New call letters for Portland station

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The blog of the Public Radio Program Directors has helpfully pointed out that Portland’s classical public radio station, KBPS, has changed its call letters to KQAC. The name of the nonprofit running the station is now All Classical Public Media Inc., rather than KBPS Public Radio Foundation.

I appreciate the change, if only because KBPS was one of those stations that, when writing or editing for Current, I invariably botch. I turn it into KPBS, thanks to the existence of PBS and also of KPBS, a public broadcaster in San Diego. (I’m amused to see that even the PRPD blog did the same thing.) Other stations that have caused me similar headaches are WMUB in Oxford, Ohio, and WUMB in Boston.

What did KBPS stand for, anyway? “Benson Polytechnic School,” a Portland high school, according to the National Public Broadcasting Archives. (The station was previously licensed to the Portland school board before becoming an independent nonprofit.) Check out the NPBA website to geek out about station call letters and their sometimes obscure origins.

Where did your station’s call letters come from?

About Mike Janssen

Mike Janssen Served as Scanning The Dial's original co-authors from Mar, 2008 to Jan, 2010 and is a freelance writer, editor and media educator based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He has written extensively about radio, mostly for Current, the trade newspaper about public broadcasting, where his articles have appeared since 1999. He has also worked in public radio as a reporter at WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he began his career in journalism and filed pieces for NPR. Mike's work in radio expanded to include outreach and advocacy in 2007, when he worked with the Future of Music Coalition to recruit applicants for noncommercial radio stations. He has since embarked on writing a series of articles about radio hopefuls for FMC's blog.

Mike also writes regularly for Retail Traffic magazine and teaches workshops about writing, podcasting and radio journalism. In his spare time he enjoys vegetarian food, the outdoors, reading, movies and traveling. You can learn more about Mike and find links to more of his writing and reporting at mikejanssen.net.

View all posts by Mike Janssen

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