Words Formed by Radio Call Letters

Authors

Robert A. Palermo

Abstract

Call letters are assigned to AM radio stations by the Federal Communications Commission: four letters beginning with W in the eastern US, four letters beginning with K in the western US. (In the early days of radio, three letters were also assigned, and a few radio stations of this kind can still be found.) it is interesting to ask whether or not AM radio station owners have a preference for call letters which form common English words. According to the 1979 Broadcasting Yearbook, an industry source on broadcasting data put out by Broadcasting Publications, Inc. of Washington, D. C., there are 4547 commercial Am stations operating in the US (as of December 1978). Of these, the following 72 stations have call letters which form four-letter words found in boldface type in the Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary.

Recommended Citation

Palermo, Robert A. (1979) "Words Formed by Radio Call Letters," Word Ways: Vol. 12 : Iss. 3 , Article 16.
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol12/iss3/16