in the same September 1934 newspaper article in which the KQV staff dated the station's founding to the predecessor 1919 activities, F. C. Potts was quoted as stating that in his opinion KQV's founding shouldn't be considered to have occurred until two years later, when the first KQV license was issued, endorsing an earlier slogan that the station was "On the Air since 1921." Unusual call sign Beginning in 1912 the normal practice had been to issue call letters starting with "K" only to land stations located in the western United States. It is unclear why KQV was not assigned a call sign starting with "W," which was the standard practice for stations located in the east. For the first half century of radio, KQV, KDKA, KFIZ in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and KYW, first in Chicago and now in Philadelphia, have been the only AM radio stations, still broadcasting to this day, with K call signs in eastern states. (In recent years, a handful of other K call signs have gone on the air in the east. Most are non-commercial FM stations whose construction permits were granted in the west but later were relocated to the east.) KQV's early years From 1912 to 1927, the Department of Commerce regulated U.S. radio, and initially there were no specific restrictions on stations wanting to engage in broadcasting entertainment to the general public. The first formal standards were adopted effective December 1, 1921, which specified that broadcasting stations had to hold a "Limited Commercial License" that also authorized operation on the "entertainment" wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) or the "market and weather reports" wavelength of 485 meters (619 kHz). At the time this regulation was adopted, a small number of stations already met the new requirements. This did not include KQV, which although it held a Limited Commercial License, wasn't authorized to transmit on either of the broadcasting wavelengths. On January 9, 1922, Doubleday-Hill was issued a new Limited Commercial License for KQV, which now included an authorization to transmit on the 360-meter entertainment wavelength. For this reason FCC records generally list January 9, 1922, as KQV's "Date First Licensed". KQV's original studio and transmitter were located on the ninth floor of the Doubleday-Hill building, with a transmitting antenna that stretched across the street. G. Brown Hill, a company vice president, was initially responsible for the station's development. At its start,