Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia

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Gary F.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Boston-Radio-Interest <boston-radio-interest-bounces@lists.BostonRadio.org> On Behalf Of Doug Drown
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2019 12:36 PM
To: Ken VanTassell <kenwvt@gmail.com>
Cc: Boston Radio Mailing List <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
Subject: Re: Call Letters Meaning on Wikipedia

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
> > >
> >
>