North American call sign
Encyclopedia
Call signs in North America are frequently still used by North America
n broadcast stations
in addition to amateur radio
and other international radio stations that continue to identify by call sign
s around the world. Each country has a different set of patterns for its own call signs.
Many countries have specific conventions for classifying call sign
s by transmitter characteristics and location. The call sign format for radio and television call signs follows a number of conventions. All call signs begin with a "prefix" assigned by the International Telecommunications Union. For example, the United States
has been assigned the following prefixes: AAA–ALZ, K, N, W. For a complete list, see international call sign allocations
.
islands shared the VS, ZB–ZJ, ZN–ZO, and ZQ prefixes. The current, largely post-independence, allocation list is as follows:
use the PA–PI prefixes, while the Netherlands Antilles
use the PJ prefix. Aruba
has been assigned P4 by the ITU
.
use the 9Y–9Z prefixes.
by the ITU, but Canada makes de facto
use of this series anyway for stations belonging to, but not exclusively broadcasting programs from, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC). Several other prefixes, including CG, CY, CZ and the XJ to XO range, are available, but are not currently in broadcast use. Conventional radio and television stations almost exclusively use C call signs; with a few exceptions noted below, the V codes are restricted to specialized uses such as amateur radio
.
Special broadcast undertakings such as Internet radio
, cable FM, carrier current
or closed circuit
stations may sometimes be known by unofficial call signs such as "CSCR". These are not governed by the Canadian media regulation system, and may at times reflect call signs that would not be permissible on a conventional broadcast platform.
Four-letter call signs are the norm. Three-letter call signs are only permitted to CBC Radio
stations or to commercial stations which already had a three-letter call sign before the current rules were adopted, and five-letter call signs exclusively identify CBC transmitters (which may be either rebroadcasters or SRC
owned and operated stations outside of Quebec
.)
Stations of the CBC or Société Radio-Canada tend to identify themselves as "CBC Radio One"/"CBC Radio Two" (English-language) or "La Première Chaîne"/"Espace Musique" (French-language) of a city, although they do have official three- and four- letter call signs. These generally (but not always) begin with CB.
Call signs with four digits preceded by VF (for radio) or CH (for television) are only assigned to very-low-power local rebroadcasters; VO call signs may only be used commercially by stations in Newfoundland and Labrador
which were licensed before that province joined the Canadian Confederation
in 1949 (VOCM
, VOAR
and VOWR broadcast from St. John's long before confederation). Only one station, VOCM-FM
, has been allowed to adopt a VO call sign after 1949. It was granted the VOCM calls because of its corporate association with the AM station.
All Canadian FM stations have an –FM suffix, except for low-power re-broadcasters which have semi-numeric VF call signs. Higher-power rebroadcasters are generally licensed under the call sign of the originating station, followed by a numeric suffix and, for FM re-broadcasters of an AM station, a –FM suffix. For example, CJBC-1-FM rebroadcasts CJBC
(860 Toronto), whereas CJBC-FM-1 rebroadcasts CJBC-FM
(90.3 Toronto). Some rebroadcasters, however, may have their own distinct call signs. Canadian TV stations always have the -TV suffix, with the exception of those CBC-owned stations which have a call sign in the CB-(-)T format. Canadian digital transitional television
undertakings have -DT suffixes, even where the base call sign is a CBC/Radio-Canada O&O in pattern CB...T, CB...ET or CB...FT (for television, English language
television or French language
television, respectively). For instance, SRC's O&O CBOFT-DT
would represent "CBC Ottawa Français Télévision - Digital Television". Canada does not use the -LP or -CA suffixes that are in use in the United States but makes limited use of -SW for privately-owned shortwave radio stations.
For rebroadcasters which use a numeric suffix, the suffixes usually follow a 1–2–3 numeric sequence which indicates the chronological order in which rebroadcast transmitters were added. There are some cases where television rebroadcasters are suffixed with the channel number on which the transmitter broadcasts (for instance, CIII-TV
's rebroadcasters are numbered with their channel assignment rather than sequentially), but this is not generally the norm.
Experimental television stations in Canada had call signs beginning with VX9.
The CG prefix is used by Canadian Coast Guard
stations and ship-to-shore radio
on Federally-owned ships. Coast Guard Radio stations have also used VA through VF. Individual ships will use call signs with a Canadian two-letter prefix (such as CF, CY, CZ, VB, VC or VY) followed by a four-digit number. Aircraft
are identified with a prefix such as CF or CG followed by three letters
. Military radio fixed stations also bear call signs in the CF-CK, CY-CZ, VE and VX-VY series. "Environment Canada" weather stations have call signs of three letters and three numbers, issued from various C, V or X Canadian prefix series.
Canadian amateur radio
stations generally begin with VE, some also use VA. The number following these letters indicates the province, going from VA1/VE1 for Nova Scotia
, VA2/VE2 (Québec), VE3/VA3 (Ontario
) through VA7/VE7 for British Columbia
and VE8 for the Northwest Territories
, with latecomer VE9 for New Brunswick
. (VE1 used to be for all three Maritime provinces.) VE0 is for maritime mobile amateur transmissions. VY1 is used for the Yukon Territory, VY2 for Prince Edward Island
, and VY0 for Nunavut
. CY0 and CY9 are Sable Island
and St. Paul Island
; with little or local population, reception
of these distant points
is rare, although amateur radio
stations do temporarily operate from these islands during shortwave radio contests. Special prefixes are often issued for stations operating at significant events.
The Dominion of Newfoundland
prefix VO remains in active use by amateurs in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
, VO1AA atop Signal Hill in St. Johns
being the most famous amateur station. Radio amateurs on the Island of Newfoundland use calls beginning with VO1, while Labrador amateurs use VO2. A popular backronym
for VO stations is "Voice of...", although prefixes do not have any official meaning.
and shortwave
) or XH (FM
and TV). Some FM and TV stations (like XETV
) are grandfathered
with XE call signs and a –FM or –TV suffix. Mexican stations are required to identify twice an hour, at both the top and the bottom. Mexican radio and TV stations usually broadcasting programming in English are required to play the Mexican national anthem
every day at midnight local time. As in Canada, stations that rebroadcast other stations may have the same call sign, but with a different number at the end (such as XEMN and XEMN-1). More commonly, television rebroadcasters are assigned XH calls in the same manner as any other Mexican television station.
Amateur radio
stations in Mexico use XE1 for the central region, XE2 for the northern region, and XE3 for the southern region. XF prefixes indicate islands. XF4 is usually used for the Revillagigedo Islands
and nearby islets. Special call signs for contests or celebrations are occasionally issued, often in the 4A and 6D series, although these will follow the usual district numbering system (4A3 for the south, etc.).
in November 1920 and remained since; and Charles Herrold
's series of identifiers from 1909 on in San Jose, California
: first "This is the Herrold Station" or "San Jose calling", then the call signs FN, SJN, 6XF, and 6XE, then, with the advent of modern call signs, KQW in December 1921, and eventually KCBS
from 1949 on.
All broadcast call signs in the United States begin with either "K" or "W", with "K" usually west of the Mississippi River
and "W" usually east of it (except in Louisiana
and Minnesota
, which don't strictly follow the dividing line between the two groups). Initial letters "AA" through "AL", as well as "N", are internationally allocated to the United States but are not used for broadcast stations.
In the United States, broadcast stations have call signs of three to seven characters in length, including suffixes for certain types of service, but the minimum length for new stations is four characters, and seven-character call signs result only from rare combinations of suffixes.
Each station with a traditional full-power license, whether AM, FM, TV, or private shortwave, has a call sign of three or four letters, plus an optional suffix of either "-FM" or "-TV". A broadcast translators or other low-power station has either four letters with a mandatory two-letter suffix indicating its type, or a five or six character call sign consisting of "K" or "W", followed by two to three digits indicating its frequency, followed by two letters issued sequentially.
