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From: fe2o3!michael@uunet.uu.net (Michael Katzmann)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Radio Station Names (Australia, Canada, HCJB)
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Date: 26 Sep 89 16:42:38 GMT
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In article  Rich Wales  writes:
   >In article 
   >munnari!ucsvc.unimelb.edu.au!U5434122@uunet.uu.net describes radio
   >station names in Australia:
   >
   >	Radio station call signs are of the form N-cc for AM and
   >	N-ccc-FM for FM eg in Sydney (NSW) there are 2BL, 2WS,
   >	2ABC-FM, 2JJJ-FM, 2-DAY-FM etc and in Melbourne (Vic) there
   >	are 3LO, 3AK, 3MMM-FM (triple M) 3-FOX-FM (the Fox) etc.
   >
   >
   >There is apparently no international requirement that radio stations
   >all have call letters conforming to the international (ITU) plan.  If
   >there were such a requirement, Australian stations would have call
   >letters starting with AX, VH-VN, or VZ.
   >

The origin of this system is I think, related to the British system of
broadcasting station callsigns.

One of the first British Broadcasting Company stations (as it was then)
was 2LO. This translated to the antipodes as the Melbourne station 3LO.
The system was just perpetuated.

Since (generally speaking) the MW stations from Australia (and of course
the VHF stations) would not cause interference to any other countries
(with the exception of NZ, PNG and Indonesia), the need to be under the
international call sign system is less than for European and other countries.

Incidentally some broadcasing stations (educational and similar) do follow
ITU callsigns. One example is the University of New South Wales radio and tv
stations that had callsigns of VL2UV and VITU respectively.

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