Rick Minerd - Life Is A Jukebox

Radio station call letters once actually stood for something as opposed to merely being three letters that are designed to express something. Keep in mind that first one, always a "W"  on this side of the country, except of course  for Pittsburgh's  KDKA  which was grandfathered before this distinction was outlined.

Locally some were pretty cool. WCOL kind of speaks for itself.  And as an old WNCI promo used to announce,  "The  N  is for Nationwide."

Precisely it was Nationwide Communications Incorporated back when the insurance giant owned it. Another of my Alma Maters, WRFD was Rural Farm Delivery. It was a station owned by the farm bureau. 

WMNI  was named after the stations founder, William R. Mnich.  The first three letters of the family's last name. As a matter of fact, what is now called WBZX, or  "The Blitz"  was once called WRMZ.

The "Old Mans" initials. And I say that in a respectful way.  "The Old Man"  was what every station manager was called back in the day. And later WRMZ became WMGG.  See the pattern?

WTVN   was WHKC renamed. It may have had something to do with it's affiliation with what was then called WTVN-TV-now called WSYX.

WOSU. Hmmmm. This one's a mystery.

WCBE stands for Columbus Board of Edcucation and my favorite was WBNS.  Banks, News and Shoes. For as long as I can remember it has been owned by the Wolfe Family, printers of the Columbus Dispatch and owners of other news sources.  I understand the books and news reference, but I've always been puzzled by the shoes.

Maybe someone can shed some light on that for me.

WBBY which used to occupy a spot around 104 on the FM band was owned and operated by Bill Bates.

I'm sure there are many other histories behind radio call-letters in the area and as always, I welcome e-mails and I'd be happy to share them here.

Another interesting radio name recently came to light and it involves the resurrection of WTVN's old name, WHKC. Now an FM station and owned by a guy  I met more than thirty years ago, and who Central Ohio became familiar with when he prowled the Columbus skies as channel 4's chopper pilot and reporter, Robb Case.

When I met Rob I think he was still in high school. He was a DJ for USA Roller Skating Rink and our station, WNCI was there for what else, "WNCI Night."  Robb was one of those hip dudes who gave us a crash course on public performance. The  "kid"  had the live-DJ  thing down to a science.

And now he owns his own station. Good for him. And the story behind the WHKC call letters is they are his spouses initials. Chivalry lives. But then that's how I remember Robb Case.    Rick

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• #1 Comment from mudrunlogs 
  12/22/07 11:50 AM | Permalink

  WBBY stood for Wild Bill Bates Yeah !!!!!!!!!  In the early 70's when the format was solid gold....it stood for We Bring Back Yesterday.