User:Closeapple/info/Broadcast callsigns in North America
Wikipedia article names for broadcast stations in North America should match the official callsign of the station. Unfortunately, many stations use modified call letters with suffixes removed or added for marketing reasons. This page is a quick reference sheet for how each country issues callsigns, so users can check the likelihood of the article name being correct.
Note that all the information on this page only covers broadcast licenses; business walkie-talkies, amateur radio, and other forms of radio are not considered at all.
Still-incomplete information is marked with a "?".
Initial characters
[edit]| Inital | Country | use |
|---|---|---|
| CB | Canada | mainly CBC stations |
| CF,CH–CK | Canada | mainly non-CBC stations |
| K02A–K83Z | USA | low power TV, mainly west of Mississippi River[A] |
| W02A–W83Z | USA | low-power TV, mainly east of Mississippi River[A] |
| K200–K300 | USA | FM translators, mainly west of Mississippi River[A] |
| W200–W300 | USA | FM translators, mainly east of Mississippi River[A] |
| KA–KZ | USA | mainly west of Mississippi River[A] |
| WA–WZ | USA | mainly east of Mississippi River[A] |
| VF | Canada | low-power FM rebroadcasters |
| VO | Canada | Newfoundland stations pre-1949 or related |
| VX9 | Canada | very rare: experimental TV |
| XE | Mexico | all AM; older FM/TV with -FM or -TV suffix |
| XH | Mexico | newer FM/TV stations |
- ^[A] Some US stations have callsigns from the "wrong" side of the Mississippi River. Some are callsigns from different rules prior to 1929. Others are near the dividing line and either have a city of license for a city on the other side, or are in an area where the Mississippi River's course is not clear, so the FCC was not as strict about the initial letter for "borderline" stations. (Thomas White's webpage "K/W Call Letters in the United States" is an excellent explanation of all the reasons, and his page "United States Callsign Policies" gives details with sources.)
Suffixes
[edit]| suffix | Canada | Mexico | USA |
|---|---|---|---|
| (none) | all main AM; some CBC TV[C] | all AM; FM/TV with XH call | most statons |
| -AM | ? | ? | never |
| -DT | some? digital TV stations | ? | rare: full-power digital-only TV[D] |
| -FM | all full-power FM | all FMs with XE call | some full-power FM[A] |
| -TV | all non-CBC; some CBC[C] | all TVs with XE call | some full-power TV[A] |
| -# | AM rebroadcast of AM | rebroadcast | ? |
| -FM-# | FM rebroadcast of FM | ? | FM STA and same-frequency boosters[B] |
| -#-FM | FM rebroadcast of AM | ? | never |
| -OC | never | shortwave | never |
- ^[A] In the U.S., some stations have -FM or -TV suffixes and some do not. -FM and -TV are used for stations that wish to have the same base callsign on FM or TV that is already assigned to another station of a different type. Previously, all stations with the same base callsign had to be for the same licensee. (For example, WABC, WABC-FM, and WABC-TV were owned by the American Broadcasting Company.) Now, only the permission of the licensee with the base callsign is required. Stations usually do not request callsigns with an -FM or -TV suffix unless the same base callsign actually existed at the time they applied. (For example, WABC-FM changed its callsign to WPLJ, not WPLJ-FM.) Note that AM never has a suffix in the United States.
- ^[B] In the U.S., stations with the suffix -FM# appear to be issued to "booster" stations that share the same frequency as the base callsign (e.g. KEGA (FM) boosted by KEGA-FM1, KEGA-FM6, and KEGA-FM10; KONN-FM boosted by KONN-FM3), and to FM stations allocated to provide repeater service under special temporary authority (e.g. WCRT (AM) repeated by WCRT-FM1).
- ^[C] In Canada, all TV callsigns have the -TV suffix except for those Canadian Broadcasting Corporation stations that have the callsign format CBxT or CBxxT.
- ^[D] In the U.S., -HD and -DT callsigns were for early full-power digital TV licenses, which were originally separate from traditional analog TV licenses. However, all traditional full-power TV licenses now include digital authority; -HD and -DT callsigns then became obsolete except for a very small number of stations who received digital-only licenses with no analog authority.
US-only suffixes
[edit]| suffix | use |
|---|---|
| -CA | some low-power Class A analog TV[L] |
| -CD | some low-power Class A digital TV[L] |
| -D | some low-power digital TV[L] |
| -HD | removed(?): first few full-power digital-only TV[D] |
| -LD | some low-power digital TV (can be Class A or not)[L] |
| -LP | some low-power analog TV (can be Class A or not)[L] |
- ^[D] -HD and -DT callsigns were for early full-power digital TV licenses, which were originally separate from traditional analog TV licenses. However, all traditional full-power TV licenses now include digital authority; -HD and -DT callsigns then became obsolete except for a very small number of stations who received digital-only licenses with no analog authority.
- ^[L] Low power stations start with a X##XX format callsign with no suffix for analog and -D for digital, but can apply for an XXXX-LP/XXXX-LD callsign instead. Likewise, Class A stations can have X##XX/-D,[citation needed] XXXX-LP/XXXX-LD if they had the callsign before becoming Class A, or XXXX-CA/XXXX-CD.