For most of the 20th century, new full-power stations were also assigned their four-letter call signs sequentially by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) if the permit holder did not chose a call sign prior to full licensing. For four-letter call signs beginning with W, sequential call signs were incremented with the fourth letter being least significant and changing each time, the second letter being the next most significant, and the third letter being the least significant and changing only after every combination of second and fourth letter was exhausted. Thus, the first sequential four-letter call signs in the W sequence were of the W_A_ form, such as WMAF South Dartmouth, Massachusetts
(now defunct) followed soon after by WMAQ Chicago (now WSCR
on AM, but remaining in the call sign WMAQ-TV
on television). The K sequence was also sequential, but with a more complicated history concerning the second letter; the third and fourth letters, however, were incremented in the most obvious way, with the fourth letter least significant, then the third letter, then the second letter. For both K and W, any call signs which were already assigned were simply skipped over in the sequential system.
The FCC has since begun requiring permit holders to choose the call sign prior to licensing; stations not yet given a call sign show up in FCC electronic records with the word "NEW" or the file number of the original station application instead. Stations may change their call signs whenever they wish to, and often they do so in connection with a change of radio format
. Call signs become available again after 30 days of non-use, although stations (frequently under common ownership) can swap call signs at the same time.
Records for officially deleted stations still remain in the electronic FCC database for some time, but with the last call sign prefixed with a "D", which is not allocated for valid station call signs in the United States; for example, a station whose last call sign was KXXX before deletion will appear in the database as DKXXX so as not to conflict with any station that may be assigned KXXX in the future.
under the current system, even though many of these stations have changed owners. Such stations include KOA
in Denver, KSD
in St. Louis, WGN
in Chicago
, and WRR (FM)
in Dallas, which was originally assigned WRR-FM in 1948 as a sister station to WRR (AM) from 1921. (WRR is an unusual case in that the call sign was moved from the original AM station to a commonly owned FM station, formerly WRR-FM, before the AM station was sold.) For decades, the Federal Communications Commission
carried out a policy of "drop it and lose it forever" with respect to the three-letter call signs, but it recently allowed the radio station KKHJ in Los Angeles
to reclaim its historic three-letter call, KHJ
.
The FCC allows FM and TV stations under common ownership with a three-letter AM or FM in the same market to use five-letter (three plus –FM or –TV suffix) call signs; for example, KGO-TV
in San Francisco or WMC-FM
in Memphis
In some cases, such as WIL-FM
in St. Louis, the five-letter call sign may outlive the three-letter call sign on which it is based. There was also the unusual case of Baltimore
's WJZ-TV
, which was allowed to adopt this call sign despite the fact that no form of the WJZ call sign had been in use for over four years prior, and when WJZ did exist, it had been in a different region and owned by a different company since the 1920s. The call signs WJZ and WJZ-FM
were later reused for Baltimore sister stations of that new WJZ-TV. Stations which have been "conformed" in this manner may keep the five-letter call sign even after they are no longer co-owned with the "parent" station (although this was not the case prior to the mid-1980s). WWL (AM) and WWL-TV
in New Orleans would be an example of eponymous stations no longer under common ownership.
, and beginning with W if they are east of the river. No broadcast stations are assigned call signs beginning with N or AA–AL. Again, some early stations have been grandfathered, so there are four broadcasters with a K prefix east of the Mississippi, and a few dozen with a W on the west side. (There are more grandfathered W stations because the dividing line used to be two states farther west.) Some examples of stations with a now-unusual first letter are KDKA
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
, KYW
in Philadelphia, WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas
, and WACO-FM
in Waco, Texas
, which also has the distinction of being one of only three radio stations whose call sign is the same as its community of license. Stations located near the Mississippi River
, as well as some northern Minnesota and southern Louisiana
, may have either letter, depending on the precise location of their community of license and on historical contingencies. Metro area
s that straddle different states on both sides of the river, such as St. Louis
, Memphis
, and Quad Cities
area of Iowa/Illinois, have stations with both call letter prefixes, because of the stations' communities of license
being placed on either side of the river.
The FCC allows derived call signs in the same market as a commonly owned AM or FM without respect of the boundary, so stations may establish common branding across bands and services. One famous example was the case of the former KWK in St. Louis, which after several petitions was permitted to change the call sign of its sister FM station in Granite City, Illinois
, then WWWK (FM), to KWK-FM. Later, the AM would change its call sign and the FM became KWK (FM), thereby becoming an exemplar of both categories of grandfathered stations.
The assignment of K and W prefixes applies only to stations in the broadcast radio and television services; it does not apply to weather radio, highway advisory radio
, or time signal
stations, even though these are all broadcasts in the usual sense of the word, nor does it apply to auxiliary licenses held by broadcast stations, such as studio-transmitter links and inter-city relay stations.
For example, the time signal
stations WWV and WWVH
are located in Colorado
and Hawaii
, respectively. (WWV originally began in Maryland
and was later moved west. However, even ignoring that fact, U.S. government-owned stations are overseen by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA) and not the FCC, and are thus not subject to the FCC's rules on call signs; most do not have call signs at all.)
NOAA Weather Radio stations clustered between 162.4 and 162.55 MHz have call signs consisting of a K or W followed by letters, and two digits. The K and W prefixes are both used interchangeably on both sides of the Mississippi River (e.g., KHB36 in Washington, D.C.
and WXK25 in El Paso, Texas
).
Highway advisory radio
stations scattered throughout the AM band use call signs consisting of K and W followed by two or three letters and three digits. As with weather radio, K and W calls are both used on both sides of the Mississippi River.
Call signs in the western United States are often confused with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) airport codes
because both make use of four-character codes that begin with the letter K. Examples include KSFO (which simultaneously refers to San Francisco International Airport
and radio station KSFO (AM)
), KLAX (which simultaneously refers to Los Angeles International Airport
and KLAX-FM
), and KDFW
(which simultaneously refers to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
and KDFW-TV).
, the early –HD and later –DT suffixes are usually not used (one exception being KMYA-DT), as the digital channel is not licensed separately from the analog for full-power stations. (Beginning in June 2009, stations may choose -TV or -DT). Some station owners using the iBiquity
HD Radio
IBOC system have expressed a desire for –HD call signs, but this is unlikely to happen because HD Radio is a sideband
service on the same center frequency. Occasionally, an FM or TV station may have one or more boosters, which retransmit the main station's signal to overcome terrain
obstacles. In this case, the main portion of the call sign remains the same (unlike translators), and the boosters are given sequential numeric suffixes like –FM1.
It should be noted that the -FM or -TV suffix is not required to be assigned to TV or FM stations, except where there is another station that shares the same 3- or 4-letter base call sign with no suffix. AM radio stations never have an -AM (or any other) suffix. Where a station has no suffix, the FCC uses parentheses to identify the station unambiguously in documentation (i.e. rulemaking
proceedings), the same way Wikipedia
handles disambiguation of article names (except that there is no space between the two). This ensures that [for example] WIKI(AM) is not mistaken for WIKI-FM and WIKI-TV just because it was identified as only WIKI. This occurs regardless of whether there is actually another station using the call sign.
Low-power TV and FM
stations share the –LP suffix. Class A television stations, which are LPTV stations that receive protection
from RF interference by primary stations, use the –CA suffix. When low-power TV stations operate in ATSC digital TV, they instead receive the suffix –LD, although DTV stations which have their RF channel numbers and sequential letters use only –D, as in W08EG-D. The –CD suffix was assigned to be used for digital class A, but stations did not appear this way in the FCC database until 2009 or 2010. This only occurs when the analog station's broadcast license
is cancelled, and the class-A status is transferred to its digital companion channel.
The first suffix to be introduced was -FM, on November 1, 1943, when the call signs of all 45 then-licensed FM stations were changed. Call signs under the old system consisted of W or K followed by the last two digits of the frequency (from 31, for 43.1 MHz, to 99, for 49.9 MHz) and one or two letters indicating the city served. No provision had been made for conflicting city codes (e.g., would "M" stand for Milwaukee or Minneapolis, or both?), severely limiting the application of this system in the anticipated post-war boom of FM station construction. Public confusion was cited as another reason to eliminate the old system. At this time, FM stations had to be licensed to the same organization and serve the same city as the station with the unsuffixed call sign in order to be eligible for an -FM suffix. Non-commercial educational
FM stations such as WNYE
and WBEZ, in the 41–43 MHz band, already used regular four-letter call signs. There was no -TV suffix as yet, so the few commercial television stations as then existed had to use distinct call signs from the radio stations they were associated with (e.g., WRGB
rather than WGY-TV).
make translators a necessity) is up to K13Zx. In this limited case, the X does not indicate an experimental station.
