Television call sign
A radio or television call sign or callsign is a unique designation for amateur, broadcast, and sometimes military radio use, as well as for broadcast television. Such call signs are formal, semi-permanent, and issued by a nation's telecommunication agency.
Each country has a set of alphabetic or numeric
International Telecommunication Union-designated
prefixes with which their call signs must begin.
For example:
- The U.S.A. uses the prefixes: W, K, N, and AAA to ALZ (only W and K are used for broadcast stations).
- Canada uses the prefixes: CF-CK, CY-CZ, VA-VG, VO, VX-VY, XJ-XO
- The United Kingdom uses the prefixes: G, M, and 2
- France uses the prefixes: F, TM
- Germany uses the prefixes: DA to DR
- Chad uses the prefix: TT
- Italy uses the prefix: I
Amateur radio
Amateur radio call signs normally consist of a one or two character prefix, a number (which sometimes corresponds to a geographic area within the country) and a 1, 2, or 3 character suffix. The number following the prefix is normally a single number (0 to 9). Some prefixes, such as Djibouti's (J2), consist of a letter followed by a number. Hence, in the hypothetical Djibouti callsign, J29DBA, the prefix is "J2", the number is "9", and the suffix is "DBA". In the Italian callsign, IK1TZO, "IK" is the prefix, the number component is "1" and corresponds to the Piemonte region, and TZO is the suffix. Another example is WB3EBO. "WB" is the prefix, the number "3" most often indicates that the station is located in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, or the District of Columbia. The suffix is "EBO". For the district numbers within the United States, see .
Broadcast call signs
USA/Canada
There are some common conventions followed for call signs in North America. Canadian broadcast stations are assigned a 4-letter callsign beginning with "C". While the Mexican broadcast stations are assigned a 4-letter callsign beginning with "X".
Broadcast stations in the U.S. are assigned three, four, or six letter callsigns. The current practice by the FCC is to assign all stations either a 4-letter call sign, or a 4-letter call sign, followed by a dash and the two-letter class of station, such as -AM, -FM or -TV. Stations are assigned a code beginning with K, if they are west of the Mississippi River, and beginning with W if they are east of the river. Stations having 3-letter call signs, or stations with a K east of the Mississippi, or W on the west side, are grandfathered, and allowed to keep their current sign unless and until the station's ownership changes hands, but no new 3-letter assignments or "wrong side of the river" call signs will be issued in the future. (For example, the Mississippi flows through Minneapolis, where one find KSTP east of the river and WCCO west of the river.)
Many older U.S. stations, such as Baltimore television station WJZ, Denver radio station KOA, and Pittsburgh radio station KDKA, have long historical associations. Others are changed frequently as the station changes format. Many stations prefer not to use call signs at all, since a slogan is more easily remembered by listeners filling in diaries for the Arbitron Company's radio ratings. However, in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission does require periodic identification using the formal callsign, as close to the top of each hour as possible.
Before 1922, three-letter call signs were arbitrary. In the 1920s, the FCC issued three-letter call signs based on slogans, such as WGN, owned by the Chicago Tribune, the "World's Greatest Newspaper", and WLS, then owned by Sears, Roebuck, the "World's Largest Store".
The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC of San Jose, California used the callsign 6KZ.
Australia
In Australia, broadcast callsigns begin with a single-digit number indicating the state or territory, followed by two letters for AM stations and three for FM. Some AM stations retain their old callsigns when moving to FM, or just add an extra letter to the end. Australian broadcast stations used the prefix VL-, but since Australia has no nearby neighbors, this practice was discarded in use.
Europe/Asia
In Europe and much of Asia, callsigns are normally not used for broadcast stations. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are exceptions to this general rule. Other countries have yet other formats for assigning callsigns to domestic services.
Military call signs
US Army
The United States Army uses fixed call signs for Army stations which begin with "W", such as WAR, used by U.S. Army Headquarters.
US Air Force
The United States Air Force uses semi-fixed identifiers consisting of a name followed by a two or three digit number. The name is assigned to a unit on a semi-permanent basis; they change only when the U.S. Department of Defense goes to DEFCON 3. For example, "JAMBO 51" would be assigned to a particular B-52 aircrew of the 5th Bomb Wing, while "NODAK 1" would be an F-16 fighter with the North Dakota Air National Guard. The most recognizable callsign of this type is Air Force One, used when any plane is carrying the U.S. President, or Marine One, used to identify any helicopter doing the same thing.
Fixed call signs for USAF stations begin with "A", such as AIR, used by USAF Headquarters.
US Navy/Coast Guard
The United States Navy and United States Coast Guard use a mixture of tactical call signs and formal call signs beginning with the letter N. For example, the carrier USS John F. Kennedy has the callsign NJFK.
See Also
