Radio Station Call Letters- Where did they come up with them

[Brandon]

Here's a few more:

WJOL - AM 1340 in JOLiet, Illinois.

WLUP - FM 97.9 in Chicago, as The Loop (pronounce LUP).

WTMX - FM 101.9 in Chicago, as The MiX.

WSCR - AM 670 in Chicago, as The SCoRe.

WDRV - FM 97.1 in Chicago, as The DRiVe.

WMBI - AM 1110 and FM 90.1 for the Moody Bible Institute.

WMTU - FM 91.9 in Houghton, MI for Michigan Technological University - the student-run station yours truly was a DJ on. 

[freebrickproductions]

Here in Huntsville, a local station, WLRH, has a (slightly) interesting story behind it's call letters. The station was started in the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, so they used it's location and what they were providing as the letters, with each having a specific meaning (other than the W):
L - Library
R - Radio
H - Huntsville

The station is now located on UAH's campus, and is the station that broadcasts NPR for the Huntsville, AL area on 89.3 FM.

[bing101]

KFOX El Paso, TX surprised that Fox never used those calls for Fox 11 Los Angeles though.

KOIT San Francisco for Coit tower

KIOI San Francisco for 101.3 fm

KRAK Sacramento

KUIC Vacaville for Suisun

KECA Los Angeles for Earl c Anthony.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Twin Cities:

KQRS: Quality Radio Station
KARE (NBC): obvious
KMSP (FOX)/KSTP (ABC): should be obvious
WCCO: previously detailed

Duluth:
WDSE (PBS): Duluth-Superior Educational
KDLH (CBS): obvious
WIRT (Hibbing-based satellite of ABC): Iron Range Television
KQDS (FOX/leading FM station): Quality Duluth Superior

[cjk374]

North Louisiana stations:

KSLA (Ch. 12): Shreveport, LA

KTAL (Ch. 6): Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana

KTBS (Ch. 3): Texarkana, Bossier City, Shreveport (a guess)

KNOE (Ch. 8):  Named for James A. Noe, owner of the station.

KTVE, KARD, KMSS, are other stations I can't figure out.

[hotdogPi]

North Louisiana stations:

KTVE, KARD, KMSS, are other stations I can't figure out.

Is KMSS close enough to Mississippi that it could be named after Mississippi (either the state or the river)?

[DTComposer]

North Louisiana stations:

KTVE, KARD, KMSS, are other stations I can't figure out.

Is KMSS close enough to Mississippi that it could be named after Mississippi (either the state or the river)?

According to the Wikipedia article, it stands for the original owner - Media South Shreveport.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KMSS-TV

[bing101]

KTXL Sacramento - Television 40.

KTLA Los Angeles Television Los Angeles

KTSF San Francisco -Television San Francisco.

KOSF San Francisco - Oldies San Francisco

[Desert Man]

Formerly, 600 KRCR, also a TV station on channel 7 (ABC) in Northern California, based in the (R)edding-(C)hico-(R)ed Bluff area. Used to be the signals of both radio and TV stations went as far south as Yuba City-Marysville and Colusa, and far north as Yreka, Mount Shasta and Tule Lake on the OR-CA state line. They used to have transmitters in the area between 40N and 42 Latitude, from the NV-CA state line (Alturas and Susanville in the Reno NV TV market, to the Pacific coast (Fort Bragg and Ukiah in Mendocino county in the Eureka CA TV market). Now in CA, 600 AM is reserved for KOGO San Diego at night time hours to be received throughout the 800-some mile long state.

[Stephane Dumas]

CFCF AM radio (the owners created later CFCF-TV 12 who became later CTV Montreal) was for
Canada's
First
Canada's
Finest

[Desert Man]

In the 1980s, KECY-FM 92.7 - had their antennae in the eastern Coachella Valley by the Salton sea to serve both Palm Springs, and the Imperial and Yuma valleys. It was a country music station, before changing call letters and genres. KECY TV channel 9 in El Centro (ast the time, a CBS affiliate for the Imperial and Coachella valley region) owned the radio station. Today, CBS radio (former owner of KECY) owns KEZN 103.1 based in Palm Desert (Palm Springs radio market), but was formerly KCPS (was on 1300) in Indio until 1990. The radio and TV markets of Yuma Az includes Blythe CA and Parker AZ to the north.

[Super Mateo]

Here's a few more:

WJOL - AM 1340 in JOLiet, Illinois.

WLUP - FM 97.9 in Chicago, as The Loop (pronounce LUP).

