On January 30, 1948, The Kansas City Star Co., the locally based parent company of the Kansas City Star, which operated as an employee-owned entity at the time, applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit and license to operate a television station on VHF channel 4. On the same day, the FCC awarded the Star Co. a license for the projected television station; the business then sought to use WDAF-TV (standing for "Why Dial Any Further?") as its call letters, instead of the base call sign initially allocated to its radio station on 610 AM. (now KCSP; on radio, the WDAF calls are now heard on 106.5 FM, following a format shift in September 2003 that also saw the former's country music format migrate from the AM station, which adopted a sports talk format). (Channel 4 is one of a few U.S. broadcast stations that is an exception to an FCC regulation that assigns call letters beginning with a "K" to television and radio stations with license cities west of the Mississippi River and call letters beginning with a "W" to stations east of the river. The WDAF television and radio stations have an oddity since Kansas City was initially positioned east of the original "K"/"W" border distinction designated by the FCC when the WDAF call letters were issued to both stations.)