Why do radio stations begin with either a K or a W?

Answer 1

They don't. In the west (west of the Mississippi?) they start with K.

Not ALL do. This are applicable only in North America and codes assigned for different types of broadcasting - including commercial radio, and in different regions in North America.

When "radiotelephone" sets began to appear on ocean going ships, the operators pretty much made up their own identifications. As more ships came equipped, this practice soon became a major problem. It was then decided that transmitting and receiving stations be assigned call signs.

When land-based radio stations started up in the early part of the 20th century, the new Federal Radio Commission began to assign call letters- first in alpha-numeric variations (for experimental licensees) and three-and-four letter alpha identifications for commercial operations.

An international conference comprised of the major countries heavily into the development of broadcasting decided that North America would be assigned as follows:

"N" for U.S. Navy stations;

"W" for broadcast stations on the amplitude modulation (AM) band and later on the frequency modulation (FM) band east of the Mississippi River and "K" for those stations west of the river;

"C" would be assigned to stations originating from Canada;

"X" for Mexico

Answer 2

radio stations east of the Mississippi started with "w" and those west of the

aforementioned river started with "k" by order of the broadcast authority.

You mean like KDKA in Pittsburgh and WKY in Oklahoma City ?

Answer 3

When the first radio stations applied for licenses, (the ones listed) the government hadn't defined any specific requirements for the assignment. After the first few applications, the government has been assigning names starting with a W to stations East of the Mississippi and names starting with a K to those to the West for more than a century.

Answer 4

Back in the 1920s, when there were enough radio stations that governments

decided it was time to regulate them (to avoid having their signals devour each

other), there was an international conference to set up a workable worldwide

system, and unique station identifications for each nation were created. The

USA was allocated 'A', 'N', 'W', and 'K' as the first letter in all station call-signs

licensed in this country.

So far, commercial stations (AM. FM, TV) have been given call-signs beginning only

with the 'K' and the 'W', but ham stations and other services get calls beginning

with 'A' and 'N', in addition to 'W' and 'K'.

The 'W' and 'K' mean that the station with that call-sign is licensed by the Federal

Communications Commission (FCC) to operate in the USA.

Similarly, Mexico has 'X', Canada has 'C' and 'V', Spain has 'E', Germany has 'D',

Russia has 'U', etc. etc.