WTMX - FM 101.9 in Chicago, as The MiX.

WSCR - AM 670 in Chicago, as The SCoRe.

WDRV - FM 97.1 in Chicago, as The DRiVe.

WMBI - AM 1110 and FM 90.1 for the Moody Bible Institute.

WMTU - FM 91.9 in Houghton, MI for Michigan Technological University - the student-run station yours truly was a DJ on. 

WIND, AM 560:  It's in Chicago, and we know Chicago's nickname.  And no, the nickname doesn't have and never has had anything to do with the weather.

On the TV side, WTTW (Ch. 11 in Chicago) got its call letters by using an acronym that stands for "Window to the World."

[GenExpwy]

WIND, AM 560:  It's in Chicago, and we know Chicago's nickname.  And no, the nickname doesn't have and never has had anything to do with the weather.

Except that WIND was originally licensed to Gary, Indiana.

[bing101]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSWD_(FM)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKLQ_(FM)

KSWD Los Angeles and now Seattle (Entercom) Sound

KRAK Sacramento Later Victor Valley not what we think of Crack today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KMPS_(AM)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KHTK

[renegade]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSWD_(FM)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKLQ_(FM)

KSWD Los Angeles and now Seattle (Entercom) Sound

KRAK Sacramento Later Victor Valley not what we think of Crack today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KMPS_(AM)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KHTK

Why would you do this ?

[hotdogPi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSWD_(FM)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKLQ_(FM)

KSWD Los Angeles and now Seattle (Entercom) Sound

KRAK Sacramento Later Victor Valley not what we think of Crack today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KMPS_(AM)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KHTK

Now corrected.

No. The problem is that it's 2-size font for no reason.

[KeithE4Phx]

KQV Pittsburgh stood for "King of the Quaker Valley" when it chose those call letters in 1921.

I say "stood" because, as of December 31, KQV is no more.  It's signing off after 98 years on the air (starting as experimental 8ZAE in 1919).  The owners just can't justify the business model of an independent all-news outlet in what is now a secondary market.  It's been all-news since 1975.  No potential buyer and/or format change was contemplated.  They're just turning off the transmitter and will probably find a buyer -- likely a religious broadcaster -- later.

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/12/15/KQV-radio-going-off-the-air-Dec-31-all-news-format-Robert-W-Dickey-Jr/stories/201712150145

[ftballfan]

KOAM-TV Pittsburg, KS   "Kansas/Oklahoma/Arkansas/Missouri"

In an irony, this station no longer serves Arkansas

[ftballfan]

Some call signs in northern/western Michigan:

WTOM (NBC 4) Cheboygan: Top Of Michigan
WPBN (NBC 7) Traverse City: Paul Bunyan Network
WWTV (CBS 9) Cadillac: Water Wonderland Television
WWUP (CBS 10) Sault Ste. Marie: WWTV Upper Peninsula
WGTU (ABC 29) Traverse City: Grand Traverse UHF (was the first UHF station in its market)
WFQX (FOX 32) Cadillac: FOX (with the Q instead of O)

WTCM (AM 580/FM 103.5) Traverse City: Traverse City, Michigan; the FM could also stand for Today's Country Music (its branding) or Traverse Cadillac Manistee (the three largest cities in the FM's coverage area)
WCCW (AM 1310/FM 107.5) Traverse City: Cherry Capital of the World
WLDR (FM 101.9) Traverse City: Long Distance Radio (ironic as WLDR now has one of the weakest signals in Traverse City in part due to an incompetent owner)
WJZQ (FM 92.9) Cadillac: Jazz Q (used to have a smooth jazz format; now top 40 as Z93)
WKZC (FM 94.9) Scottville: KZ Country (hasn't used that slogan in 25+ years but has been country since)
WMBN (AM 1340) Petoskey: Michigan's Beautiful North
WKLT (FM 97.5) Kalkaska: Kilt 98 (when it was on 97.7)
WKJF (formerly on AM 1370 and FM 92.9 in Cadillac): Kalamazoo's John Fetzer (Fetzer owned these two stations, along with WWTV [the FM was once WWTV-FM])

[jwolfer]

Some from the Jersey Shore...

WJLK was owned by the Asbury Park Press.. the publisher at the time the AM station began was J Lyle Kinmoth

WOBM in Toms River covered Ocean Burlington and Monmouth Counties... Ocean and Monmouth are usually grouped together.. Burlington not so much, the Ocean-Burlington border is the Pinelands National Preserve... I guess they didn't want it to spell WOMB

Z981

[Henry]

KFOX El Paso, TX surprised that Fox never used those calls for Fox 11 Los Angeles though.

