What do the abbreviations mean for local news affiliates?
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That’s called a “call sign.”
Aside from the fact that call signs starting with K and W are (usually) reserved for stations West and East of the Mississippi, respectively, they have no significance.
A station can request a particular call sign as long as it’s not already taken, but otherwise the FCC distributes them randomly or sequentially. Call signs used to be three letters long but they started running out in the 1920s so now they’re four letters.
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