Talk:Call signs in North America

Untitled comment
Does this article serve any useful purpose that is not better set out in callsign? I just corrected two fundamental errors here that I had already fixed in callsign months ago. I think a merger is indicated. 18.26.0.18 04:53, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"Callsign" versus "call sign"
A recent edit did a search-and-replace of "call sign" for "callsign" throughout the article. I do not think this is the Wikipedia way; either form is acceptable, so editors should not change an article from the form with which it was written. (For the same reason I'm not going to change it back.) The same edit also changed "initialism" into "initialization" so it may just be a bad spell-checker run amok. My personal preference is for one word, "callsign", but the FCC uses "call sign" and many others use "call letters" or just "calls". 18.26.0.18 03:54, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

RE: call sign vs callsign, may have done this while using a spell checking program. My main purpose was writing some articles in individual radios stations. Also, whenever I encounter an Americanism of the spelling of a word, I try to leave it alone. I have no problem with you changing it back if I inadvertently did that. If so, I apologize. I wish the ieSpell program was better able to adjust to this. Vaoverland 04:01, Mar 11, 2005 (UTC)

I deleted the Trivia section as per your request. Vaoverland 09:49, Mar 11, 2005 (UTC)

Call sign sharing
The article says: "The FCC allows FM and TV stations under common ownership with a three-letter AM or FM in the same market to use five-letter (three plus "-FM" or "-TV" suffix) callsigns" (emphasis added). I think that the "in the same market" limitation is either no longer applicable or there are exceptions, such as KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and KCBS (AM) and KCBS-FM in San Francisco.

--Hillrhpc 04:07, 25 July 2005 (UTC)


 * KCBS is not a grandfathered three-letter call. There are no restrictions on the reuse of four-letter calls with service suffix other than consent of the longest incumbent owner.  121a0012 03:09, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

Short Callsigns - Another Exception
I'm thinking a paragraph might be wrong.

The FCC allows FM and TV stations under common ownership with a three-letter AM or FM in the same market to use five-letter (three plus "-FM" or "-TV" suffix) callsigns...

KOB-TV (Albuquerque, New Mexico) still uses a three-letter callsign, although it hasn't had common ownership with KOB Radio (now KKOB) for at least 25 years. And, as I just pointed out, KOB Radio no longer uses the three-letter callsign; it's now four letters (KKOB), which happened in 1986, well after KOB-TV/Radio split up.

Are KOB-TV and WJZ-TV (mentioned in the article) just grandfathered in, then? -Oddtoddnm 05:36, August 7, 2005 (UTC)


 * KOB-TV is grandfathered, yes, for the reasons you state. WJZ-TV is not grandfathered&mdash;the original grant of WJZ-TV was exceptional (and probably a mistake on the part of the FCC staff, although I have not researched the primary sources&mdash;if any are available&mdash;to see how it was treated administratively).  Remember that this article is not intended to be a compendium of all stations which have grandfathered callsigns; the stations mentioned are only by way of example.  121a0012 21:12, August 7, 2005 (UTC)

Why???
This article doesn't answer the fundamental question. Why do these exist? We get on fine without them in the UK, and they are not exactly snappy marketing tools. What is the point of them? Who made the decision to use them and why? 82.35.34.11 22:46, 21 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Whatever reasons governments may have had for introducing call signs in the 1920s are probably out-of-scope for this article. The short answer to your question is: there are more than 20,000 broadcast stations in North America.  How else are you going to keep them all straight?  (The UK gets on fine without a lot of things USians consider necessary, as one might well expect for a country the size of Minnesota!)  121a0012 02:22, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

I also find it fascinating that most US tv stations use them for identity, instead of making up a more snappy or more memorable title. It must just be a cultural difference, but WRCTV doesn't really do it for me. (I don't think Minnesota pop 4,919,479 can be compared seriously with the UK pop 59,834,300) —This unsigned comment was added by 82.42.121.167 (talk • contribs).


 * The correct comparison is 225,000 km&sup2; versus 245,000 km&sup2;. 121a0012 02:39, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Then Russia's the greatest, most important country in the world. Congratulations to them. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.42.121.167 (talk • contribs).


