Which came first: The K, the W or all the little chicks?

Today’s question:

I have lived on both sides of the Mississippi River. Why do the radio and TV call letters on the east side start with a W and the west side with a K?

In the early days of broadcast radio, operators gave themselves call letters willy-nilly.

Then the government stepped in and decided that to keep things orderly a line should be drawn north from the Texas-New Mexico border. Stations west of the line started with a K and stations to the east started with a W.

Why K and W? No special reason. Later on, the government moved the line to the Mississippi. Some stations that already had W or K wanted to keep them so things got mixed up to the point that today there are W’s and K’s all over the place.

And then, of course, there are TV networks — ABC, NBC, CBS and so on.

And some radio stations are acronyms — WGN is for World’s Greatest Newspaper and WWCR is for World Wide Country Radio.

Here in Arizona, this newspaper was once in the radio business. Hence, KTAR stood for Keep Taking the When a chicken goes “broody” and lays a bunch of eggs in a nest, sometimes it takes eight or ten days to complete this. Then there is a 21-day incubation period. How is it possible for all of the chicks to pop out at about the same time?

A hen may lay one or two eggs a day, but she doesn’t starting incubating them — sitting on them — until all the eggs are there. That way all the eggs hatch at roughly the same time.