Why does it seem all radio channels and local TV stations start with a "W" in their call sign?

Question

Examples: WOXY, WLWT, etc...

Answer 1

East of the Mississippi they all start with W. West of the Mississippi they all start with K. That was something decided by the FCC (I think) a long time ago. Someone else will have to enlighten you with the reasons for it.

Answer 2

This comes up every so often.

There is a worldwide agreement for such things. Stations are giving call letters for identification purposes, and that includes ham radio operators.

The United States initially took K (don't know why). That's why the oldest station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, has that start. Most stations east of the Mississippi are a W, while the K's are west. But ... there are a few exceptions -- KYW in Philadelphia, WOAI in San Antonio, WBAP in Dallas, etc.

Canada has some of the C's, such as CB, CK, CH, etc. Cuba has CM's. I think Bonaire in the Caribbean has a big station called PJB. And so on.

Answer 3

Federal law. With rare exceptions (KDKA, Pittsburgh, etc)stations east of the Mississippi are Ws, west are Ks

----------------
New broadcasting stations are assigned call signs beginning with K, if they are west of the Mississippi River, and beginning with W if they are east of the river. Again, some early stations have been grandfathered, so there are four broadcasters with a K prefix east of the Mississippi, and a few dozen with a W on the west side. (There are more grandfathered W stations because the dividing line used to be two states farther west.) Some examples would be KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, KYW in Philadelphia, and WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas. Stations located near the Mississippi River may have either letter, depending on the precise location of their community of license and on historical contingencies. Metro areas with mixed W and K stations because of proximity to the river include Minneapolis-St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and the Quad Cities. The Duluth-Superior area, well east of the river but on the Minnesota/Wisconsin line, has stations using both K and W.

The FCC allows derived call signs in the same market as a commonly-owned AM or FM without respect of the boundary, so stations may establish common branding across bands and services. One famous example was the case of the former KWK in St. Louis, which after several petitions was permitted to change the call sign of its sister FM station in Granite City, Illinois, then WWWK(FM), to KWK-FM. Later, the AM would change its call sign and the FM became KWK(FM), thereby becoming an exemplar of both categories of grandfathered stations.

The assignment of K and W prefixes applies only to stations in the broadcast radio and television services; it does not apply to weather radio, highway advisory radio, or time signal stations, even though these are all broadcasts in the usual sense of the word, nor does it apply to auxiliary licenses held by broadcast stations, such as studio-transmitter links and inter-city relay stations.

For example, the time signal stations WWV and WWVH are located in Colorado and Hawaii, respectively. (WWV originally began in Maryland and was later moved west. However, even ignoring that fact, U.S. government-owned stations are overseen by the NTIA and not the FCC, and are thus not subject to the FCC's rules on call signs; most do not have call signs at all.)

NOAA Weather Radio stations clustered between 162.4 and 162.55 MHz have call signs consisting of a K or W followed by two or three letters, and two digits. The K and W prefixes are both used interchangeably on both sides of the Mississippi River (e.g., KHB36 in Washington, D.C. and WXK25 in El Paso, Texas).

Highway advisory radio stations scattered throughout the AM band use call signs consisting of K and W followed by two or three letters and three digits. Stations operated by the Federal Government have a vowel as the second character, while stations operated by a state or local government entity have a consonant as the second character. As with weather radio, K and W calls are both used on both sides of the Mississippi River.

Answer 4

They don't. Television stations and radio stations on the west coast start with "K".

Answer 5

Come West! They all start with K out here.

Answer 6

They don't...
The starting letter is based upon geographic location. Western states start with K (KMPS, KOMO), and I belive (surely will be corrcted if I'm wrong) that most Canadian broadcasters start with C.