Call signs in Oceania

Call signs in Oceania are currently voluntary in Australia radio and TV station, and were previously compulsory in New Zealand. In both countries, stations like 2GB and Newstalk ZB continue to use parts of the call signs in their branding.

Australia

Call signs are allocated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and are unique for each broadcast station. The use of call signs on-air in both radio and television in Australia is optional, so many stations used other on-air identifications. Australian broadcast stations officially have the prefix VL- and originally all call signs used that format, but since Australia has no nearby neighbors, this prefix is no longer used except in an international context.

The letters and numbers used by Australian stations are:

* Originally, radio callsigns in the ACT had the format 2xx(x), like those in New South Wales. However, newer stations in the territory have been allocated callsigns with the format 1xxx. See List of radio station callsigns in the Australian Capital Territory for more information.

** Formerly 9. Radio stations in Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island now use the same call sign format as New South Wales. Radio and television stations in Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island now use the same call sign format as Western Australia.

New Zealand

The use of broadcast call signs in New Zealand historically consisted of a digit, and two letters for AM or three for FM. The usage was:

• Number
  • 1 - Northern half of the North Island
  • 2 - Southern half of the North Island, and Marlborough and Nelson regions of the South Island
  • 3 - South Island, north of the Waitaki River, excluding Marlborough & Nelson
  • 4 - South Island, south of the Waitaki River
• First letter
  • X - private commercial station
  • Y - Radio NZ, non-commercial (National Programme, Concert Programme) and Access Radio Wellington (2YB)
  • Z - Radio NZ, commercial (now mostly The Radio Network)

Initial government television call signs had the format of a two letter region code, followed by two letters of "TV" with a single digit referring to the VHF channel assignment.

• Two letters
  • AK - Auckland
  • WN - Wellington
  • CH - Christchurch
  • DN - Dunedin
• Two letters - TV
• Single digit - VHF band I channel

For example – 1ZB was a Radio NZ commercial station in Auckland; 4XF was Foveaux Radio in Invercargill (now More FM); 4YC was the Concert Programme in Dunedin.

FM stations appeared to have no standard format for the letters, just picking three that 'fit' the station. To make matters more confusing, some stations such as 4ZA-FM (now Classic Hits Southland 98.8FM) and 4XO Gold (now More FM Dunedin) retained their AM call signs.

Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin as major centres for the four regions had specific Radio NZ call signs used:

• xYA - National Programme
• xYC - Concert Programme
• xZB - Community Network commercial
• xZM - Music commercial (except Dunedin)

During the early 1990s the use of call signs became less common, to the point that most broadcasters do not use them at all. Some are retained in some form for branding - for example, 4XO Dunedin (until it was rebranded More FM Dunedin in 2004), Newstalk ZB (using the old 1ZB, 2ZB, 3ZB, 4ZB and various other Radio NZ commercial frequencies) and ZM (originally ZMFM, replacing the old 1ZM, 2ZM and 3ZM, now nationwide). Stations licensed since 1990 have not had call signs allocated.

With consolidation in the commercial radio market, the only stations now using a call sign in New Zealand are the long-established 1XX in the Bay of Plenty, and the recently arrived (2005) LPFM Primetime 1ZZ in the Bay of Islands, whose "call sign" is self-assigned.

References