Our own vintage town

[Forgotten Man]

The time signal could be a duck call. Three o'clock...KWAC...KWAC...KWAC. K-W-A-C, the Fowl of the Air, Fedoraville.

At the sound of the Kwac, the time will be twelve O' Kwac! I LIKE THAT! Sounds silly but would have been something a station would have done of that era! Not even joking on that one! All sorts of gimmicks were used on the air of that era.

[jamespowers]

Bears repeating:






.

What are the Bears repeating?

[V.C. Brunswick]

At the sound of the Kwac, the time will be twelve O' Kwac! I LIKE THAT! Sounds silly but would have been something a station would have done of that era! Not even joking on that one! All sorts of gimmicks were used on the air of that era.

The call letters of many radio stations (and later TV stations) -- especially the old ones that have been around for many years -- had meanings, often reflecting the station's original ownership. In L.A., there's radio station KFWB (The Five Warner Brothers) which was owned by -- you guessed it -- Warner Brothers. KTTV Channel 11 (the Fox affiliate in L.A.) stood for "Times TV", its original owner being the L.A. Times.

Other examples I can think of are WLS in Chicago which was owned by Sears Roebuck and stood for "World's Largest Store". Radio station WCFL, which later became Chicago's first TV station was owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor.

KTAR (Phoenix radio station) - "The Arizona Republic" (newspaper)

[Fletch]

Oh boy, don't get me started. Every now and then someone will hear an old CBS broadcast identifying from New York and ask, "What's with this WABC?" Well sonny...there wasn't yet any ABC, for one thing, and for two things, CBS had a subsidiary, Atlantic Broadcasting Co., that existed to own their O&O stations. Thus WABC - and their TV station, which prior to going commercial was W2XAB. The call sign WCBS became theirs in 1946 when a station in Springfield, IL, agreed to let it go.

Some calls stick around long after the owners. KRNT, Des Moines, began in 1935 under the Register 'N Tribune papers. The Trib went the way of all afternoon dailies in the '80s, the Register got out of the broadcasting game, but KRNT it remains. Similarly, WMT of the Waterloo (IA) Morning Tribune stayed WMT even after moving to Cedar Rapids.

Sometimes the calls are hard to figure out. My dad and granddad both worked for KGLO in Mason City, IA, owned by the Globe-Gazette paper. I never knew what the call sign meant till just recently.

My favorite story was that of WEAF, the AT&T station that later become one of two NBC flagships. It got its name from the four elements: Water+Earth+Air+Fire.

[V.C. Brunswick]

I always thought it interesting that the major network affiliates in L.A. and New York paralleled each other. In New York there's WABC, WNBC and WCBS and in L.A. it's KABC, KNBC and KCBS, though the latter is fairly recent. For many years the CBS station was KNXT.

[Fletch]

Those are the O&Os (owned and operated). That's why they had/have the corporate identity. Didn't use to.

[Wally_Hood]

Oh boy, don't get me started. Every now and then someone will hear an old CBS broadcast identifying from New York and ask, "What's with this WABC?" Well sonny...there wasn't yet any ABC, for one thing, and for two things, CBS had a subsidiary, Atlantic Broadcasting Co., that existed to own their O&O stations. Thus WABC - and their TV station, which prior to going commercial was W2XAB. The call sign WCBS became theirs in 1946 when a station in Springfield, IL, agreed to let it go.

Some calls stick around long after the owners. KRNT, Des Moines, began in 1935 under the Register 'N Tribune papers. The Trib went the way of all afternoon dailies in the '80s, the Register got out of the broadcasting game, but KRNT it remains. Similarly, WMT of the Waterloo (IA) Morning Tribune stayed WMT even after moving to Cedar Rapids.

Sometimes the calls are hard to figure out. My dad and granddad both worked for KGLO in Mason City, IA, owned by the Globe-Gazette paper. I never knew what the call sign meant till just recently.

My favorite story was that of WEAF, the AT&T station that later become one of two NBC flagships. It got its name from the four elements: Water+Earth+Air+Fire.

In LA, KMPC = McMillan Petroleum Company; KTTV= Times Tele Vision; KTLA=Televison Los Angeles; KCOP= Copley Broadcasting; in Chicago, WGN=World's Greatest Newspaper, and WLS, from the Sears Tower=World's Largest Store; in San Fransciso, KRON=Chronicle newspaper.

There are oodles more from 'round the country.

[Prof. Steampunk]

I didn't quite make it through all 53 pages yet, but if you need a newspaperman, I'll be your Huckleberry. Had 20 years with 'em, first ones still with linotypes (look that up on Wikipedia, youngsters) and finished with ones sending computerized pages digitally to the press.

It could have a book store attached and the paper could print books as well (wanting to learn to make my own books, from making the paper, to setting the type, to making the covers).

Heck, I can even shoot sports pictures with old medium-format cameras and BULB flashes LOL

[Widebrim]

I didn't quite make it through all 53 pages yet, but if you need a newspaperman, I'll be your Huckleberry. Had 20 years with 'em, first ones still with linotypes (look that up on Wikipedia, youngsters) and finished with ones sending computerized pages digitally to the press.

It could have a book store attached and the paper could print books as well (wanting to learn to make my own books, from making the paper, to setting the type, to making the covers).

Heck, I can even shoot sports pictures with old medium-format cameras and BULB flashes LOL

And since you're into steampunk, I expect the printing press to be with linotypes! (Wood blocks would be even better.)

[Foofoogal]

Did our vintage town have a Christmas celebration this year in the town square? Cocoa and cookies for all perhaps?
Children singing and a brass band?
or a great Christmas parade.