Similarly, WFOX is used for a TV station (channel 30) in Jacksonville, FL and a radio station at 95.9 FM in Bridgeport, CT (as well as a former station at 97.1 FM in Atlanta, GA), but not Fox 5 New York.

[bing101]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBFF WBFF-TV Baltimore (Sinclair Owned station) Baltimore Forty-Five.

KRON San Francisco (Nexstar Television) Former owner San Francisco Chronicle

[mrsman]

KFOX El Paso, TX surprised that Fox never used those calls for Fox 11 Los Angeles though.

Similarly, WFOX is used for a TV station (channel 30) in Jacksonville, FL and a radio station at 95.9 FM in Bridgeport, CT (as well as a former station at 97.1 FM in Atlanta, GA), but not Fox 5 New York.

A lot of the reason may have to be with the relative newness of the Fox network.  Those stations with KFOX and WFOX were probably broadcasting for years before there was a Fox network which was created in the late '80's.

Although it is surprising that FOX didn't just pay off those owners in El Paso and Jacksonville so that the FOX O&Os in LA and NY could have the expected call letters and match the practice.

Incidentally, it wasn't universal that the O&Os in Los Angeles had the call letters of K+network.  Channel 2 in L.A. was a CBS O&O since 1951.  The station was originally KTSL, then renamed KNXT (to match the local CBS radio station KNX), and only renamed to KCBS in 1984.  (I don't believe that there was any other tv station with KCBS before 1984, but San Francisco had a KCBS radio station.)

At least KFOX and WFOX are Fox affiliates, even if they are in relatively small markets.

[jwolfer]

KFOX El Paso, TX surprised that Fox never used those calls for Fox 11 Los Angeles though.

Similarly, WFOX is used for a TV station (channel 30) in Jacksonville, FL and a radio station at 95.9 FM in Bridgeport, CT (as well as a former station at 97.1 FM in Atlanta, GA), but not Fox 5 New York.

A lot of the reason may have to be with the relative newness of the Fox network.  Those stations with KFOX and WFOX were probably broadcasting for years before there was a Fox network which was created in the late '80's.

Although it is surprising that FOX didn't just pay off those owners in El Paso and Jacksonville so that the FOX O&Os in LA and NY could have the expected call letters and match the practice.

Incidentally, it wasn't universal that the O&Os in Los Angeles had the call letters of K+network.  Channel 2 in L.A. was a CBS O&O since 1951.  The station was originally KTSL, then renamed KNXT (to match the local CBS radio station KNX), and only renamed to KCBS in 1984.  (I don't believe that there was any other tv station with KCBS before 1984, but San Francisco had a KCBS radio station.)

At least KFOX and WFOX are Fox affiliates, even if they are in relatively small markets.

WFOX in Jacksonville was WAWS until about 2 years ago

Z981

[bing101]

KFOX El Paso, TX surprised that Fox never used those calls for Fox 11 Los Angeles though.

Similarly, WFOX is used for a TV station (channel 30) in Jacksonville, FL and a radio station at 95.9 FM in Bridgeport, CT (as well as a former station at 97.1 FM in Atlanta, GA), but not Fox 5 New York.

A lot of the reason may have to be with the relative newness of the Fox network.  Those stations with KFOX and WFOX were probably broadcasting for years before there was a Fox network which was created in the late '80's.

Although it is surprising that FOX didn't just pay off those owners in El Paso and Jacksonville so that the FOX O&Os in LA and NY could have the expected call letters and match the practice.

Incidentally, it wasn't universal that the O&Os in Los Angeles had the call letters of K+network.  Channel 2 in L.A. was a CBS O&O since 1951.  The station was originally KTSL, then renamed KNXT (to match the local CBS radio station KNX), and only renamed to KCBS in 1984.  (I don't believe that there was any other tv station with KCBS before 1984, but San Francisco had a KCBS radio station.)

At least KFOX and WFOX are Fox affiliates, even if they are in relatively small markets.

Interestingly KCBS and KNBC were initially used in San Francisco in the 1940's for their radio stations. This had something to do with San Francisco being seen as a larger media market than Los Angeles. That was until 1954 when ABC renamed KECA-TV to KABC-TV 7 Los Angeles that's when Los Angeles was seen as a larger media market than San Francisco. Note Entercom has the KCBS call letters on AM 740 in San Francisco while CBS has the KCBS calls for channel 2 Los Angeles.