Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia

[Doug Drown]

Wonder what he thought the K stood for?

On Wed, Jun 12, 2019 at 10:52 AM Ken VanTassell <kenwvt@gmail.com> wrote:

> When I was in High School back in the mid 70's my English teacher told the
> class that all the station call signs that started with W were all owned by
> Westinghouse. Needless to say I had to correct him.
>
> -Ken
>
> On Wed, Jun 12, 2019 at 9:11 AM Rob Landry <011010001@interpring.com>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > I noticed recently that WGBH's WCRB has started using "We're Classical
> > Radio Boston", which the old WCRB used briefely in the early '90's.
> >
> > But of course the call letters originally had nothing to do with the
> > format, but stood for Charles River Broadcasting, which ran WCRB(AM) for
> > several years as a full service station in Waltham before adopting the
> > classical format in 1950-51.
> >
> >
> > Rob
> >
> > On Mon, 10 Jun 2019, Donna Halper wrote:
> >
> > > On 6/10/2019 10:44 AM, Jim Hall wrote:
> > >> I am always amazed at the "Call Letters Meaning" section of entries
> for
> > >> radio and TV stations on Wikipedia. I wonder who writes them (and
> why).
> > For
> > >> example, WNEU in Merrimack NH has listed that its call letters stand
> for
> > >> "New (or Nueva)
> > >
> > > I spend way too much time fixing errors on Wikipedia, especially with
> > regard
> > > to radio history.  The "meaning" of call letters is a frequent area of
> > > contention.  Often, folks confuse an advertising slogan for what the
> > call
> > > letters meant-- the call letters were often sequentially assigned back
> > in the
> > > old days; but then the sales department retrofitted those calls with a
> > > slogan, and everybody in the audience assumed that's what the call
> > letters
> > > must represent. As you and I know, many of the folks who contribute to
> > > Wikipedia are not media historians, so their contributions (although
> > > well-meaning) are sometimes not accurate. Fixing the mistakes is an
> > ongoing
> > > battle, sad to say.  And no, WHDH never stood for "we haul dead
> > haddock..."
> > > ;-)
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > Donna L. Halper, PhD
> > > Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
> > > Lesley University, Cambridge MA
> > >
> >
>