Callsigns in Australia

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Callsigns are used by all Australian radio and television stations as an official designation. Callsigns are allocated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and are unique for each broadcast station. The use of callsigns on-air in both radio and television in Australia is optional, so many stations used other on-air identifications.

[edit] Radio

Further information: List of Australian radio station callsigns

All broadcast call signs begin with a single-digit number indicating the state or territory, followed by two letters for AM stations and three for FM. For instance, 5AN is an AM station in Adelaide, South Australia whilst 6TTT is an FM station in Geraldton, Western Australia. Some AM stations retained their old call signs when moving to FM, or just added an extra letter to the end. For instance, when 7HO Hobart became an FM station, it adopted the callsign 7HHO.

Australian broadcast stations originally used the prefix VL-, but since Australia has no nearby neighbors, this practice was soon discarded, although the VL prefix can still be implied in an international context. (Certain ABC radio stations, particularly outside of metropolitan areas, may use five-letter call signs for FM stations: xABCFM for ABC Classic FM, xABCRN for Radio National, and xABCRR for ABC Local Radio - the x being the state number.)

[edit] Television

Further information: List of Australian television callsigns

Television station call signs begin with two letters usually denoting the station itself, followed by a third letter denoting the state and a numeral denoting the channel. For example, GTV9's call sign stands for General Television, Victoria which broadcasts on Channel 9 in Melbourne. There are some exceptions:

  • ABC television stations outside of state capitals add a fourth letter (and in rare cases a fifth) between AB and the state. This is used to denote the area, e.g. the Mt Isa station is known as ABIQ6, standing for Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mount Isa, Queensland. State capital stations follow the same rule as commercial stations, also using AB as the first two letters; for example, ABV2 is Melbourne's ABC television station whilst ABT2 is Hobart's ABC Television station.
  • SBS television stations all use SBS in their call signs, regardless of the state. Also, SBS FM radio stations use a five-letter call sign, xSBSFM. (Sydney and Melbourne's AM stations have the callsigns 2EA and 3EA respectively, short for Ethnic Australia.)
  • Commercial station Imparja Television uses IMP9, even though it is based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

[edit] Derivation

Letters and numbers used by Australian stations: