Re: Call Signs (was: Tell your conlang story!)

> Note that WRR has a 3-letter callsign, indicating that it has been
> around a while.  It was likely allowed to keep its pre-K callsign as
> part of the conditional grandfathering done when the split took place.
>
> Television stations around here (Atlanta) have mnemonically
> significant callsigns. Channel 5 is WAGA for Atlanta, GA. Channel 11
> is WXIA: the XI is 11 in Roman numerals, and the A comes from their
> self-designation "11 Alive!".  When I was growing up, channel 17 was
> WTCG, because it was owned by the Turner Communications Group.  Then
> the company shifted focus from billboards to TV and became the Turner
> Broadcasting System (my current employer), so channel 17's call
> letters were changed to WTBS.  When it became the first "Superstation"
> they dropped the W from its "network" name, so now it's usually called
> just TBS, though the local UHF broadcast still gives the full
> callsign, of course.
>
> WGXA in Macon went the other way.  Originally it was chosen becase an
> X in the middle of the postal abbreviation for Georgia signified their
> location (in what is generlly called "Middle Georgia"). But they
> decided to make it a backronym and held a contest to come up with the
> expansion.  The winning slogan was "Worth Getting eXcited About".
Some of the signs are pretty obvious. I grew up in the L.A. area where they have
KABC and KNBC. KNXT after many years finally changed to KCBS back in the 90's.
So the big 3 are represented.

The one that makes me ill is WVLT "Volunteer TV" here in Knoxville (that's
pronounced [naksv@l]). Talk about religious fanatacism! Vols fans are the
absolute worst. Even the area code (865) spells out "VOL" on the keypad.



> This all makes me wonder: do Chinese broadcast stations have anything
> equivalent to "call letters"? If so, what do they use for them?
Good question. I thought the letter designations were the result of some
international agreement made a long time ago.