 * Congratulations for introducing an irrelevant strawman. Do you have a real point?  121a0012 01:15, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

In the UK, most broadcasting is thru transmitters whose entire on-air time (often 24 hours a day) is dedicated to one or more networks; call signs were eventually deemed superfluous as the network brand was more important. (Even most ITV stations, the closest UK equivalent to the U.S. model, are now branded as "ITV1" followed by the franchise region.) In the U.S., however, most stations are independently-owned "affiliates" of the networks, and FCC rules prohibit the networks from feeding them programming 24/7; therefore, except for small groups of "satellite" stations, each U.S. station has an independent programming schedule, switching to the network only when it operates. (Local stations can also choose not to carry network programming at all; a famous example of that was The Book of Daniel where local-station boycotts played a major role in its cancellation after only four episodes.) For this reason, call signs (or "call letters" as they're usually called in the U.S., though the FCC prefers "call sign") continue to be required by the FCC as station identification, even though the ITU no longer requires them for broadcasting. Stations can also promote other informal branding ahead of the call letters, which is increasingly common (especially in FM radio); however, many stations are so well-known by their call letters (especially in television) that they continue to use them as their primary branding.

The nations' differing approaches to digital television will only widen this gap. UK digital stations are operated as "multiplexes" which lease their virtual channels to broadcasters, whether thru Freeview (most commonly) or Top Up TV; even channel numbers are assigned nationwide. In the U.S., however, digital multicasts are controlled by the local station, and are most commonly subsidiary services to the primary feed which is usually a high-definition version of the analog station; even virtual channel numbers are derived from the analog station to protect local branding (and will be even after the analog stations die in February 2009). Except for the now-defunct USDTV service, virtual channels are seldom leased to outside entities; the closest equivalent to the UK model is in small markets which didn't have all of the networks before DTV, where the station owner decides to offer one or more previously-missing networks on a subchannel as a new revenue stream. (For example, WTOK-TV in Meridian, Mississippi, primarily an ABC affiliate, now carries both Fox and The CW as digital subchannels, and a secondary MyNetworkTV affiliation on the Fox subchannel. Subchannels also played a role in the split of KFTA-TV from KNWA-TV in the Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas market to produce a Fox affiliate; each station now carries the other on a digital subchannel.)

All of this will continue to preserve the key underlying fact: While "local" stations are pretty much irrelevant in the UK, they are still very important in the U.S.  --RBBrittain 22:49, 1 September 2007 (UTC)


 * That's some pretty interesting and well written stuff. You should incorporate that into the article!! --Pilotboi / talk / contribs 22:56, 1 September 2007 (UTC)


 * A bit after the fact, but I agree that the above info would add greatly to the article, and explain WHY we have call signs in the US by contrasting our system to the UK. Adding Australia (purely because of the cultural similarities) would also be very interesting if someone had that info.  Sources, too.  Pharmboy 01:03, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

US W and K call sign regions
I don't think that the W and K convention for east/west of the Mississippi has been followed for many years. There are too many (new, not grandfathered) exceptions to this for it to be true anymore. I think the FCC is allocating these either on demand (vanity), or sequentially for both prefixes, without respect to geographic location. --ssd 00:14, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
 * The FCC rules say otherwise, and your mention of new exceptions is news to me. Can you name some?  121a0012 02:00, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, it is certainly not true in the way they do the amateur radio call sign allocations; the region is strictly on the digit in the middle, not the prefix, which seems to be allocated by class, not location. (Currently, tech gets KI, extra gets AI.)  Half my local commercial stations are K, half are W.  --ssd 14:12, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't know that the K/W split has ever been relevant to the amateur service (or even to broadcast auxiliary services; one station near where I used to live had auxiliary licenses KEH93, KEH94, WHA855, and WHA856). Perhaps the article can more clearly express that all the rules described are for broadcast stations only.  As for your local broadcast stations, in order for that to be the case, you must live in a market that straddles the Mississippi, as discussed in the article, or else in a very small community west of the Mississippi but in the central time zone (the western boundary of which roughly follows the old K/W line). Experimental broadcast callsigns, although allocated out of the amateur series, do follow the division.  121a0012 02:48, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I think the K/W split did apply to amateur many years ago. Clearly it no longer does.  As to my local stations being K/W, I'm on the east coast, so I don't think the market straddles the Mississippi.  I think the FCC uses a lot of these rules as guidelines, but in the last 5 years has been happy to ignore them when convenient. --ssd 07:49, 30 December 2005 (UTC)


