The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / TV Station Tries To Explain To Viewers What Call Letters Mean

**Posted by RadioActive** March 25, 2025 7:14 am

WKYT-TV News in Lexington, Kentucky does a segment called "Good Question," in which it tries to answer queries from viewers.

On Monday, a viewer wrote in to ask about the meaning of TV and radio call letters. They actually did a 90 sec. report on the answer, which does a rudimentary but OK job of explaining it.

It's just the fact they even broached the question that impresses me - think of how many TV stations in Toronto never use their call letters at all anymore, including CTV Toronto (CFTO), Global (CIII) and TVO (CICA), just to name a few. You can see the report at the link below.

Good Question: What do radio/TV station call letters stand for?

**Posted by Shorty Wave** March 25, 2025 7:26 am

RadioActive wrote:
….Think of how many TV stations in Toronto never use their call letters at all anymore, including CTV Toronto (CFTO), Global (CIII) and TVO (CICA), just to name a few.

Good Question: What do radio/TV station call letters stand for?

I guess CITYTV doesn’t have to worry about that!

**Posted by RadioActive** March 25, 2025 7:38 am

They're one of the few that ties their call letters to their identity. But when was the last time you heard anyone on channel 5 refer to it as CBLT?

**Posted by Shorty Wave** March 25, 2025 7:47 am

RadioActive wrote:
They're one of the few that ties their call letters to their identity. But when was the last time you heard anyone on channel 5 refer to it as CBLT?

Probably never….! Or at least not in this millennium.

**Posted by mace** March 25, 2025 8:16 am

Are Canadian television stations no longer required to do a legal ID at the top of the hour? While U.S. stations no longer announce their call letters, the legal ID is normally flashed along the bottom of the screen as the next program is beginning, usually so small a telescope would be required to read them.

**Posted by mace** March 25, 2025 9:06 am

Several decades ago, WSBK in Boston aired a program every Saturday Morning called "Ask The Manager" The station manager would take phone calls and read letters from viewers about the television broadcast industry in general and specifically why or why not WSBK runs certain programs. This was back when Rogers scrambling capability only affected the picture, so I would listen to the show. He explained that infomercials and religious programming were huge money makers for the station because the producers are paying for the full hour, not just the usual 8-10 minutes. Any actual viewers would be a bonus. He also explained that when local stations want to buyoff network series [Seinfeld, Friends etc.] the price they pay per episode depends on whether their market is categorized as small, medium or large. You want to put that series in a timeslot with maximum viewers so the maximum ad rate can be charged. The series ended in 1999.

**Posted by torontostan** March 25, 2025 9:32 am

mace wrote:
Are Canadian television stations no longer required to do a legal ID at the top of the hour? While U.S. stations no longer announce their call letters, the legal ID is normally flashed along the bottom of the screen as the next program is beginning, usually so small a telescope would be required to read them.

PSIP satisfies the requirement in Canada.... nobody enforces it anyways so it doesn't matter. Not sure why any broadcaster still does it... CBC radio doesn't bother. The audience has no clue what it's for.... just wasting valuable airtime in my view

**Posted by RadioActive** March 25, 2025 9:46 am

It's all about branding - so Virgin instead of CKFM, News Talk 1010 instead of CFRB, Kiss 92.5 ahead of CKIS, and Q107 not CILQ. Only CHUM-FM - which has a large history in the city and has the great advantage of being a friendly pronounceable word - and maybe CHFI, which has been around forever, are among the few exceptions.

**Posted by Forward Power** March 25, 2025 11:08 am

In the U.S., legal ID requirements are one of two things the FCC strictly enforces; the other is emergency alerting, i.e. EAS, and the old EBS and, going way back, Conelrad. Torontostan is correct in that Canada's legal ID requirements aren't enforced, though most non-CBC radio stations these days voluntarily do some form of legal ID, usually at or near the TOH... callsign, frequency, city of license, and ownership; more recently some stations have started including Indigenous land acknowledgements in their legal IDs.

**Posted by RadioAaron** March 25, 2025 11:14 am

Doing a little Googling, I couldn't find many examples of call-letters being used around the world.

Some Australian stations do, including as a brand, but it seems to be mostly public and community stations. The big commercial stations don't. Their TV stations don't at all.

Mexico is a lot like Canada, where the more heritage AMs are branded with calls, and some of the FMs' brands are reflected in the calls or vice versa.

Didn't find any call-letter use in Europe or Asia.

**Posted by RadioActive** March 25, 2025 11:24 am

A few years ago, I wrote the CRTC about this very thing, curious what the rules were. It won't surprise anyone that they never answered me. But I appreciate the update here.

