A recent Inside Radio story about Saga Communications’ efforts to restore the KSO callsign in Des Moines raises the interesting topic of the continued use of historic three-letter callsigns in the region.
In fact, of the six remaining three-letter callsigns still used in the Upper Midwest, five area in Iowa and used by nine total AM, FM, and TV stations. Most are in central Iowa.
WOI (Ames) exists on AM, FM, and TV, split between two entities. Iowa State University owns the radio stations, which carry public radio formats and are in the process of being officially transferred to Iowa Public Radio. The TV station, channel 5, is an ABC affiliate that was once owned by ISU but later sold to commercial broadcasters and is now owned by Tegna.
WHO (Des Moines) continues on AM and TV, also split between two entities. iHeartRadio owns WHO/1040 carrying News and Conservative Talk, while Nexstar owns NBC affiliate WHO-DT/13.
iHeart also owns two other three-letter callsign stations in Iowa that carry News and Conservative Talk: WMT/600 (Cedar Rapids) and WOC/1420 (Davenport).
Meanwhile, southwestern Iowa is home to KMA/960 (Shenandoah) and KMA-FM/99.1 (Clarinda), which are locally-owned and simulcast a Farm/News/Talk format. A report on their 2019 sale detailed KMA’s history.
The only other remaining three-letter callsign in the Upper Midwest is WHA, used by Wisconsin Public Radio’s WHA/970 (Madison) and PBS Wisconsin flagship WHA-TV/21.1 (Madison).
It’s interesting to note that of the 11 facilities listed here, only six primarily brand themselves with their historic callsigns. Outside of legal ID’s, the public media stations are known by their network names while WOI-DT uses the moniker “Local 5” with the web brand “We Are Iowa.”
Minnesota has not had a three-letter callsign since the University of Minnesota’s WLB became KUOM in 1945. Omaha’s legendary WOW callsign was lost when 590 became KOMJ in 1999 followed by 94.1 switching to KSSO in 2000, though it lives on in spirit with WOWT/6.1 (formerly WOW-TV).
So, what about bringing back three-letter callsigns? It’s difficult. The FCC has allowed three-letter callsigns to be transferred to other stations when they have not yet been surrendered, but once they’re given up, there’s no guarantee of getting them back.
United States Early Radio History has a comprehensive list of all of the three-letter callsigns still in use nationally.