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You know you are old when..this all makes sense.

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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How about calling the phone company number for the time?

“At the tone, the time will be 1:12pm and 40 seconds.” Beep!
Believe it or not they had to have a highly technical time device for the timings of the telephone network. One of the timing devices was an atomic clock using strontium to keep the time.
 

James

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Who used to listen to WWV from Ft Collins for the time from the atomic clock?
Apparently, the station will celebrate 100yrs this October. (Why is it a 'W' station west of the Mississippi?)

You know your old when a station wagon meant you could fit a full sheet of plywood in it.
 

Uncle-A

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Who used to listen to WWV from Ft Collins for the time from the atomic clock?
Apparently, the station will celebrate 100yrs this October. (Why is it a 'W' station west of the Mississippi?)

.
Don't you mean east of the Mississippi because we have WNEW, WABC, etc.? Are the west stations starting with a "C" like CKLA or CKLW ?
 

Sibhusky

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He's saying it should be a K, not a W, because Fort Collins is West of the Mississippi. It probably indicates how old the station is.

"In 1912, several countries attended a conference to discuss international radiotelegraphs. One of the things that came out of that meeting was the assignment or specific letters to identify each countries radio and television signals. The United States was given the letters W, K, N, and A.

The letters ‘N’ and ‘A’ were given to military stations, but ‘K’ and ‘W’ were assigned out for commercial use. Radio stations east of the Mississippi River had to start their stations with ‘W’, and stations west of the Mississippi with ‘K’. There is some discrepancy though since radio stations that already existed before this rule was put in place weren’t required to change their name."

Around here they are all K's.

Don't you mean east of the Mississippi because we have WNEW, WABC, etc.? Are the west stations starting with a "C" like CKLA or CKLW ?
 
Last edited:

dbostedo

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He's saying it should be a K, not a W, because Fort Collins is West of the Mississippi. It probably indicates how old the station is.

"In 1912, several countries attended a conference to discuss international radiotelegraphs. One of the things that came out of that meeting was the assignment or specific letters to identify each countries radio and television signals. The United States was given the letters W, K, N, and A.

The letters ‘N’ and ‘A’ were given to military stations, but ‘K’ and ‘W’ were assigned out for commercial use. Radio stations east of the Mississippi River had to start their stations with ‘W’, and stations west of the Mississippi with ‘K’. There is some discrepancy though since radio stations that already existed before this rule was put in place weren’t required to change their name."

Around here they are all K's.

Regarding WWV, according to Wikipedia :

The earliest formal record of WWV's existence is in the October 1, 1919 issue of the Department of Commerce's Radio Service Bulletin, where it is listed as a new "experimental station"[24] assigned to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C, with the randomly issued call letters of WWV.

So it wasn't a regular station and got randomly assigned letters... then once it became a regular station it didn't change. I guess.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, where we have the misnamed KDKA radio station (and KQV). KDKA got a K because there was some short period of time in 1920/21 where all stations were being given Ks for some reason, and it reverted back a short time later. There are quite a few other exceptions too apparently :

https://www.bnd.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/answer-man/article66843127.html
 

Uncle-A

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You've never been west of the Mississippi with the radio on. Sibhusky covered it. They're 'K'
From Seattle:
https://www.kexp.org/listen/?t=1555859043388
It seems that when I was in California it was CKLA but that was back in the 1960's but my memory may be off. When I skied Colorado in the late 1970's and early 1980's I don't think I ever listened to the radio probably only tapes. When working in St. Louis very briefly, also don't remember any radio stations. But working in Detroit I remember CKLW the Motown Sound and that was January 1968.
 

dbostedo

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It seems that when I was in California it was CKLA but that was back in the 1960's but my memory may be off. When I skied Colorado in the late 1970's and early 1980's I don't think I ever listened to the radio probably only tapes. When working in St. Louis very briefly, also don't remember any radio stations. But working in Detroit I remember CKLW the Motown Sound and that was January 1968.

CKLW is a Canadian station... the K and W thing only applies to the US. I don't see any mention of "CKLA" in regard to California with some Googling... only to Canadian stations. KCLA is in San Pedro, CA.
 

Uncle-A

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It seems that when I was in California it was CKLA but that was back in the 1960's but my memory may be off. When I skied Colorado in the late 1970's and early 1980's I don't think I ever listened to the radio probably only tapes. When working in St. Louis very briefly, also don't remember any radio stations. But working in Detroit I remember CKLW the Motown Sound and that was January 1968.
I have to make a correction CKLW Was from Windsor Canada just across the river from Detroit. But many people like myself thought it was a Detroit radio station.
 

Uncle-A

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CKLW is a Canadian station... the K and W thing only applies to the US. I don't see any mention of "CKLA" in regard to California with some Googling... only to Canadian stations. KCLA is in San Pedro, CA.
KCLA San Pedro maybe I was dyslexic when I was surfing in Ocean Side California.
 

James

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KCLA San Pedro maybe I was dyslexic when I was surfing in Ocean Side California.
You ever seen the story of how the surfers helped get us to the Moon? Had to do with building the Saturn V rocket and the insulation. North American in Downey hired surfers cause they were good at using the foam they needed on the rocket. Surfers had experience with it building boards.
Very interesting. Go to Amazon and purchase "Moon Machines" amazing dvd. It was a series done for the science channel. I believe the surfer part was in the Sat V episode, but it could be command module.
Can't rec that dvd highly enough. It's about building it, the engineers, the first (non top secret) digital computer. Amazing.
Wow, just looked it up, it's gone way up. I have at least 2 copies. Still worth it. Parts are on youtube though.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0026IQTR2
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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You ever seen the story of how the surfers helped get us to the Moon? Had to do with building the Saturn V rocket and the insulation. North American in Downey hired surfers cause they were good at using the foam they needed on the rocket. Surfers had experience with it building boards.
Very interesting. Go to Amazon and purchase "Moon Machines" amazing dvd. It was a series done for the science channel. I believe the surfer part was in the Sat V episode, but it could be command module.
Can't rec that dvd highly enough. It's about building it, the engineers, the first (non top secret) digital computer. Amazing.
Wow, just looked it up, it's gone way up. I have at least 2 copies. Still worth it. Parts are on youtube though.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0026IQTR2
The guys that shape the surf boards are the ones that are good with foam. They custom make boards to customers specifications based on what performance they want from the board.
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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The only western radio station I know is WKRP. I guess that makes me old too.
BTW Turkey's don't fly.
The fat old Turkeys don't fly but the younger and lighter ones may get about 15 - 20 feet off the ground.
 

CalG

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When "party line" had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with calling your girl friend. ;-)
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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In the early days of the telephone switching equipment they didn't have enough equipment to provide private lines for all the customers. So if you would put up with a little inconvenience you could share a telephone line with other customers. They had two and four party lines that would cost you less than a private line. They were more common and lasted longer in rural areas. As part of the Universal Service Agreement AT&T had to provide phone service to all the small towns even in the middle of nowhere regardless of the cost to them. So they used party lines in those locations.
 

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