WGBH call letters

[Donna Halper]

Actually, the WGBH call letters are much older than most people realize. 
While it's true they later stood for Great Blue Hills, they originally 
were assigned sequentially, back in January 1925. The first company to 
own them was the Fall River (MA) Herald newspaper, which put a 10-watt 
portable station on the air using those WGBH call letters.  It was 
common to use and re-use call letters.  For example, WBCN originally 
belonged to a newspaper in Chicago in the mid-1920s: the requested calls 
stood for their slogan, "World's Best Community Newspaper."  Years 
later, the calls were picked up in Boston as part of the Concert Network 
stations (WBCN was the Boston station, as we all know, along with WHCN 
in Hartford, and several others).

-- 
Donna L. Halper, PhD
Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
Lesley University, Cambridge MA