why doesn't anyone know that the 'w' for a radio station stands for 'watts' and the 'k' stands for 'kilowatts'

Answer 1

Most people don't know enough about physics to understand radio broadcasting.

Answer 2

The stations East of the Mississippi River start with a W. The stations West of the Mississippi start with a K. It has nothing to do with watts and kilowatts.

The letters 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 in 1923, they were reversed, with the Mississippi River eventually adopted as the dividing line.

Answer 3

You're mistaken. The eastern portion of the U. S. has radio stations that use W. The western portion uses K. It's a system that was set up years ago to distinguish between the two. I don't believe that it has anything to do with the signals, power, or technology.

Answer 4

In radio call letters, it doesn't. K designates western stations in the US and W designates eastern ones. Check out the following link if you think I'm wrong. They even show a map of the old and new K/W boundaries.

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/general/kwtrivia.htm

Answer 5

If you are talking about the first letter of the call sign, it doesn't. Each country is allocated a set of initial letters; the US has K, N, and W. (N is seldom used.) Canada has C, England G, France F, and so on.