Border Blasting into Russia for Jesus 2025 Nov 12    kicy.org
I just learned the concept of a border blaster – that is, a radio station that broadcasts from one country specifically over the border and into another. The term was coined when describing stations that skirted American broadcasting rules by being based in northern Mexico, but with programming in English carried by strong signals situated specifically to reach American audiences.

And then there's KICY. By day, it's your normal Nome, Alaska AM radio station transmitting Christian programming at 5000 W in English for all the people of Western Alaska. But each evening at 11 PM, they crank it up to an amazing 50,000 W of power so as to scatter their now-Russian language Christian programming to all the peoples of Siberia. And apparently the FCC is completely on board with this. Although a small part of me can't help but speculate at the State Department's involvement and that approval – I mean, the local senator donates use of his private airplane to fly the staff on retreats to an exclusive hot springs vacation. C'mon.

What's up with radio station call signs? 2025 Feb 19    bigthink.com
Why do American radio stations west of the Mississippi River start with K whereas those to the east start with W? This Big Think / Strange Maps article doesn't answer that question, exactly. It comes close, but it never quite addresses why we need two different prefix letters depending on which side of the country you're on. Because one prefix wouldn't have been enough? So someone crash landing on our planet can quickly determine which side of the Mississippi they've landed on? Because America got assigned those prefixes in the international negotiations and by golly we're going to use them? No answer is forthcoming.

But I link this article anyway because it does at least provide some interesting trivia around the entire topic. Namely, why the letters K and W in particular? We learn that the Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunications Union assign the US four prefixes: K-, W-, A-, and half of N-.

It seems that the letters A and N apply only to military radio stations (A to Army and Air Force, N to Navy and Coast Guard) – and that they are the basis of the otherwise seemingly random choice for K and W. The Morse Code for A is dot-dash (.-) and for N is dash-dot (-.). Add a dash to each, and you get W (dot-dash-dash, or .--) and K (dash-dot-dash, or -.-).

I also learned that "radio call signs are reversed out on the ocean. Ship radios on America’s Pacific coast start with W, and with K on the Atlantic side."

So what about all those terrestrial radio stations that start with W- or K- but aren't on the appropriate side of the Mississippi river? The article enumerates the exceptions and provides the reasons for each, except for the three nobody can explain. The majority stem from the K/W divide prior to 1923 being placed further west. Some others come from radio stations which were once "portable" or otherwise moved or were granted exceptions. And one in particular (KTGG) was because someone in government "mistook Michigan for Missouri" – amazing.

And then there's the fact that while the Mississippi River forms the border for most of the states it passes alongside, it bisects Louisiana and has its headwaters inside Minnesota, meaning those states' radio call signs are all over the place, apparently.

So, basically, it's all arbitrary.