TV and Radio call letters - why W or K? and WHY?

Question

I have always wondered this and searched on yahoo answers and the net for the answer. It AMAZES me that no one knows the true answer, the WHY!

It's Wxxx east of the Mississippi, Kxxx west of ol man river. I know that W and K were given to the US to identify their TV and radio broadcast stations. But WHY these letters?

Later, the FCC designated W for the east and K for the west. But WHY?

And why use the Mississippi as the divider?

"Just because that's what the FCC did" just doesn't explain it. I want to know the story, what was really going down at these moments of our mass communication history?

Does anyone know?

Answer 1

Because these assignments were originally made in 1927, they often reflect a former political structure that has long since ceased to exist. The US was represented by the military at the 1927 conference which is why it received "A" (for Army) and "N" (for Navy). The "W" and "K" for civilian stations followed as the simple addition of a dash to the Morse code letters "A" and "N".

Here's a great site for the rest of the trivia regarding call letters: http://earlyradiohistory.us/kwtrivia.htm

Answer 2

This article talks about the W and the K, but it says that the reason for those particular letters, if any, are unknown.

http://itotd.com/articles/579/radio-call-letters/

Another website says this: The history of using a 'W' or 'K' as first letters in broadcast station names is somewhat murky and complicated but if you want to struggle through it, visit United States Callsign Policies.

http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&fr=slv8-msgr&p=radio+and+tv+stations+start+with+W&u=www.qconline.com/ask_us/ask_main.cgi%3Fid%3D707&w=radio+tv+stations+station+start+w&d=fEn96BIeOa-x&icp=1&.intl=us

And that page has a link to the U.S. Callsign Policies, and it's this: http://earlyradiohistory.us/recap.htm#early