 * If you are on the east coast, then it is certainly not the case that "half [your] local commercial stations are K, half W". There are only seven "eastern K" stations anywhere in the country, and only two of them (KYW and KYW-TV) are on the east coast.  (For the record, the other five are KDKA, KDKA-TV, KQV, KTGG, and KFIZ.  The first three are in Pittsburgh, KTGG is in Michigan, and KFIZ is in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.)  Even the "Mississippi Valley" exception covers very few stations; outside of Louisiana and Minnesota, there are (according to the FCC's own database) only eleven such stations.  121a0012 02:48, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

K anomalies

 * KDKA got its callsign as a result of the point in time in which it was licensed; it was the first non-government licensed station (other non-gov stations were amateur and had random calls) and was assigned the next available call in the sequence. This was by the Bureau of Navigation, predating the FCC and the K-W/Mississippi rule (though during a hiatus between June 1920 and April 1921 of the Bureau's rule of giving K-calls to ships and W-calls to land stations). The restoration of that ship/land K/W rule also led to the assignment of WBAP. http://earlyradiohistory.us/recap.htm . Also, http://earlyradiohistory.us/kwtrivia.htm has more trivia on K/W anomalies. - Keith D. Tyler &para; (AMA) 06:14, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Why K and W
I have heard that, back in the 1920s (maybe before), there were two major manufacturers of radio equipment in the US, King and Westinghouse, and that each lobbied the FCC to use their letters to license stations as a means of self-advertising. Though I've heard this from several people in the radio industry and other technologists, I haven't been able to find documentary proof of this. If it's true, it would be an interesting addition to this article. If not, I guess it is just urban legend. Comments? Truthanado 17:18, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
 * In Call sign, the following is stated (unsourced, I'd love to see a source on this):
 * The U.S. was represented by the military at the 1927 conference which is why it received "A" (for Army) and "N" (for Navy). The "W" and "K" for civilian stations followed as the simple addition of a dash to the Morse code letters "A" and "N".
 * It sounds as good as any other explanation I've heard. -- Gridlock Joe 18:29, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Informal use on International Space Station
I notice that astronaut Clayton Anderson has been call-signing as "KISS" during informal radio communications with mission control. For instance, during the farewell ceremony as the STS-120 crew were leaving the ISS Anderson (from Nebraska) played music ("Danny Boy", to welcome newly arrived crew member Dan Tani) over the comm link with Houston, saying that he was broadcasting as "KISS Radio".--Coconino 20:55, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Canadian call signs starting with "CB"
To the best of my knowledge, there is not any special agreement between the governments of Canada and Chile regarding the use of CB... call signs by stations belonging to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Rather, this practice was undertaken unilaterally by Canada. See Talk:Call sign for more details. Richwales 04:31, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

How'd you like to buy the letter "N?"
The article ITU prefix states that the United States has been assigned three letters as prefixes: K, W, and N. K and W are well-covered here, but N isn't mentioned at all. Is it reserved for some other purpose? Are there stations whose call signs begin with N? I've wandered around the related articles, but I haven't seen an explanation, and I think this article is the best place for it. Thanks. | Mr. Darcy talk 18:37, 11 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, there are two sorts of stations which use the letter "N" for their callsigns in the U.S.: stations belonging to the United States Navy and all aircraft. (By treaty, aircraft tail numbers are allocated from the flag nation's international call sign series.  This is explained in the main call sign article, if I'm not mistaken, or should be if it's not.)  I believe I've also seen "N" callsigns for some amateur stations, although I could well be wrong.  One broadcast station (a shortwave broadcaster based in the South) requested the callsign "NDXE", and was refused.  The U.S. also has AAA–ALZ, and I don't know what use it has other than some ham call signs.  An example of a Navy station is NAA at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, but I don't know anything about it (or if it even still exists at all) so someone else will have to write about that.  121a0012 01:14, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Great answer, thank you. I created an article on NAA (radio station); the facility now appears to be in Cutler, Maine, although I found several references to one in the first half of the 20th century based in Arlington, Virginia. | Mr. Darcy talk 01:42, 12 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I think I remember reading that, as "N" is the initial used for US Navy stations, the "A" series are US Army stations. I have nothing to back this up, though; anybody else? -- Kevin F. Story  ( talk ) 18:49, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