The FCC makes no differentiation between translating and originating LPTV stations, thus either type of station may have an alphanumeric or a regular -LP or -LD call sign.
Beginning in 2009, the FCC allows digital TV stations to apply for translator stations that are not given a separate call sign, instead taking on the one of the primary station. This is only in the case of areas that will lose coverage due to the digital television transition in the United States.
is more easily remembered by listeners (and those filling in diaries for the Arbitron
radio ratings
). However, in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission
does require periodic station identification
using the formal call sign, as close to the beginning of each hour as possible, at a "natural break in programming". However, this rule is now rarely enforced. Stations are also required to identify their community of license. Only the frequency, name of the licensee, channel number, and/or network affiliation may come between the two.
HD Radio
stations must identify clearly that they are using a digital transmission mode, and must identify each program stream individually, but need not do so in any particular form; many licensees have chosen to identify as "WXXX HD2" and so on but this is not part of their call sign. Translator stations only need to have their call signs announced three times a day (at particular times) through the main station, or though some broadcast automation
means (via voice or via Morse code
) hourly by the translator.
There are some unusual cases, such as the low-frequency
WWVB
time station
. Because of the station's very narrow-bandwidth signal, that station only broadcasts a one bit per second signal that cannot usually be understood by human beings, so the station is identified by shifting the broadcast carrier wave
's phase by 45 degrees twice an hour [see Phase-shift keying
(PSK)].
A common method of station identification by radio is along the lines of the call sign, the frequency, and the ownership (for example: "KQKS
Lakewood
/Denver
: A Lincoln Financial Group Station. This is KS1075".)
(107.9 Medford), one of many Clear Channel Communications
-owned stations that call themselves "KISS." In other instances, the letters may be an initialism for a name or slogan. Some of the most famous of these include WGN (WGN
and WGN-TV
), owned by the Chicago Tribune
, which stands for "World's Greatest Newspaper", WIS
in South Carolina, which stands for "Wonderful Iodine State," and WISN
, which dually stands for the station's original owner, the Wisconsin News, and the station's location in Wisconsin
.
Affiliates of the Big Three television networks
(ABC
, CBS
and NBC
) in New York City
and California
get their call signal from their network, with New York stations adding the "W" and Los Angeles or San Francisco stations adding the "K". Stations operated by schools and universities may adopt their school's "initials" into the call sign, such as WWVU in Morgantown, West Virginia
, the university-owned radio station of West Virginia University
.
, the call sign WXII was chosen to represent the Roman Numeral 12 which is the channel on which the station broadcasts, the former WIIC (now WPXI
) in Pittsburgh was chosen to accent the fact that the station broadcast on Channel 11, Philadelphia's WPVI was chosen to remind viewers that the station broadcast on Channel 6 and WTWO
was chosen to remind Terre Haute that their NBC affiliate was on Channel 2.
United States amateur radio
call signs are issued with one or two letters, followed by a single digit, and then one to three more letters. Generally the shorter the call (up to a 1x2 or 2x1 format) the higher the grade of license, but an amateur who upgrades is not required to change his or her call sign. In any case some of the available blocks have been used up. The 1x1 call signs, such as K6O, are for short-term special event stations. Outlying areas have special calls. For example, those issued in Hawaii
can (like other American call signs) start with A, K, N, or W, but then will have H6 or H7 before the one to three additional letters. Other Pacific possessions use other H numbers. For example, a station on Guam
could be KH0–. Stations in Alaska
have L as their second prefix letter, and stations in the Caribbean region (such as the Virgin Islands) use P for their second letter.
The number in the call sign refers to one of the 10 radio districts into which the United States is divided, but that only indicates where the license was issued. It is no longer necessary for an American amateur radio operator to change his/her call sign when moving to a new district. Most amateurs going to an exotic location will sign/(prefix) to show their location. Thus a station visiting American Samoa
could be (regular call)/KH8. American amateurs are also permitted to operate in Canada under their own call signs with a location indicator.
Amateur stations are required to identify themselves by their call sign once every ten minutes during a transmission or series of transmissions and at the end of the transmission.
Experimental stations use call signs out of the amateur radio
sequence, with the letter following the region digit required to be an X. (All VHF TV stations before World War II
were licensed as experimental stations.) Notable experimental stations included Major Armstrong's FM station W2XMN in Alpine, New Jersey
; Powell Crosley's 500-kW superpower AM W8XO, operating nights only with WLW
's programming and frequency from Mason, Ohio
; and Don Lee
's pioneering television station, W6XAO in Los Angeles
. (Synchronous "booster" transmitters for AM stations are still considered experimental in the U.S., despite fifty years of experience in Europe, and new experimental call signs are being assigned for new licenses even now, by inserting a region digit and the letter X into the parent station's call sign.).
Leisure craft
boats with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. Ships wishing to have a radio license anyway are under FCC class SA: "Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped." Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by 1 or 2 letters followed by 3 or 4 numbers (such as KX0983 or WXX0029).
, Navassa Island
, and the US Virgin Islands all use the American
standard call signs of W (being east of the Mississippi River
).
Guam
and the Northern Mariana Islands
use K. American Samoa
uses K as well, but WVUV was grandfathered in, and remains as an AM radio station; the low-power TV station that was WVUV-LP changed its call sign to KKHJ-LP in 2008. All of these areas are under the jurisdiction
of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
(FCC).
, Japan
, and formerly Australia
. Another well-known call sign outside of the region is HCJB
in Ecuador
, and several radio time sources used to set radio clocks
or for audible listening, such as CHU
in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
.
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n broadcast stations
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
in addition to amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
and other international radio stations that continue to identify by call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
s around the world. Each country has a different set of patterns for its own call signs.
Many countries have specific conventions for classifying call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
s by transmitter characteristics and location. The call sign format for radio and television call signs follows a number of conventions. All call signs begin with a "prefix" assigned by the International Telecommunications Union. For example, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
has been assigned the following prefixes: AAA–ALZ, K, N, W. For a complete list, see international call sign allocations
ITU prefix
The International Telecommunication Union allocates call sign prefixes for radio and television stations of all types. They also form the basis for, but do not exactly match, aircraft registration identifiers. These prefixes are agreed upon internationally, and are a form of country code...
.
Bermuda, Bahamas, and the Caribbean
Pertaining to their status as former or current colonies, all of the British West IndiesBritish West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
islands shared the VS, ZB–ZJ, ZN–ZO, and ZQ prefixes. The current, largely post-independence, allocation list is as follows:
- AnguillaAnguillaAnguilla is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin...
(in amateur radio VP2E prefix) - Antigua and BarbudaAntigua and BarbudaAntigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands...
(uses V2 prefix) - Bahamas (has the C6 Prefix)
- BarbadosBarbadosBarbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
(uses 8P) - BermudaBermudaBermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
(also uses VS, in amateur radio normally VP9) - British Virgin IslandsBritish Virgin IslandsThe Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
(for amateur radio uses VP2V) - Cayman IslandsCayman IslandsThe Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
(for amateur operation uses ZF, with 1, 2, or 8 for Big, Little or Cayman BracCayman BracCayman Brac is an island that is part of the Cayman Islands. It lies in the Caribbean Sea about 90 miles northeast of Grand Cayman and 5 miles east of Little Cayman. It is about 12 miles long, with an average width of 1 mile...
island) - DominicaDominicaDominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
(Commonwealth of Dominica, uses J7) - GrenadaGrenadaGrenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
(uses J3) - JamaicaJamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
(uses 6Y) - MontserratMontserratMontserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...
