kevin redding wrote:
On May 15, 2011, at 5:05 PM, bill kral wrote:In the Old Radio category; correct me if I'm wrong but the Call letters of US stations were started with the W because the first eastern stations were operated by the Westinghouse (Electric Company--not sure of this part of the name) with the strange exception of KDKA Pittsburgh--the first Westinghouse station.Sorry, not correct. What happened was there was a treaty where all the countries got together and the US refused to go. When the government finally agreed W and K were left and thats how it happened.Kevin Adamsville, TN
Also not exactly correct.There was indeed a treaty - or at least a convention, the London International Radiotelegraphic Convention of 1912 - but the US didn't sit it out. It was an active participant, and it received a bunch of callsign blocks, including most of N, all of W and most of K. (I believe the current A callsigns came later, at least after WWI and possibly after WWII.)
http://earlyradiohistory.us/1914reg.htmThe custom after the 1912 adoption of international callsigns was to use "K" for shore stations on the Pacific coast, "W" for shore stations on the Atlantic coast, and that custom continued into broadcasting. KDKA was one of several stations that were anomalies; their callsigns came from a call block intended for ships, and the custom then was that ships in the Atlantic got "K" signs and ships in the Pacific got "W" signs.
http://earlyradiohistory.us/kwtrivia.htm http://earlyradiohistory.us/recap.htm s _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx