Did the "W" in the call letters of early radio stations stand for "Westinghouse" as in Westinghouse Electric Co.?

kitkat121080

The "W" was used to represent radio stations east of the Mississippi http://radio.about.com/cs/radiohistory/qt/blwkcallletters.htm but the "W" was taken from slogan's such as WIP's W)ireless i)n P)hiladelphia and in Pensacola, WCOA was touted as being located in the W)onderful C)ity o)f A)dvantages. http://nelson.oldradio.com/origins.html Jan 24 09, 1:50 PM

rickbrandi7587

Broadcast stations in North America generally use call letters in the international series. There are some common conventions followed in each country. In the United States, the first letter generally is K for stations west of the Mississippi River and W for those east of the Mississippi. There are a number of exceptions, such as KDKA in Pittsburgh and WFAA in Dallas, but these are historical artifacts from a rule change in the 1930s, and most of the exceptions are located in the states immediately to either side of the river. The westernmost station in the continental United States beginning with W is WOAI in San Antonio. WVUV-LP in Pago Pago, American Samoa, is the westernmost station with a W call-sign. KYW in Philadelphia is the easternmost station with a K call sign. An exception to this is that all time broadcasting stations have a three or four letter call sign beginning with WWV. The three current government-operated time stations, WWV (and longwave sister station WWVB), and WWVH, are located in Fort Collins, Colorado and Kekaha, Hawaii, respectively, both of which would normally use call signs beginning with "K". The US government-operated international broadcaster the Voice of America no longer has call signs assigned to it; however Radio Canada International's transmitter in Sackville, NB is still assigned CKCX. Privately-operated shortwave stations, like WWCR and CFRX, also have call signs. taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callsign Jan 24 09, 5:35 PM