(for amateur operation VP2M prefix) - St. Kitts and Nevis (uses V4)
- St. Lucia (uses J6)
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines (uses J8)
- Turks and Caicos IslandsTurks and Caicos IslandsThe Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union consisting of two groups of tropical islands in the Caribbean, the larger Caicos Islands and the smaller Turks Islands, known for tourism and as an offshore financial centre.The Turks and...
(typically uses VP5)
Cuba
Cuba uses the prefixes CL–CM, CO, and T4, with district numbers from 0 to 9 to amateur operations.French West Indies
All of the French possessions share the prefix F. Further divisions that are used by amateur stations are:- GuadeloupeGuadeloupeGuadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
is FG - MartiniqueMartiniqueMartinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
is FM - Saint MartinSaint MartinSaint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ; however, the Dutch side has the larger population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between...
is FS - Saint-Barthélemy is FJ
Netherlands Antilles
The Kingdom of the NetherlandsKingdom of the Netherlands
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...
use the PA–PI prefixes, while the Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...
use the PJ prefix. Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
has been assigned P4 by the ITU
Itu
Itu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...
.
Trinidad and Tobago
The island nation of Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
use the 9Y–9Z prefixes.
Canada
Canadian broadcast stations are assigned a three-, four-, or five-letter base call sign (not including the –FM or –TV suffix) beginning with CB, CF, CH, CI, CJ, CK, VA–VG, VO, VX, VY, or XJ–XO. The CB series calls are assigned to ChileChile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
by the ITU, but Canada makes de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
use of this series anyway for stations belonging to, but not exclusively broadcasting programs from, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(CBC). Several other prefixes, including CG, CY, CZ and the XJ to XO range, are available, but are not currently in broadcast use. Conventional radio and television stations almost exclusively use C call signs; with a few exceptions noted below, the V codes are restricted to specialized uses such as amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
.
Special broadcast undertakings such as Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
, cable FM, carrier current
Carrier current
Carrier current is a method of low power AM radio transmission that uses the AC electrical system of a building to propagate a medium frequency, AM signal to a relatively small area, such as a building or a group of buildings...
or closed circuit
Closed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
stations may sometimes be known by unofficial call signs such as "CSCR". These are not governed by the Canadian media regulation system, and may at times reflect call signs that would not be permissible on a conventional broadcast platform.
Four-letter call signs are the norm. Three-letter call signs are only permitted to CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
stations or to commercial stations which already had a three-letter call sign before the current rules were adopted, and five-letter call signs exclusively identify CBC transmitters (which may be either rebroadcasters or SRC
Télévision de Radio-Canada
Télévision de Radio-Canada is a Canadian French language television network. It is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, known in French as Société Radio-Canada. Headquarters are at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal, which is also home to the network's flagship station, CBFT-DT...
owned and operated stations outside of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.)
Stations of the CBC or Société Radio-Canada tend to identify themselves as "CBC Radio One"/"CBC Radio Two" (English-language) or "La Première Chaîne"/"Espace Musique" (French-language) of a city, although they do have official three- and four- letter call signs. These generally (but not always) begin with CB.
Call signs with four digits preceded by VF (for radio) or CH (for television) are only assigned to very-low-power local rebroadcasters; VO call signs may only be used commercially by stations in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
which were licensed before that province joined the Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
in 1949 (VOCM
VOCM (AM)
VOCM is an AM radio station in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, broadcasting at 590 kHz. Owned by Newcap Radio, VOCM first went on the air in 1936. October 19, 2011 marks 75 years of broadcasting for VOCM...
, VOAR
VOAR (AM)
VOAR is a Canadian radio station, which airs religious programming in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador on 1210 kHz and various FM frequencies.The station first broadcast in the fall of 1929...
and VOWR broadcast from St. John's long before confederation). Only one station, VOCM-FM
VOCM-FM
VOCM-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 97.5 MHz from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is part of the Newcap Radio group. Presently the station is branded as 97-5 K-Rock and broadcasts a classic rock format, although some recent rock songs have lately become part of the...
, has been allowed to adopt a VO call sign after 1949. It was granted the VOCM calls because of its corporate association with the AM station.
All Canadian FM stations have an –FM suffix, except for low-power re-broadcasters which have semi-numeric VF call signs. Higher-power rebroadcasters are generally licensed under the call sign of the originating station, followed by a numeric suffix and, for FM re-broadcasters of an AM station, a –FM suffix. For example, CJBC-1-FM rebroadcasts CJBC
CJBC (AM)
-External links:* * * at Canadian Communications Foundation...
(860 Toronto), whereas CJBC-FM-1 rebroadcasts CJBC-FM
CJBC-FM
CJBC-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 90.3 FM in Toronto, Ontario. A French language station, it airs the programming of Radio-Canada's Espace musique network.The station launched in 1992...
(90.3 Toronto). Some rebroadcasters, however, may have their own distinct call signs. Canadian TV stations always have the -TV suffix, with the exception of those CBC-owned stations which have a call sign in the CB-(-)T format. Canadian digital transitional television
Digital television in Canada
Digital television in Canada is transmitted using the ATSC standards developed for and in use in the United States. Because Canada and the U.S...
undertakings have -DT suffixes, even where the base call sign is a CBC/Radio-Canada O&O in pattern CB...T, CB...ET or CB...FT (for television, English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
television or French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
television, respectively). For instance, SRC's O&O CBOFT-DT
CBOFT
CBOFT-DT is the Radio-Canada station serving Franco-Ontarians in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, and the Québécois in the Outaouais region of Quebec.-History:CBOFT went to air in 1955 as the first French language television station in Ontario...
would represent "CBC Ottawa Français Télévision - Digital Television". Canada does not use the -LP or -CA suffixes that are in use in the United States but makes limited use of -SW for privately-owned shortwave radio stations.
For rebroadcasters which use a numeric suffix, the suffixes usually follow a 1–2–3 numeric sequence which indicates the chronological order in which rebroadcast transmitters were added. There are some cases where television rebroadcasters are suffixed with the channel number on which the transmitter broadcasts (for instance, CIII-TV
CIII-TV
CIII-DT-41 is a television station owned by Shaw Communications that serves much of the population of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a flagship station of the Global Television Network...
's rebroadcasters are numbered with their channel assignment rather than sequentially), but this is not generally the norm.
Experimental television stations in Canada had call signs beginning with VX9.
The CG prefix is used by Canadian Coast Guard
Canadian Coast Guard
The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. It is a federal agency responsible for providing maritime search and rescue , aids to navigation, marine pollution response, marine radio, and icebreaking...
stations and ship-to-shore radio
Marine and mobile radio telephony
The Marine Radiotelephone Service or HF ship-to-shore operates on shortwave radio frequencies, using single-sideband modulation. The usual method is that a ship calls a shore station, and the shore station's marine operator connects the caller to the public switched telephone network...
on Federally-owned ships. Coast Guard Radio stations have also used VA through VF. Individual ships will use call signs with a Canadian two-letter prefix (such as CF, CY, CZ, VB, VC or VY) followed by a four-digit number. Aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
are identified with a prefix such as CF or CG followed by three letters
Aircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
. Military radio fixed stations also bear call signs in the CF-CK, CY-CZ, VE and VX-VY series. "Environment Canada" weather stations have call signs of three letters and three numbers, issued from various C, V or X Canadian prefix series.
Canadian amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
stations generally begin with VE, some also use VA. The number following these letters indicates the province, going from VA1/VE1 for Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, VA2/VE2 (Québec), VE3/VA3 (Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
) through VA7/VE7 for British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and VE8 for the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
, with latecomer VE9 for New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
. (VE1 used to be for all three Maritime provinces.) VE0 is for maritime mobile amateur transmissions. VY1 is used for the Yukon Territory, VY2 for Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
, and VY0 for Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
. CY0 and CY9 are Sable Island
Sable Island
Sable Island is a small Canadian island situated 300 km southeast of mainland Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean. The island is a year-round home to approximately five people...
and St. Paul Island
St. Paul Island, Nova Scotia
St. Paul Island is a small uninhabited island located approximately northeast of Cape North on Cape Breton Island and southwest of Cape Ray on Newfoundland; it is along the boundary between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Cabot Strait....