There are as many N prefix amateur call assignments available as K and W. 151.204.233.138 16:00, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

TV boosters
Someone keeps on adding nonsense about TV boosters being "impossible" (which I'm sure must surprise existing TV booster licensees in the U.S., and probably the people in the Media Bureau responsible for the rules in 47 CFR 701 et seq which govern their licensing and operation). Please stop. 121a0012 01:36, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

-DT suffix
The article currently states that "For digital television, the –HD and later –DT suffixes are usually not used (one exception being KKYK-DT), as the digital channel is not usually licensed separately from the analogue." Is there a source for this? The US television station I work for has separate licenses for the analog and digital transmitters and identifies them both on the air, as ????-TV/????-DT. Thomprod (talk) 15:16, 5 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Can you identify any provision in the FCC rules that allows for "-DT" callsigns? I have searched multiple times and have yet to find any.  I have asked the Media Bureau for clarification, but have had no response.  I am not aware even of any rule that would allow analogue and digital to be licensed separately; it's one license with two transmitters.  ("International broadcasting" stations are licensed the same way.)  I believe the case of KKYK (and about a dozen others -- see my comments about this at WT:TVS) may actually be a clerical error.  The FCC does not restrict what stations may say in their legal ID provided that the required information is given in the manner and order set out in 73.1201.  121a0012 (talk) 05:55, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Article should not have been moved
The context actually is North America. Most of the world does not assign call signs to its broadcast stations, and this article contains (or at least used to contain -- I haven't checked the history to see if that information was destroyed) information about call-sign assignment practices generally in those countries, including amateur, experimental, and government stations. 121a0012 (talk) 15:12, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree. I left a message at User talk:Radiojon, asking why he changed the article name, but it's been 4 days and he hasn't responded.  Combined with this edit it appears to be a preliminary attempt to re-purpose the article.  Some article about callsigns in broadcasting worldwide may be an appropriate split from Call sign, but this article's scope is clearly geographic, it has always had the title "North American call sign", and has contained non-broadcasting usage for quite some time: mention of the ITU assignments in general has been in the article since the 5th edit; amateur and weather stations have been mentioned since the 11th edit.  If there are no other objections, this should be moved back to its accurate name, or split, lest someone retroactively declare the contents to be "out of scope" without consensus. --Closeapple (talk) 04:53, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
 * No word from User:Radiojon after 3 months: see Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive538. Seems to have been a drive-by.  So I've moved this back to an appropriate title for the article's scope.  I've picked the title "Callsigns in North America" because it just seems to follow Wikipedia style better (easier to find "North America" than "North American" for example), and I chose "Callsigns" instead of "Call signs" because searching for "callsign" and "call sign" (with quotes) turns up a lot more articles with "callsign" run together, so it seems that's the consensus wording. --Closeapple (talk) 07:19, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism?
The last sentence of the "Short Call Signs" section looks like vandalism to me. Anyone disagree? Tigerboy1966 (talk) 11:22, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Need Clarification/Guidelines on Suffixes
I need some guidelines on when to use which suffix for a callsign because the example given in the article is a bit unclear. I have four questions involving how to cite callsigns+suffix correctly, and would greatly appreciate the rationale behind the answer(s).

