Re: [IRCA] Old Radio Pictures (and other interesting tidbits)
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Re: [IRCA] Old Radio Pictures (and other interesting tidbits)



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.htm

The 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
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