; with little or local population, reception
QSL
QSL is one of the Q codes used in radiocommunication and radio broadcasting. A Q code message can stand for a statement or a question . In this case, QSL? means "do you confirm receipt of my transmission?" while QSL means "I confirm receipt of your transmission". Some also take it to mean "Query...
of these distant points
DXing
DXing is the hobby of tuning in and identifying distant radio or television signals, or making two way radio contact with distant stations in amateur radio, citizens' band radio or other two way radio communications. Many DXers also attempt to receive written verifications of reception from the...
is rare, although amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
stations do temporarily operate from these islands during shortwave radio contests. Special prefixes are often issued for stations operating at significant events.
The Dominion of Newfoundland
Dominion of Newfoundland
The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 . The Dominion of Newfoundland was situated in northeastern North America along the Atlantic coast and comprised the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland...
prefix VO remains in active use by amateurs in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
, VO1AA atop Signal Hill in St. Johns
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
being the most famous amateur station. Radio amateurs on the Island of Newfoundland use calls beginning with VO1, while Labrador amateurs use VO2. A popular backronym
Backronym
A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....
for VO stations is "Voice of...", although prefixes do not have any official meaning.
Mexico
Mexican broadcast stations are assigned a three-, four-, five-, or six-letter call signs beginning with XE (mediumwaveMediumwave
Medium wave is the part of the medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz...
and shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
) or XH (FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
and TV). Some FM and TV stations (like XETV
XETV
XETV is a television station licensed to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, serving as the CW Television Network affiliate for the San Diego, California area across the international border in the United States...
) are grandfathered
Grandfather clause
Grandfather clause is a legal term used to describe a situation in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations, while a new rule will apply to all future situations. It is often used as a verb: to grandfather means to grant such an exemption...
with XE call signs and a –FM or –TV suffix. Mexican stations are required to identify twice an hour, at both the top and the bottom. Mexican radio and TV stations usually broadcasting programming in English are required to play the Mexican national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
every day at midnight local time. As in Canada, stations that rebroadcast other stations may have the same call sign, but with a different number at the end (such as XEMN and XEMN-1). More commonly, television rebroadcasters are assigned XH calls in the same manner as any other Mexican television station.
Amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
stations in Mexico use XE1 for the central region, XE2 for the northern region, and XE3 for the southern region. XF prefixes indicate islands. XF4 is usually used for the Revillagigedo Islands
Revillagigedo Islands
The Revillagigedo Islands or Revillagigedo Archipelago are a group of four volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, known for their unique ecosystem...
and nearby islets. Special call signs for contests or celebrations are occasionally issued, often in the 4A and 6D series, although these will follow the usual district numbering system (4A3 for the south, etc.).
United States
The earliest identification, used in the 1910s and into the early 1920s, was arbitrary. The U.S. government began requiring stations to use three-letter call signs around 1912, but they could be chosen at random. This system was replaced by the basic form of the current system in the early 1920s. Examples of pre-1920 stations include 8XK in Pennsylvania, which became KDKAKDKA (AM)
KDKA is a radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Created by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation on November 2, 1920, it is one of the world's first modern radio stations , a distinction that has also been challenged by other stations, although it has claimed to be the first in...
in November 1920 and remained since; and Charles Herrold
Charles Herrold
Charles David 'Doc' Herrold, was an American radio broadcasting pioneer who in 1909 created the world's second radio station....
's series of identifiers from 1909 on in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
: first "This is the Herrold Station" or "San Jose calling", then the call signs FN, SJN, 6XF, and 6XE, then, with the advent of modern call signs, KQW in December 1921, and eventually KCBS
KCBS (AM)
KCBS is an all-news radio station in San Francisco, California, that is a key West Coast flagship radio station of the CBS Radio Network and Westwood One. Its transmitter is located in Novato, California. KCBS currently has studios on Battery Street, where it shares the location with co-owned KPIX...
from 1949 on.
All broadcast call signs in the United States begin with either "K" or "W", with "K" usually west of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
and "W" usually east of it (except in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, which don't strictly follow the dividing line between the two groups). Initial letters "AA" through "AL", as well as "N", are internationally allocated to the United States but are not used for broadcast stations.
In the United States, broadcast stations have call signs of three to seven characters in length, including suffixes for certain types of service, but the minimum length for new stations is four characters, and seven-character call signs result only from rare combinations of suffixes.
Each station with a traditional full-power license, whether AM, FM, TV, or private shortwave, has a call sign of three or four letters, plus an optional suffix of either "-FM" or "-TV". A broadcast translators or other low-power station has either four letters with a mandatory two-letter suffix indicating its type, or a five or six character call sign consisting of "K" or "W", followed by two to three digits indicating its frequency, followed by two letters issued sequentially.
For most of the 20th century, new full-power stations were also assigned their four-letter call signs sequentially by the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) if the permit holder did not chose a call sign prior to full licensing. For four-letter call signs beginning with W, sequential call signs were incremented with the fourth letter being least significant and changing each time, the second letter being the next most significant, and the third letter being the least significant and changing only after every combination of second and fourth letter was exhausted. Thus, the first sequential four-letter call signs in the W sequence were of the W_A_ form, such as WMAF South Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Dartmouth is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States established in 1664. The population was 30,665 at the 2000 census. It is the location of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth....
(now defunct) followed soon after by WMAQ Chicago (now WSCR
WSCR
WSCR is a sports radio station in the Chicago, Illinois radio market. The station is owned by CBS Radio and transmits on 670 kHz on the AM dial. Its transmitter is located just off Army Trail Road in Bloomingdale, which is a western suburb of Chicago. It is known as "The Score," and has been on...
on AM, but remaining in the call sign WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Chicago, Illinois. WMAQ-TV's main studios and offices are located within the NBC Tower in the Streeterville neighborhood, with an auxiliary street-level studio on the Magnificent Mile at 401...
on television). The K sequence was also sequential, but with a more complicated history concerning the second letter; the third and fourth letters, however, were incremented in the most obvious way, with the fourth letter least significant, then the third letter, then the second letter. For both K and W, any call signs which were already assigned were simply skipped over in the sequential system.
The FCC has since begun requiring permit holders to choose the call sign prior to licensing; stations not yet given a call sign show up in FCC electronic records with the word "NEW" or the file number of the original station application instead. Stations may change their call signs whenever they wish to, and often they do so in connection with a change of radio format
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
. Call signs become available again after 30 days of non-use, although stations (frequently under common ownership) can swap call signs at the same time.
Records for officially deleted stations still remain in the electronic FCC database for some time, but with the last call sign prefixed with a "D", which is not allocated for valid station call signs in the United States; for example, a station whose last call sign was KXXX before deletion will appear in the database as DKXXX so as not to conflict with any station that may be assigned KXXX in the future.
Short call signs
In the 1920s, many stations were assigned three-letter call signs. These have been grandfatheredGrandfather clause
Grandfather clause is a legal term used to describe a situation in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations, while a new rule will apply to all future situations. It is often used as a verb: to grandfather means to grant such an exemption...
under the current system, even though many of these stations have changed owners. Such stations include KOA
KOA (AM)
KOA is a clear channel, news/talk radio station serving the Denver-Boulder and Colorado Springs, Colorado markets. It is owned by Clear Channel Communications and is nicknamed "the Blowtorch of the West" for its 50,000 watt signal.KOA was originally owned by General Electric and began...
in Denver, KSD
KTRS (AM)
KTRS, located at 550 kHz, is an AM radio station in Maryland Heights, Missouri that carries a News/Talk format and is owned by the St. Louis Cardinals and CH Radio Holdings. It broadcasts with 5,000 watts of power during the day and 5,000 watts at night. The call letters KTRS stand for K Talk...
in St. Louis, WGN
WGN (AM)
WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is the only radio station owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and WRR (FM)
WRR (FM)
WRR is a municipally-owned radio station, owned by the city of Dallas, Texas, that broadcasts a classical music format....
in Dallas, which was originally assigned WRR-FM in 1948 as a sister station to WRR (AM) from 1921. (WRR is an unusual case in that the call sign was moved from the original AM station to a commonly owned FM station, formerly WRR-FM, before the AM station was sold.) For decades, the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
carried out a policy of "drop it and lose it forever" with respect to the three-letter call signs, but it recently allowed the radio station KKHJ in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to reclaim its historic three-letter call, KHJ
KHJ (AM)
KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasts Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. It was also one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s as 93 KHJ before changing its format in 1980....
