I´ve been wondering about this ever since I was a kid. Growing up, I would listen to cassettes from NYC with shows from WBLS, programs with DJ Marley Marl, Mr.Magic´s Rap Attack, or DJ Red Alert , and of course there are countless radio stations that have the letter "K" in their abbreviated names. But what do those letters, as in WBLS or KMOJ, really stand for ?

Well, I just googled it .


As to the difference between "W" and "K", the difference there is geographical. Radio stations located east of the Mississippi River have call letters beginning with "W". Radio stations located west of the Mississippi River have call letters beginning with "K".

KoolEaze said:

A holdover from the call letters used for U.S. ship-to-shore channels. "K" had originally denoted maritime stations in the east; "W" in west. The Department of Commerce (I think) flipped this just before the 1920s, when land stations started to go live, so that now "W" was east and "K" was west. There are a few interesting exceptions: the very old KDKA in Pittsburgh and KYW in Philly, both of which held their letters before the Dept. of Commerce decision. According to Google, there's also WVUV in American Samoa and WOAI in San Antonio. I've no idea how these latter two stations got away with those letters, as I believe they're relatively young.

Broadcast governing bodies in other countries followed suit, and many international radio stations now carry call letters (or letter combination) exclusive to their own region. It's "C" in Canada, except for Newfoundland, which uses "V."
[Edited 1/18/09 7:25am]

KoolEaze said:

google and wikipedia!

cheers!
s=v=n s+v~n(sq2) 7.