Shared callsign, same broadcaster
In 1990, the callsign WNYC was shared by an AM station, an FM station, and a TV station. All three stations were run/owned/operated/etc. by a single entity (the City of New York). If I want to refer to the AM station alone, do I use "WNYC (AM)" or "WNYC-AM"? ("WNYC" would have referred to all three collectively.)
 * The official callsign is "WNYC". For avoidance of confusion, it is normal practice in most parts of the trade and the trade press to write "WNYC (AM)".  The AP style guide calls for the erroneous "WNYC-AM" form, which is also used by some writers in the trade, particularly those involved in public and press relations, including the ratings companies.  121a0012 (talk) 05:49, 19 April 2010 (UTC)


 * And to address Wikipedia style directly, the short answer to your question is that "WNYC (AM)" is correct because the AM station has no legal suffix but needs to be disambiguated from WNYC-FM and the former WNYC-TV. Details:
 * If there is (or was) more than one station with the same base callsign, use parentheses on the one that has no suffix. U.S. AM stations never have a suffix, so if there's an AM, that's the one with the parentheses: "WNYC (AM)".  If there's no AM, then FM or TV could be the one without a suffix.  That is, they could be "WNYC (FM)" and "WNYC-TV", or "WNYC-FM" and "WNYC (TV)", or "WNYC-FM" and "WNYC-TV".  You just have to look it up in the official records to figure out which; indeed, there are some callsigns hanging around out there with only suffixes.
 * If there was never a station with a suffix, just the single station without one, then you almost never need parentheses on the title: "WNYC", whether AM, FM, or TV.
 * Consider making a redirect from the "wrong titles" to the standard titles also: e.g. making "WNYC-AM" a redirect to "WNYC (AM)", and making "WNYC (FM)" a redirect to "WNYC-FM", etc. Or if only one station exists, "WNYC-AM" and "WNYC (AM)" to "WNYC".
 * All that being said: Note that right now, the real WNYC (AM) New York and WNYC-FM New York specifically happen to be a strange special case, in that the AM and FM are discussed in the same Wikipedia article, the stations themselves often broadcast the same programs at the same time (but not always), and WNYC-TV has long since changed callsign, so that using the simple title "WNYC" makes sense for the radio stations; normally, AM and FM would have separate articles. Nevertheless: if you create a link for only one of the stations in another article, using WNYC (AM) or WNYC-FM would be the right way to refer to a specific station, in case the real WNYC article is ever split. --Closeapple (talk) 15:17, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Shared callsign, different broadcasters
Assume that the callsign WXYZ is in use by an AM station, an FM station, and a TV station. The three stations are independent of one another - they have nothing in common except for the callsign. If I want to refer to the AM station alone, do I use "WXYZ (AM)" or "WXYZ-AM"? ("WXYZ" would clearly require a disambiguation page.)


 * The answer is the same regardless of how many owners are involved. (There could be as many as five different licensees: WXXX, WXXX-FM, WXXX-TV, WXXX-LP, and WXXX-{LD,CA,CD}.)  121a0012 (talk) 05:50, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Digital displaces analog
"WNET-TV" and "WNET-DT" unambiguously refer to WNET's pre-conversion analog and digital channels when both were on the air, but should I refer to WNET post-conversion as "WNET-DT" in order to maintain consistency with its digital sub-channels ("WNET-DT2", and "WNET-DT3"), or should I refer to it as "WNET-TV"?


 * You should use whichever is the callsign assigned to the station. Present FCC practice allows full-power TV stations which use a suffix to be either "-TV" or "-DT", but not both.  You've actually chosen a bad example here, because WNET does not use a suffix; its callsign is "WNET" and only that.  If you want to refer to the subchannels separately, in situations were it is relevant, I would suggest "WNET 13.2" and "WNET 13.3".  (Note that one digital multiplex may host channels from more than one primary station; in the case of the Fox-owned stations in Los Angeles, as I understand it, KCOP-TV hosts an 11.x virtual channel and KTTV hosts a 13.x virtual channel to provide a backup transmission path for the each other should a transmitter failure occur.  The FCC has also indicated its willingness to accept a "time-sharing" arrangement where multiple licensees might divide the bandwidth on a single multiplex, in which case the transmission facility would legally have two licenses and thus two callsigns, each entitled to a share of the bandwidth.)  121a0012 (talk) 06:03, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Sub-channel simulcasts
WNYW-DT and WWOR-DT have two digital sub-channels each. The second sub-channel is a simulcast of the other's primary channel (WNYW-DT2 simulcasts WWOR-DT and WWOR-DT2 simulcasts WNYW-DT). If I want to refer to something aired on WNYW-DT2, should I cite "WNYW-DT2", "WWOR-DT", "WNYW-DT2 (simulcast of WWOR-DT)", or "WWOR-DT (as simulcasted by WNYW-DT2)"?