.
The FCC allows FM and TV stations under common ownership with a three-letter AM or FM in the same market to use five-letter (three plus –FM or –TV suffix) call signs; for example, KGO-TV
KGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
in San Francisco or WMC-FM
WMC-FM
WMC-FM is a "Hot AC" radio station serving the market of Memphis, Tennessee. The station is notable for being an FM "superpower," with a transmitter that greatly exceeds current Federal Communications Commission restrictions. Of stations in the FCC's Zone II, WMC is the most powerful...
in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
In some cases, such as WIL-FM
WIL-FM
WIL-FM is a 99 kilowatt radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. The station serves the St. Louis metropolitan area. Hubbard Broadcasting is the station licensee, authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. Its transmitter is located in St. Louis. WIL-FM was heard in Salt Lake City, Utah...
in St. Louis, the five-letter call sign may outlive the three-letter call sign on which it is based. There was also the unusual case of Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
's WJZ-TV
WJZ-TV
WJZ-TV, channel 13, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Baltimore, Maryland. WJZ-TV's studios and offices are located on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, adjacent to the transmission tower it shares with four other Baltimore...
, which was allowed to adopt this call sign despite the fact that no form of the WJZ call sign had been in use for over four years prior, and when WJZ did exist, it had been in a different region and owned by a different company since the 1920s. The call signs WJZ and WJZ-FM
WJZ-FM
WJZ-FM is a radio station licensed to Catonsville, Maryland, and broadcasting from studios in suburban Towson, Maryland. The station is owned by CBS Radio.-History of the WJZ-FM callsign:...
were later reused for Baltimore sister stations of that new WJZ-TV. Stations which have been "conformed" in this manner may keep the five-letter call sign even after they are no longer co-owned with the "parent" station (although this was not the case prior to the mid-1980s). WWL (AM) and WWL-TV
WWL-TV
WWL-TV, virtual channel 4, is the CBS-affiliated television station serving New Orleans, Louisiana, southeast Louisiana and parts of southern and coastal Mississippi, and is the primary CBS station for South and Coastal Mississippi. It broadcasts on UHF digital channel 36...
in New Orleans would be an example of eponymous stations no longer under common ownership.
K and W
New broadcasting stations are assigned call signs beginning with K if they are west of the Mississippi RiverMississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, and beginning with W if they are east of the river. No broadcast stations are assigned call signs beginning with N or AA–AL. Again, some early stations have been grandfathered, so there are four broadcasters with a K prefix east of the Mississippi, and a few dozen with a W on the west side. (There are more grandfathered W stations because the dividing line used to be two states farther west.) Some examples of stations with a now-unusual first letter are KDKA
KDKA (AM)
KDKA is a radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Created by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation on November 2, 1920, it is one of the world's first modern radio stations , a distinction that has also been challenged by other stations, although it has claimed to be the first in...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, KYW
KYW (AM)
KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio unit of CBS Corporation, and has broadcasted an all-news format since 1965. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia, and it transmitters...
in Philadelphia, WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, and WACO-FM
WACO-FM
WACO-FM is a Clear Channel Communications owned radio station located in Waco, Texas. The station brands itself as "WACO 100, a station so big they named the entire city after it." The station can be heard from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Austin, Texas.WACO-FM is one of three stations in the United...
in Waco, Texas
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
, which also has the distinction of being one of only three radio stations whose call sign is the same as its community of license. Stations located near the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, as well as some northern Minnesota and southern Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, may have either letter, depending on the precise location of their community of license and on historical contingencies. Metro area
Metro Area
Metro Area is a Brooklyn-based dance music production team composed of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani.- History :Geist grew up in Wayne, New Jersey, while Jesrani is from upstate New York...
s that straddle different states on both sides of the river, such as St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, and Quad Cities
Quad Cities
The Quad Cities is a group of five cities straddling the Mississippi River on the Iowa–Illinois boundary. These cities, Davenport and Bettendorf and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline , are the center of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, which, as of 2010, had an estimated population of...
area of Iowa/Illinois, have stations with both call letter prefixes, because of the stations' communities of license
City of license
A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
being placed on either side of the river.
The FCC allows derived call signs in the same market as a commonly owned AM or FM without respect of the boundary, so stations may establish common branding across bands and services. One famous example was the case of the former KWK in St. Louis, which after several petitions was permitted to change the call sign of its sister FM station in Granite City, Illinois
Granite City, Illinois
Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. At the 2010 census, the population was 29,849, making it the third largest city in the Metro-East and Southern Illinois, behind Alton and Belleville...
, then WWWK (FM), to KWK-FM. Later, the AM would change its call sign and the FM became KWK (FM), thereby becoming an exemplar of both categories of grandfathered stations.
The assignment of K and W prefixes applies only to stations in the broadcast radio and television services; it does not apply to weather radio, highway advisory radio
Highway advisory radio
Travelers Information Radio Stations , are sometimes also called Highway Advisory Radio Stations by Departments of Transportation in the United States. These radio stations are licensed low-power AM radio stations set up by local transport departments to provide bulletins to motorists and other...
, or time signal
Radio clock
A radio clock or radio-controlled clock is a clock that is synchronized by a time code bit stream transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time standard such as an atomic clock...
stations, even though these are all broadcasts in the usual sense of the word, nor does it apply to auxiliary licenses held by broadcast stations, such as studio-transmitter links and inter-city relay stations.
For example, the time signal
Radio clock
A radio clock or radio-controlled clock is a clock that is synchronized by a time code bit stream transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time standard such as an atomic clock...
stations WWV and WWVH
WWVH
WWVH is the callsign of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's shortwave radio time signal station in Kekaha, on the island of Kauai in the state of Hawaii....
are located in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, respectively. (WWV originally began in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
and was later moved west. However, even ignoring that fact, U.S. government-owned stations are overseen by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the President's principal adviser on telecommunications policies pertaining to the United States' economic and technological advancement and to regulation of the...
(NTIA) and not the FCC, and are thus not subject to the FCC's rules on call signs; most do not have call signs at all.)
NOAA Weather Radio stations clustered between 162.4 and 162.55 MHz have call signs consisting of a K or W followed by letters, and two digits. The K and W prefixes are both used interchangeably on both sides of the Mississippi River (e.g., KHB36 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and WXK25 in El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
).
Highway advisory radio
Highway advisory radio
Travelers Information Radio Stations , are sometimes also called Highway Advisory Radio Stations by Departments of Transportation in the United States. These radio stations are licensed low-power AM radio stations set up by local transport departments to provide bulletins to motorists and other...
stations scattered throughout the AM band use call signs consisting of K and W followed by two or three letters and three digits. As with weather radio, K and W calls are both used on both sides of the Mississippi River.
Call signs in the western United States are often confused with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) airport codes
ICAO airport code
The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.The ICAO codes are used by air traffic...
because both make use of four-character codes that begin with the letter K. Examples include KSFO (which simultaneously refers to San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, near the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...
and radio station KSFO (AM)
KSFO (AM)
KSFO is a conservative talk radio station in San Francisco, California, USA, broadcasting on 560 kHz AM. It is owned by Cumulus Media.The content of the KSFO's talk programming is solidly conservative, which is in stark contrast to the rather liberal San Francisco area, with show hosts such as Rush...
), KLAX (which simultaneously refers to Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
and KLAX-FM
KLAX-FM
KLAX-FM is an American commercial radio station located in East Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KLAX-FM airs a regional Mexican music format branded as "La Raza".-History:...
), and KDFW
KDFW
KDFW, virtual channel 4 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex designated market area....