**Posted by MJ Vancouver** March 25, 2025 3:36 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
Doing a little Googling, I couldn't find many examples of call-letters being used around the world.

Some Australian stations do, including as a brand, but it seems to be mostly public and community stations. The big commercial stations don't. Their TV stations don't at all.

Mexico is a lot like Canada, where the more heritage AMs are branded with calls, and some of the FMs' brands are reflected in the calls or vice versa.

Didn't find any call-letter use in Europe or Asia.

Mexican TV also airs IDs as text overlays at the top of each hour. A lot of TV transmitters there are straight rebroadcasters of stations in Mexico City, but they still air the calls and city of license of the rebroadcaster (for example, XHGA 2.1 in Guadalajara, which is a rebroadcast of XEW 2.1 in Mexico City). Some TV call signs there also are very long, such as XHSPRGA for public broadcaster Canal 14’s Guadalajara transmitter.

Some other countries historically had call signs for radio and TV stations but they’ve mostly fallen out of use. One example is the original BBC station in London, UK which was 2LO when it opened in 1922. In Asia several countries historically used call letters, notably Japan and the Philippines, and some countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America have also used them.

I’m a bit of a call letter geek, I’ve gone through some old radio guides from the 1930s that listed call letters all over the world - though many countries never used them in the first place.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (March 25, 2025 3:40 pm)

**Posted by MJ Vancouver** March 25, 2025 3:41 pm

RadioActive wrote:
A few years ago, I wrote the CRTC about this very thing, curious what the rules were. It won't surprise anyone that they never answered me. But I appreciate the update here.

I wrote them once about 20 years ago out of curiosity on this topic and they referred me to Industry Canada. When I wrote Industry Canada they responded that although the rule existed it was not an operational priority for them to enforce it.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (March 25, 2025 3:42 pm)

**Posted by martyb** March 25, 2025 3:59 pm

RadioActive wrote:
It's all about branding - so Virgin instead of CKFM, News Talk 1010 instead of CFRB, Kiss 92.5 ahead of CKIS, and Q107 not CILQ. Only CHUM-FM - which has a large history in the city and has the great advantage of being a friendly pronounceable word - and maybe CHFI, which has been around forever, are among the few exceptions.

When I think of 1010 I think of CFRB, and when I thnik of 107.1 I think of CILQ. Maybe I'm old.

**Posted by torontostan** March 25, 2025 5:52 pm

RadioActive wrote:
A few years ago, I wrote the CRTC about this very thing, curious what the rules were. It won't surprise anyone that they never answered me. But I appreciate the update here.

CRTC has nothing to do with it.... they've never enforced it, they just use call-signs in their correspondence, it's always been Industry Canada's area to oversee. Perhaps that's why they didn't respond to you. Write to ISED instead.....

**Posted by Scarboroughbluffsradiof99** March 25, 2025 6:03 pm

Me to.
When I think of CFRB I think of CFRB not Newstalk1010
When I think of CHUM, I think of 1050 CHUM

**Posted by RadioActive** March 26, 2025 6:11 am

I can't vouch that every one of these is accurate, but this page has an extensive list of call letter meanings from stations around the world - including Buffalo and Toronto. It's listed by call letters, rather than location, so the best way to find a place is to do a "control F" (for Find) and then enter the city you want.

**Posted by mace** March 26, 2025 8:01 am

Four I noticed immediately that were missing. CKOC, WOWO, WWL and WNED. I suspect the last one is for Western New York Education System. I have heard that the "OC" stood for Ontario Cycle.

**Posted by kevjo** March 26, 2025 8:02 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
Doing a little Googling, I couldn't find many examples of call-letters being used around the world.

Some Australian stations do, including as a brand, but it seems to be mostly public and community stations. The big commercial stations don't. Their TV stations don't at all.

Mexico is a lot like Canada, where the more heritage AMs are branded with calls, and some of the FMs' brands are reflected in the calls or vice versa.

Didn't find any call-letter use in Europe or Asia.

I may be mistaken but I seem to recall that in Europe and probably other parts of the world stations don't have call letters. They have names.

**Posted by torontostan** March 26, 2025 10:35 pm

kevjo wrote:
[I may be mistaken but I seem to recall that in Europe and probably other parts of the world stations don't have call letters. They have names.

Not the only area in which Europe & Asia are ahead of us... yet we always compare & model our businesses off of the U.S.A.

**Posted by Glen Warren** March 26, 2025 11:01 pm

I remember seeing the sign offs for some of the Buffalo TV stations in the 80s and 90s... They stated their assigned channel and frequency as well as their authorized microwave STL assignment.