river start with W and the stations on the west side start with K.

Answer 8

to designate which side of the Mississippi River the station is located on.

Answer 9

W is for East of the Mississippi river, K is for West of the Mississippi river.

Answer 10

W east of the Mississippi and K west of the Mississippi, but that doesn't really answer your question. I'll leave that to someone else.