(which simultaneously refers to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and is the busiest airport in the U.S. state of Texas...
and KDFW-TV).
Suffixes
FM radio and television call signs may be followed by a dash and the two-letter class of station: –FM, –LP, –TV, or –CA. For digital televisionDigital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
, the early –HD and later –DT suffixes are usually not used (one exception being KMYA-DT), as the digital channel is not licensed separately from the analog for full-power stations. (Beginning in June 2009, stations may choose -TV or -DT). Some station owners using the iBiquity
IBiquity
iBiquity Digital Corporation is a company formed by the merger of USA Digital Radio and Lucent Digital Radio, with the goal of creating an in-band on-channel digital radio system for the United States and around the world...
HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
IBOC system have expressed a desire for –HD call signs, but this is unlikely to happen because HD Radio is a sideband
Sideband
In radio communications, a sideband is a band of frequencies higher than or lower than the carrier frequency, containing power as a result of the modulation process. The sidebands consist of all the Fourier components of the modulated signal except the carrier...
service on the same center frequency. Occasionally, an FM or TV station may have one or more boosters, which retransmit the main station's signal to overcome terrain
Terrain
Terrain, or land relief, is the vertical and horizontal dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used...
obstacles. In this case, the main portion of the call sign remains the same (unlike translators), and the boosters are given sequential numeric suffixes like –FM1.
It should be noted that the -FM or -TV suffix is not required to be assigned to TV or FM stations, except where there is another station that shares the same 3- or 4-letter base call sign with no suffix. AM radio stations never have an -AM (or any other) suffix. Where a station has no suffix, the FCC uses parentheses to identify the station unambiguously in documentation (i.e. rulemaking
Rulemaking
In administrative law, rulemaking refers to the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or promulgate, regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more detailed regulations through rulemaking.By bringing...
proceedings), the same way Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
handles disambiguation of article names (except that there is no space between the two). This ensures that [for example] WIKI(AM) is not mistaken for WIKI-FM and WIKI-TV just because it was identified as only WIKI. This occurs regardless of whether there is actually another station using the call sign.
Low-power TV and FM
Low-power broadcasting
Low-power broadcasting is electronic broadcasting at very low power and low cost, to a small community area.The terms "low-power broadcasting" and "micropower broadcasting" should not be used interchangeably, because the markets are not the same...
stations share the –LP suffix. Class A television stations, which are LPTV stations that receive protection
Service contour
In US broadcasting, service contour refers to the area in which the Federal Communications Commission predicts and allows coverage....
from RF interference by primary stations, use the –CA suffix. When low-power TV stations operate in ATSC digital TV, they instead receive the suffix –LD, although DTV stations which have their RF channel numbers and sequential letters use only –D, as in W08EG-D. The –CD suffix was assigned to be used for digital class A, but stations did not appear this way in the FCC database until 2009 or 2010. This only occurs when the analog station's broadcast license
Broadcast license
A broadcast license or broadcast license is a specific type of spectrum license that grants the licensee the privilege to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses are generally straddled with additional restrictions that...
is cancelled, and the class-A status is transferred to its digital companion channel.
The first suffix to be introduced was -FM, on November 1, 1943, when the call signs of all 45 then-licensed FM stations were changed. Call signs under the old system consisted of W or K followed by the last two digits of the frequency (from 31, for 43.1 MHz, to 99, for 49.9 MHz) and one or two letters indicating the city served. No provision had been made for conflicting city codes (e.g., would "M" stand for Milwaukee or Minneapolis, or both?), severely limiting the application of this system in the anticipated post-war boom of FM station construction. Public confusion was cited as another reason to eliminate the old system. At this time, FM stations had to be licensed to the same organization and serve the same city as the station with the unsuffixed call sign in order to be eligible for an -FM suffix. Non-commercial educational
Non-commercial educational
The term non-commercial educational applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements , as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission . NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum...
FM stations such as WNYE
WNYE (FM)
- History :WNYE is operated by the NYC Media Group, a division of the City of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. The program started out as a high-frequency AM station in 1938, switching to 42.1 MHz FM in 1942. In 1946, it moved to 91.7 MHz, in a new FM...
and WBEZ, in the 41–43 MHz band, already used regular four-letter call signs. There was no -TV suffix as yet, so the few commercial television stations as then existed had to use distinct call signs from the radio stations they were associated with (e.g., WRGB
WRGB
WRGB, channel 6, is a television station located in Schenectady, New York, USA. WRGB is owned by Freedom Communications, and is the CBS affiliate for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy television market...
rather than WGY-TV).
Translators
FM and TV broadcast translator stations are assigned sequential call signs. They use an appropriate initial letter followed by a two- or three-digit channel number, and then a two-letter sequential suffix. For example, a translator on TV channel 4 might have the call sign K04AX (though it is much less common for TV translator channels to be between 2 and 13). Digital translator stations are assigned call signs in the same manner, except that the letter -D may be appended (e.g., K04AX or K04AX-D). The FM band also has channel numbers starting at the number 200 (or 201 for practical purposes), although they are almost unknown to regular listeners who usually tune in to a station based on its frequency. W201AA was the first FM translator at 88.1 MHz in the east, for example. Such call signs are never reused by another station, though it is unclear if this could occur in the future due to exhaustion of the 676 (26²) two-letter combinations. . channel 13 in the west (where the Rocky MountainsRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
make translators a necessity) is up to K13Zx. In this limited case, the X does not indicate an experimental station.
The FCC makes no differentiation between translating and originating LPTV stations, thus either type of station may have an alphanumeric or a regular -LP or -LD call sign.
Beginning in 2009, the FCC allows digital TV stations to apply for translator stations that are not given a separate call sign, instead taking on the one of the primary station. This is only in the case of areas that will lose coverage due to the digital television transition in the United States.
Station identification
Many stations prefer not to use call signs at all, since a moniker or sloganSlogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
is more easily remembered by listeners (and those filling in diaries for the Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
radio ratings
Audience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
). However, in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
does require periodic station identification
Station identification
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
using the formal call sign, as close to the beginning of each hour as possible, at a "natural break in programming". However, this rule is now rarely enforced. Stations are also required to identify their community of license. Only the frequency, name of the licensee, channel number, and/or network affiliation may come between the two.
HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
stations must identify clearly that they are using a digital transmission mode, and must identify each program stream individually, but need not do so in any particular form; many licensees have chosen to identify as "WXXX HD2" and so on but this is not part of their call sign. Translator stations only need to have their call signs announced three times a day (at particular times) through the main station, or though some broadcast automation
Broadcast automation
Broadcast automation incorporates the use of broadcast programming technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a broadcast network, radio station or a television station, it can run a facility in the absence of a human operator...
means (via voice or via Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
) hourly by the translator.
There are some unusual cases, such as the low-frequency
Low frequency
Low frequency or low freq or LF refers to radio frequencies in the range of 30 kHz–300 kHz. In Europe, and parts of Northern Africa and of Asia, part of the LF spectrum is used for AM broadcasting as the longwave band. In the western hemisphere, its main use is for aircraft beacon,...
WWVB
WWVB
WWVB is a NIST time signal radio station near Fort Collins, Colorado, co-located with WWV. WWVB is the station that radio-controlled clocks in most of North America use to synchronize themselves. The signal transmitted from WWVB is a continuous 60 kHz carrier wave, derived from a set of atomic...
time station
Time signal
A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day.-Audible and visible time signals:...
. Because of the station's very narrow-bandwidth signal, that station only broadcasts a one bit per second signal that cannot usually be understood by human beings, so the station is identified by shifting the broadcast carrier wave
Carrier wave
In telecommunications, a carrier wave or carrier is a waveform that is modulated with an input signal for the purpose of conveying information. This carrier wave is usually a much higher frequency than the input signal...
's phase by 45 degrees twice an hour [see Phase-shift keying
Phase-shift keying
Phase-shift keying is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal ....
(PSK)].
