My subscription to Life expired, but I still have a subscription to Mad.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Surfin’: Looking for Channel 1, But Finding WNBC


This week, Surfin’ discovers that call letters can have an interesting -- and unexpected -- history.

1 comment:

  1. Regarding the WNBC call letters having been formerly used in Connecticut...

    What I also find amusing is that, at least through World War II, the New York City station owned by CBS, and today known as WCBS, used the calls WABC.

    Admittedly, the American Broadcasting Company -- ABC -- didn't exist under that name until shortly after the war.

    (it was part of NBC until the early 1940s when NBC was forcibly split in an anti-trust action. During the war it was known as "Blue", as in the "NBC Blue Network" -- the remaining NBC being the "Red Network")

    The WCBS call letters were on a station in Springfield, Illinois. That station became WCVS; today it's WFMB on 1450.

    KABC wasn't initially an ABC station either. It belonged to the Alamo Broadcasting Company in San Antonio, Texas and is today KKYX.

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