1 of 1- mace
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Call Letter Meanings
Most everyone on the board knows the meaning of many legendary Call letters CFRB, WLS, WCFL, CKOC etc. I have found a few more. KFI-Farmers Information Station. KMOX-Kirkwood Miisouri Xmas. KYW-Young Warriors. WBBM-World's Best Battery Maker[when they were owned by Mallory] WCCO-Washington Crosby Milling Co. WCMF- Community Music Service. WHAM-chosen by original owner George Eastman because the callletters sounded nice. WEBR-We Extend Buffalo's Regards. WGR-Geoege Rand. WGBH-Great Blue Hill[transmitter site] KING TV-KIng County Washington. KCPQ TV-Clover Park Quality[Technical School] CKVR-Valery and Ralph Snelgrove. CJAD-J.Arthur Dupont. CJBC-Jarvis Baptist Church CJRT-Jornalism Radio Television. CKLC-Kingston Limestone City. WSB-Welcome South Brother. CILQ=SILK Apparently Q was originally supposed to be a silky smooth easy listening station. Is that really true abouy Q?
- pinto
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Re: Call Letter Meanings
CJOE London.. Joe McManus.. McManus Motors. Car dealer
- Glen Warren
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CHML Hamilton - Maple Leaf Broadcasting
CKDS Hamilton - Kenneth D Soble
CKGN - Global Television Network, original calls for the Global Ontario transmitters when Global signed on in January 1974. Global later changed the calls to CIII coinciding with the transmitter expansion plan during the 80s. The CKGN call sign was originally assigned to a radio station in Sudbury (?).
CKWS Kingston - Kingston Whig Standard
WKBW Buffalo - Well Known Bible Witness
WBEN Buffalo - Buffalo Evening News
Last edited by Glen Warren (July 26, 2018 3:04 pm)
- peter.spyksma@rogers.com
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Re: Call Letter Meanings
For most of its history, WSM was owned by the Nashville-based National Life and Accident Insurance Company, along with WSM-TV, and the Grand Ole Opry. The stations' call letters derived from the company's motto, We Shield Millions.
- tvguy
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Lest we forget "CFMZ" - "Moses Znaimer" and CFZM - Zoomer Media or Moses Znaimer's initials reversed.
CJEZ-FM 97.3 (now CHBM) was to signify EZ listening when it signed on as an MOR station and later "EZ Rock"
WCFL .Chicago Federation of Labour
WGN - when originally owned by the Chicago Tribune - referred to World's Greatest Newspaper.
Many Radio and TV stations were co-owned by newspapers -
CBC's Toronto AM 740 started life as CKGW - owned by Gooderham and Worts distillery.
I would speculate that J Lyman Potts, if he follows this board, knows of dozens of other call-signs of significance.
- Saul
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Once when DXing, I heard a station ID as KLAN. That was unnerving until I discovered the location of licence - GLASGOW Montana. In a similar vein, CJMB 90.5 in Peterborough used to be CKKK. This reminded me of a certain station in Montana, until I put two and two together with the (then) Christian format and decided the station call letters must represent Three Kings.
Whilst in Peterborough, I volunteered briefly at CFFF. Not sure how this community radio station got its calls. But a t-shirt from the station had a slogan along the lines of C Fish Fish Fish.
My guess with CKLY in Lindsay was that the last two letters represented Lindsay (as 1420 CKPT probably represented Peterborough and CFOR 1570 Orillia). But when it was on 910, with its afternoon and nighttime signal almost always getting heterodyned by powerful trans-Atlantic signals on 909 KHz (Europe is on 9 KHz spacing, and BBC in Wales was the usual culprit, though there were others), a few of us DXers quietly nicknamed CKLY "Sickly". It does much better nowadays as Bob on 91.9.
- barilko05
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Re: Call Letter Meanings
Here's a few more:
CHEX - Peterborough EXaminer (newspaper)
CFMP - FM Peterborough (employees used to call it C-FUMP)
CKQM - Quality Music
CKLW - Leamington Windsor
- NW
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Re: Call Letter Meanings
Saul wrote:
My guess with CKLY in Lindsay was that the last two letters represented Lindsay (as 1420 CKPT probably represented Peterborough and CFOR 1570 Orillia). But when it was on 910, with its afternoon and nighttime signal almost always getting heterodyned by powerful trans-Atlantic signals on 909 KHz (Europe is on 9 KHz spacing, and BBC in Wales was the usual culprit, though there were others), a few of us DXers quietly nicknamed CKLY "Sickly". It does much better nowadays as Bob on 91.9.
Wasn't the motel on Kent Street next door to CKLY called the "910 Motel"? I wonder if when CKLY moved to FM if they renamed the motel as "The 91.9 Motel" or "The Bob Motel"?