&#x25aa; NeoAmsterdam TalkEdits 01:04, 29 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I would refer to it as "WWOR-TV (as simulcasted on WNYW's subchannel 5.2)" or "WWOR-TV 9.1 (as simulcasted on WNYW's subchannel 5.2)". --Closeapple (talk) 15:27, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

"Least significant digit"?
What is this sentence trying to say: these were always four letters, of which the third was the least-significant digit and the second was the most-significant digit of the sequence number.? --Biologos (talk) 07:48, 8 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Exactly what it says, I think. Sequential callsigns were given out in sequence, as base-26 numbers, with the digits arranged p213 (where p is the W or K prefix, 3 is the least-significant digit (26**0), 1 is the most-significant digit (26**2), and 2 is the digit in between (26**1).  So the sequence of sequential assignments was, for example, WAAY, WAAZ, WBAA, WBAB, ..., WZAZ, WABA, WABB (assuming those callsigns were not already assigned as "vanity" calls or to ships at the time they came up).  In the early 1990s, the "W" sequence had gotten to W_U_, and the Commission actually issued WFUB (now WJDF 97.3A Orange) followed immediately by WFUC (now WBAA-FM).  Not long after, they eliminated the option of sequential callsigns for primary stations and required permittees to select a callsign before program test authority is granted.  121a0012 (talk) 05:35, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
 * So now I see that it doesn't actually say what I thought it said. The explanation above is what I understand to be correct; the article as it stands is clearly wrong.  Feel free to edit it.  (The question comes up from time to time because many early stations had W_A_ or K_A_ callsigns that were issued in sequence, but it's not obvious at first glance how a very early station like WMAF, say, could be "sequential" with the big-endian writing system normally used for digits.)  121a0012 (talk) 05:39, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
 * The last edit by Closeapple (03:11, 25 May 2010) clarifies this now (like you did here, 121a0012): with the fourth letter being least significant and changing each time, the second letter being the next most significant, and the third letter being the least significant and changing only after every combination of second and fourth letter was exhausted. Thanks to both of you.--Biologos (talk) 07:40, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

why??
The article should start with an explanation of *why* callsigns are used in the US..! 194.90.46.228 (talk) 14:47, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Or perhaps articles about other places should explain why call signs are not used there. It's just an arbitrary convention, after all.  All of the countries in North America use call signs for private stations, and their practices are described in this article.  Historically, all of CCIR/ITU Region 2 assigned call signs to their stations, even though most South American stations only used their call signs on government paperwork; these are reflected in the international notifications of AM stations provided by parties to international coordination treaties.  I expect you won't find a reliable source that gives a verifiable reason; it just turned out that way because that's how the various countries were regulating things at the dawn of the broadcasting age.  121a0012 (talk) 04:20, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Stations matching city of license
Footnote 9 says "^ The others are WARE (1250 Ware, Massachusetts) and WISE-FM (90.5 Wise, Virginia)." KCMO (AM710) is also the name of it's served area: Kansas City, Missouri. Should this be updated? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.147.192.230 (talk) 00:19, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I think that was mentioned only in passing as trivia in the article. Also, WACO, WARE, and WISE-FM are exact matches, but less-exact matches like "KCMO" are not unusual at all: There are many stations with callsigns chosen to look like a city name without being able to match exactly.  Just in Missouri, for example, there are also KMRN Cameron, KAPE & KGIR Cape Girardeau, KAOL Carrolton, KCKC Kansas City, KIRX & KRXL Kirksville, and KIRK (FM) Macon might be named for Kirksville also.  Kansas has KCLY Clay Center and KANS Emporia (presumably after the state, not city).  (And in case anyone wonders: The callsign KCKS has been assigned in the past to 94.9 at Concordia, Kansas and now to 101.7 at Hamilton City, California but, as far as I can tell, never to a station near Kansas City, Kansas.) --Closeapple (talk) 19:20, 11 June 2012 (UTC)