A common method of station identification by radio is along the lines of the call sign, the frequency, and the ownership (for example: "KQKS
KQKS
KQKS, also known as KS107.5, is a very successful Mainstream Urban radio station with a couple pop songs mixed into the playlist. It is owned by Lincoln Financial Group serving the Denver-Boulder metropolitan area. The station, which broadcasts at 107.5 megahertz with an ERP of 91 kilowatts , is...
Lakewood
Lakewood, Colorado
Lakewood is a Home Rule Municipality that is the most populous city in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Lakewood is the fifth most populous city in the State of Colorado and the 172nd most populous city in the United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that in April 1, 2010...
/Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
: A Lincoln Financial Group Station. This is KS1075".)
Callsigns as Names or Initials
It is fairly common for stations to choose a call sign that can be transformed into a name, such as Boston's WXKS-FMWXKS-FM
WXKS-FM, better known as Kiss 108, is a radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, licensed to nearby Medford broadcasting a Top 40 format...
(107.9 Medford), one of many Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
-owned stations that call themselves "KISS." In other instances, the letters may be an initialism for a name or slogan. Some of the most famous of these include WGN (WGN
WGN (AM)
WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is the only radio station owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois...
and WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
), owned by the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, which stands for "World's Greatest Newspaper", WIS
WIS
WIS, channel 10, is an NBC-affiliated television station in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. Owned by Raycom Media, WIS has studios on Bull Street in downtown Columbia, and transmitter located in Lugoff, South Carolina.-History:...
in South Carolina, which stands for "Wonderful Iodine State," and WISN
WISN-TV
WISN-TV, virtual channel 12.1 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving as an affiliate of the ABC television network. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...
, which dually stands for the station's original owner, the Wisconsin News, and the station's location in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
Affiliates of the Big Three television networks
Big Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
(ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
) in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
get their call signal from their network, with New York stations adding the "W" and Los Angeles or San Francisco stations adding the "K". Stations operated by schools and universities may adopt their school's "initials" into the call sign, such as WWVU in Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...
, the university-owned radio station of West Virginia University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...
.
Callsigns as Numbers
It is also common for television stations to choose call letters that either directly or indirectly reference the station or channel number upon which they broadcast. Some examples of this are: in Winston-Salem, North CarolinaWinston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
, the call sign WXII was chosen to represent the Roman Numeral 12 which is the channel on which the station broadcasts, the former WIIC (now WPXI
WPXI
WPXI, channel 11, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter located on the north side of Pittsburgh. Owned by Cox Enterprises, the station has studios in the...
) in Pittsburgh was chosen to accent the fact that the station broadcast on Channel 11, Philadelphia's WPVI was chosen to remind viewers that the station broadcast on Channel 6 and WTWO
WTWO
WTWO, virtual channel 2 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Terre Haute, Indiana. The station is owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group of Irving, Texas, which operates local ABC affiliate WAWV , through a joint sales agreement with owner Mission Broadcasting...
was chosen to remind Terre Haute that their NBC affiliate was on Channel 2.
Experimental and non-broadcast stations
United States amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
call signs are issued with one or two letters, followed by a single digit, and then one to three more letters. Generally the shorter the call (up to a 1x2 or 2x1 format) the higher the grade of license, but an amateur who upgrades is not required to change his or her call sign. In any case some of the available blocks have been used up. The 1x1 call signs, such as K6O, are for short-term special event stations. Outlying areas have special calls. For example, those issued in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
can (like other American call signs) start with A, K, N, or W, but then will have H6 or H7 before the one to three additional letters. Other Pacific possessions use other H numbers. For example, a station on Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
could be KH0–. Stations in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
have L as their second prefix letter, and stations in the Caribbean region (such as the Virgin Islands) use P for their second letter.
The number in the call sign refers to one of the 10 radio districts into which the United States is divided, but that only indicates where the license was issued. It is no longer necessary for an American amateur radio operator to change his/her call sign when moving to a new district. Most amateurs going to an exotic location will sign/(prefix) to show their location. Thus a station visiting American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
could be (regular call)/KH8. American amateurs are also permitted to operate in Canada under their own call signs with a location indicator.
Amateur stations are required to identify themselves by their call sign once every ten minutes during a transmission or series of transmissions and at the end of the transmission.
Experimental stations use call signs out of the amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
sequence, with the letter following the region digit required to be an X. (All VHF TV stations before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
were licensed as experimental stations.) Notable experimental stations included Major Armstrong's FM station W2XMN in Alpine, New Jersey
Alpine, New Jersey
Alpine is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located northwest of Midtown Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 1,849....
; Powell Crosley's 500-kW superpower AM W8XO, operating nights only with WLW
WLW
WLW is a clear channel talk radio station located in Cincinnati, Ohio, run by Clear Channel Communications. The station broadcasts locally on 700 kHz AM...
's programming and frequency from Mason, Ohio
Mason, Ohio
Mason is an affluent city in southwestern Warren County, Ohio, United States, 22 miles away from Cincinnati . As of the 2010 census, Mason's population was 30,712. Mason has experienced fast growth, with its historic Main Street remaining at the center of the community...
; and Don Lee
Don Lee (broadcaster)
Donald Musgrave Lee was the exclusive west coast distributor of Cadillac automobiles in the early 20th century. In 1919 Lee purchased the Earl Automobile Works of Hollywood, California. Harley Earl, the son of the company's owner, was kept on as manager...
's pioneering television station, W6XAO in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. (Synchronous "booster" transmitters for AM stations are still considered experimental in the U.S., despite fifty years of experience in Europe, and new experimental call signs are being assigned for new licenses even now, by inserting a region digit and the letter X into the parent station's call sign.).
Leisure craft
Pleasure craft
A pleasure craft is a boat used for personal, family, and sometimes sportsmanlike recreation. Typically such watercraft are motorized and are used for holidays, for example on a river, lake, canal or waterway. Pleasure craft are normally kept at a marina...
boats with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. Ships wishing to have a radio license anyway are under FCC class SA: "Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped." Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by 1 or 2 letters followed by 3 or 4 numbers (such as KX0983 or WXX0029).
US territories
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Navassa Island
Navassa Island
Navassa Island is a small, uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea, claimed as an unorganized unincorporated territory of the United States, which administers it through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Haiti, which claims to have had sovereignty over Navassa since 1801, also claims the island...
, and the US Virgin Islands all use the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
standard call signs of W (being east of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
).
Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
and the Northern Mariana Islands
Northern Mariana Islands
The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , is a commonwealth in political union with the United States, occupying a strategic region of the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines...
use K. American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
uses K as well, but WVUV was grandfathered in, and remains as an AM radio station; the low-power TV station that was WVUV-LP changed its call sign to KKHJ-LP in 2008. All of these areas are under the jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC).
Other regions
Call signs are also used in other parts of the world, particularly those which have had significant U.S. influence at some point. This includes the PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and formerly Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Another well-known call sign outside of the region is HCJB
HCJB
HCJB, "The Voice of the Andes", was the first radio station with daily programming in the South American country of Ecuador and the first Christian missionary radio station in the world. The station was founded in 1931 by Clarence W. Jones, Reuben Larson, and D. Stuart Clark.- History :Radio...
in Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, and several radio time sources used to set radio clocks
Radio clock
A radio clock or radio-controlled clock is a clock that is synchronized by a time code bit stream transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time standard such as an atomic clock...
or for audible listening, such as CHU
CHU (radio station)
CHU is the call sign of a shortwave time signal radio station operated by the Institute for National Measurement Standards of the National Research Council of Canada.- History :...
in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
See also
- City of licenseCity of licenseA city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
— another element of station licensing - Facility IDFacility IDThe facility ID number or FIN is a unique positive integer assigned by the United States Federal Communications Commission to each domestic and international broadcast station in its Common Database System . Licensees are required to provide the relevant station's FIN when filing reports and...
— used by the FCC in the United States to distinguish broadcast stations without regard to call sign changes
External links
- Tophour.com - Top-of-the-hour station identifications with call signs from American AM and FM radio stations
- Military Callsigns
- K/W Call Letters in the United States - A comprehensive historical review of K and W call letter assignments for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations in the United States