oldsmobile: 982160;

Above the push buttons are little windows, each with some letters in upper case.

I think that this are American stations names. 

They are: WOR - WJZ - WEEU - KYW and WCAU.

 

What do these codes mean?

 

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• USA_OLDS_982160_1940 (5) (67 KB)

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Hello Georges,

From the US radio listing of AM broadcast stations from chronological specific periods:(from the broadcast band of 550khz to 1600khz):

WOR - New York

WJZ - New York (in 1953 became WABC)

WEEU - Reading, Pennsylvania

KYW - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

WCAU - Philasdelphia, Pennsylvania

All  of the 1942 listings can be seen on the following website:

http://jeff560.tripod.com/1942am.html

Respectfully,

Robert

NOTE: The Oldsmobile radio in question was apparently sold in Pennsylvania - and the intiial setup included New York possibly because the owner desired to listen that specifc, high powered  "Clear Channel" station.

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Good evening Robert,

 

Thank you for yr quick answer.

I suppose these station names are codes, How where they assigned? What do they mean? It seems to me that it aren't abbreviations?

 

By the way: the car belonging to the radio is circulating in Belgium, in quite good condition.

 

Best regards

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Hello Georges,

The exact background, and justification for the call letters issued was a combination of factors related to the basic W- or K- prefixes - depending upon the years issued and the number of applicants . . . . . .

Typically in the very early years of the 1920s and early 30s the issuance of 3-letter callsigns would often find the applicant "requesting the letters of his given name and then the surname - for example in the mid-1920s, there was an early clear channel station of WLW - broadcasting on 700khz in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The original licensee was a gentleman by the name of Lawrence B Wilson. I vividly recall, as a small boy, the announcer would state "This is WLW - the LB Wilson station broadcasting on the clear channel 50,000 watt station from Cincinnati, Ohio". .

In later years the licensee applicant was required to apply for letters within the "alpha-sequents" available.

Several years ago, there was a complete listing of the "licensees by name OR the respective programming slogans or a locale -city or town" which matched the call letters of several thousand early stations. See the partial list at the following site:

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/nelson/origins.call-list.html

Some of the examples on your Oldsmobile radio are as follows:

WCAU - Where Cheer Awaits YoU - Slogan chosen by the licensee

KYW - Young Warriors - chosen by the licensee as nickname for the Owners

WJZ - JerZey (New Jersey) Location chosen by licensee

WOR - World Of Radio - Slogan and location (New York city)

WEEU - No specific naming pattern. . .WEEU call letters were assigned to the original license holder of WRAW in Reading, Pennsylvania after applying for new call letters in 1931based upon greatly increased power output. The FRC Federal Radio Commission (predecessor of the Federal Communications Commission) issued the call letters to distinguish the two stations in the same locality.

Respectfully,

Robert

NOTE: If I am able to locate a copy of my "printed pages" of these listings, I shall be happy to share them with the forum.  

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