Re: Call Signs (was: Tell your conlang story!)

You're making me homesick!
I remember when WDIV was WWJ and owned by the Detroit News. There is no
mnemonic value to this, but wow, you are taking me back to my childhood. We
also had WXYZ in Detroit as well which was the ABC affiliate.
S

-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu]On
Behalf Of Ph.D.
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 7:36 AM
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Subject: Re: Call Signs (was: Tell your conlang story!)


Mark J. Reed wrote:
>
> Television stations around here (Atlanta) have
> mnemonically significant callsigns. Channel 5 is WAGA
> for Atlanta, GA. Channel 11 is WXIA: the XI is 11 in
> Roman numerals, and the A comes from their self-
> designation "11 Alive!".
[snip]

I think there are many mnemonically significant callsigns
around the United States. In Detroit, TV channel two was
owned by Kaiser Broadcasting, so it was WKBD (the D
being Detroit). Channel four was WDIV (Detroit - IV).
Radio station WOMC covers "Wayne, Oakland, and
Macomb Counties," the three counties of the metro
Detroit area. Radio station WRIF was the first FM Rock
'n' Roll station in Detroit (a play on a guitar RIFF), and
the first Classic Rock station here was WCSX (CSX
= classics). A radio station in Ann Arbor, Michigan
is WAAM.

But others are not obvious, like radio stations WIOT in
Ann Arbor or WIQB in Toledo, Ohio.

--Ph. D.