Links to Other Interesting Sites

TV and Radio History

MHP Home Page-Lots of test patterns(test card circles) This is a terrific site with lots of clear, good quality test patterns,including the Indian Head Test Pattern.

Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Web site of a group of people that have worked for many years in Philadelphia (PA) broadcasting. Many items on their link page that take you to many interesting places!
Explore and enjoy!

Lots of cameras, microphones, etc. Web site of a man who is also interested in broadcast history and owns a small part of it...but more of it than some people! Take a look at his collection of cameras, microphones, and other broadcast equipment. He's a one-man museum!
Plus, pictures of various logos: ABC, CBS, NBC, RCA, more!

However, this site does have old station id's. The owner of this site has been watching TV stations from a distance (DXing) for many years. I haven't looked at the entire site yet but there are many, many stations to look at.

Furthermore, he has now started looking for distant DIGITAL TV SIGNALS. Digital TV Signals were only supposed to travel so far, but this man has found some stations at an incredible distance from his home. He uses his computer to catch the signals!

NOTE:

Click for bigger image

Note: A new (July 1999) "history" site was put on the KTLA web site, but the webmaster insists on saying that the experimental call letters (1941-1947) were WXYZ.

NOTE 2: November 2001 - KTLA's web site now has the correct experimental call letter information (W6XYZ) in their history and also has two other interesting history files. Thanks KTLA!

I'll get back to my rant in a minute after mentioning other misplaced "K" and "W" calls:

The W's and the K's As any good student of broadcasting will tell you American call letters beginning with "W" are located east of the Mississippi River. The exceptions being cities that straddle the river (St. Louis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, etc.), KYW, KQV, and KDKA (strangely enough all in Pennsylvania), and WDAZ in Grand Forks and WDAY in Fargo, both North Dakota.

Some people will also know that KYW had a short stay in Cleveland OH, but that's another story.

(By the way, thanks to a sharp eyed, and knowledgeable reader, who pointed that out to me!!!)

Another sharp-eyed reader pointed out that Fond du Lac, WI had KFIZ-AM radio, and for a brief time had a KFIZ-TV back in the 1960's. (thanks Ray & Stephanie!)

(From the rec.radio.broadcasting newsgroup: KBEK, in Mora, and KLKX in Forest Lake, both Minnesota, and east of the Mississippi River.

From a radio station owner: The furthest west "W" call west of the Mississippi, and the only "W" on the Pacific, is WVUV-AM in Leone, American Samoa, which Kirk Harnack and I now own. It's been dark for almost a year, and is going back on-air this week[26 April 2000] (Kirk is there right now, I'm going on Friday). It will be operated in conjunction with our FM in Pago Pago, KKHJ.
Larry Fuss - Delta Radio, Inc. & Contemporary Communications -
Cleveland/Greenville, MS

(From an exchange in the same group from Doug Smith:
Talk1370 wrote:
There's also one more recent anomaly. The FCC goofed in the early 90s and assigned the callsign KTGG to a class IV AM station that was just signing on in a small town in Michigan, hundreds of miles inside the "W" side of the divide.
The station didn't object, no one else did, so the mistake stands today. But you can't get a "wrong" call by asking for it, if your city of license is more than a few miles from the dividing line.
Indeed, KTGG had requested a completely different call - WSAE, to match an FM they already had.
Last year, it happened again. A W call (WPXL, I think) was assigned to a new TV station in Minden, Louisiana, well over 100 miles west of the river. However, the Commission caught their error before the station went on the air, and changed it to KPXJ.
A K call was also assigned to an FM CP in Wisconsin (again, over 100 miles from the Mississippi) for awhile about 5 years ago. I think that CP was allowed to expire unbuilt - the current FM Atlas (1999) doesn't list any stations in that town.

(Also see: http://www.ipass.net/~whitetho/kwtrivia.htm)

I must be falling down on the job because I got this e-mail from Dick Trumbo:

Reading your page regarding "W" call signs West of the Mississippi. You forgot another one. WIBW FM/TV in Topeka, Kansas. Don't know why it has a W instead of a K like the other stations in town except that it was the first on the air in Topeka and maybe the Commision didn't care back then.

Thanks to Dick Trumbo, Technical Support Engineer, at KING-TV, Seattle.

And now, back to my rant.

The very good student of broadcasting that I've been talking about will also have been able tell you that WXYZ (the error from the KTLA page in reference to their experimental license) was a very famous radio and TV station during the golden age of radio and early TV years.

Among the many shows originating from the radio station was "The Lone Ranger."

However, experimental call letters did begin with "W" and the KTLA experimental call letters were (see picture)W6XYZ (note the addition of the number 6).

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KMOL headed Back to the Future

KMOL-TV, San Antonio's NBC network affiliate and the city's first TV station, will change its call letters back to the original set that it began broadcasting with on December 11, 1949: WOAI-TV. The change also means that News Radio 1200 and Channel 4 will share the WOAI call letters.

"We are headed back to the future", said William Moll, President of Television for San Antonio based Clear Channel Worldwide, which owns both KMOL-TV and News Radio 1200 WOAI. "KMOL and News Radio 1200 WOAI have a long history of a strong news and public service commitment to this community. To have these two successful stations share the WOAI brand acknowledges our historical roots in San Antonio. It is significant to our company and the Mays family."

Switching the KMOL call letters to WOAI will also give Channel 4 a unique "W" designation in the market. In addition, Channel 4's call letter change to WOAI will also have an effect on its radio partner, News Radio 1200 WOAI.

"I see this as a very positive move in that it can only further solidify WOAI's image as news leader in San Antonio," said Tom Glade, Vice-President/Market Manager for Clear Channel's San Antonio radio station group.

The switch from KMOL to WOAI is expected to take place on or before January 1, 2003, pending formal approval by the Federal Communications Commission.
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