h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can you tell me what the K stands for, it seemes to be the same in all those sorts of stations like KOMO 1000.

Nick

Nick,

Radio stations in the US generally start with either the letter 'K' or the letter 'W.' This has been going on since 1912, when the US government started regulating radio station names. At the time, most distance communication was done by telegraph. This included information sent by radio. (Radio signals were once very dodgy and poor.) It was believed that short names would be easier for the telegraph operators to type out. So the names were originally 3 letters long.

K and W were given out as first letters to commercial stations because the letters aren't used much and nobody thought commercial radio would ever become popular. Other first letters were given out to military stations, and still others were reserved for other countries on our side of the world that might have radio stations someday.

No other countries still use these designations, but the US continues to follow the practice of assigning 3-4 letter names beginning with W or K to radio stations. While K was originally used for all stations west of the Mississippi river, and W for all stations to the right of it, so many exceptions to this rule have been made that it isn't a "rule" anymore.

So in short, the 'K' doesn't stand for anything. It is simply there as a legacy from 1912 that nobody has bothered to change. I hope that was informative enough!

Hay, thanks, thats a great explanation. It's been bugging me for ages. I actually like the initial names, they sound, errr... like it should sound. "Welcom to KACL Talk Radio with Frasier.... " well that one is made up of course. But it works.

Thank you for clearing it up

Nick

You're welcome. Anytime.