Good Question: What do radio/TV station call letters stand for?

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - For today’s Good Question, Steve asks: Why do radio/TV stations east of the Mississippi River start with a “W” and those west of it start with a “K”? What do these letters stand for?

They don’t really stand for anything other than signifying which half of the country the station is located in.

In 1912, there was an international conference to discuss radiotelegraphs, and each country was given certain letters to use as signifiers.

America was given W, K, N, and A.

N and A were at first reserved for military radio stations. W and K went to commercial businesses.

In 1928, the Federal Radio Commission, now known as the Federal Communications Commission, decided that stations east of the Mississippi River would have call letters starting with a “W” and stations west of the river would start with the letter “K.” Stations that were already broadcasting could keep their existing call letters, which is why you’ll still find some stations that don’t fit that pattern.

New stations are allowed to pick their call letters. Sometimes, they’re references to the city or state they are in. Other times, it’s the channel they broadcast on. WXIX in Cincinnati broadcasts on channel 19, so they used the Roman numerals for 19.

Independent television station WKXP went on the air in Lexington on September 30, 1957. The next year, the station was sold to Taft Broadcasting, and the call letters changed to WKYT, which have remained the same ever since.

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