What do the letters mean in a radio station?

The letters ‘N’ and ‘A’ were given to military stations, but ‘K’ and ‘W’ were assigned out for commercial use. Radio stations east of the Mississippi River had to start their stations with ‘W’, and stations west of the Mississippi with ‘K’.

What does AM stand for on a radio dial?

AM is short for amplitude modulation, which refers to the means of encoding the audio signal on the carrier frequency.

How do radio stations choose their call letters?

Most of the first broadcasting stations received randomly assigned three-letter call signs. However, in early 1922, due to the prospect of all the available three-letter call signs being used up, the government switched to four-letter calls that were sequentially assigned.

What do call signs mean?

Definition of call sign : the combination of identifying letters, letters and numbers, or words assigned to an operator, office, activity, vehicle, or station for use in communication (as in the address of a message sent by radio)

What is meaning of AM & PM?

Yup, the abbreviation a.m. is short for the Latin ante meridiem, meaning “before noon,” which refers to the period from midnight until noon. And, p.m. then? It’s short for the Latin phrase post merīdiem meaning “after noon.” Got it. One minute after noon is 12:01 p.m.

What means am and pm?

The 12-hour clock divides the 24-hour day into two periods. am stands for the Latin ante meridiem, translating to “before midday”. This is the time before the sun has crossed the meridian. pm stands for post meridiem or “after midday” – after the sun has crossed the meridian.

Can two different radio stations have the same call letters?

“You can’t use the exact call letters; however with permission from the primary callsign owner you could use their callsign on a different broadcast ‘service’. Our example is KGCE-LP, a new LPFM.

Why do radio stations begin with aw?

The origin of the division goes back just over a century. In 1912, the U.S. federal government started licensing terrestrial radio stations, assigning the call letters W and K to stations in the east, respectively the west of the country.

Why do stations start with W or K?

What do radio station call letters mean?

What do radio station call letters mean? Call letters are a unique identification that is issued by the authority in that country; in the US it is the FCC (Fat Cat’s Club, Friendly Country Cousin, or really, Federal Communications Commission).

Why do AM and FM have the same call letters?

At the same time, the “-FM” suffix was introduced, which meant that FM stations could use the same base call letters as an existing AM station if they added “-FM” to their call. One restriction was that the paired stations had to have common ownership and be located in the same community.

What is the origin of the amateur radio station letters?

The first letter for standard amateur stations came from the range A-W. For Experimental stations, the first letter was “X”, a practice that is still followed. “Y” was reserved for Technical and Training School stations, and “Z” for Special Amateurs. More letters were added as the number of stations grew.

Why do radio announcers have call letters instead of names?

In fact, in radio’s early years, even some of the announcers were given call letters— the theory was that if you allowed announcers to use their names, they’d become famous and ask for more money. So, some early announcers used call letters to identify themselves, just like the early stations did.