Call Signs in North America - Canada

Canada

See also: Amateur radio call-signs of Canada

Canadian broadcast stations are assigned a three-, four-, or five-letter base call sign (not including the –FM or –TV suffix) beginning with CB, CF, CH, CI, CJ, CK, VA–VG, VO, VX, VY, or XJ–XO. The CB series calls are assigned to Chile by the ITU, but Canada makes de facto use of this series anyway for stations belonging to, but not exclusively broadcasting programs from, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Several other prefixes, including CG, CY, CZ and the XJ to XO range, are available. Conventional radio and television stations almost exclusively use C call signs; with a few exceptions noted below, the V codes are restricted to specialized uses such as amateur radio.

Special broadcast undertakings such as Internet radio, cable FM, carrier current or closed circuit stations may sometimes be known by unofficial call signs such as "CSCR". These are not governed by the Canadian media regulation system, and may at times reflect call signs that would not be permissible on a conventional broadcast platform.

Four-letter call signs are the norm. Three-letter call signs are only permitted to CBC Radio stations or to commercial stations which already had a three-letter call sign before the current rules were adopted, and five-letter call signs exclusively identify CBC transmitters (which may be either rebroadcasters or SRC owned and operated stations outside of Quebec.)

Stations of the CBC or Société Radio-Canada tend to identify themselves as "CBC Radio One"/"CBC Radio Two" (English-language) or "La Première Chaîne"/"Espace Musique" (French-language) of a city, although they do have official three- and four- letter call signs. These generally (but not always) begin with CB.

Call signs with four digits preceded by VF (for radio) or CH (for television) are only assigned to very-low-power local rebroadcasters; VO call signs may only be used commercially by stations in Newfoundland and Labrador which were licensed before that province joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949 (VOCM, VOAR and VOWR broadcast from St. John's long before confederation). Only one station, VOCM-FM, has been allowed to adopt a VO call sign after 1949. It was granted the VOCM calls because of its corporate association with the AM station.

All Canadian FM stations have an –FM suffix, except for low-power re-broadcasters which have semi-numeric VF call signs. Higher-power rebroadcasters are generally licensed under the call sign of the originating station, followed by a numeric suffix and, for FM re-broadcasters of an AM station, a –FM suffix. For example, CJBC-1-FM rebroadcasts CJBC (860 Toronto), whereas CJBC-FM-1 rebroadcasts CJBC-FM (90.3 Toronto). Some rebroadcasters, however, may have their own distinct call signs. Canadian TV stations always have the -TV suffix, with the exception of those CBC-owned stations which have a call sign in the CB-(-)T format. Canadian digital transitional television undertakings have -DT suffixes, even where the base call sign is a CBC/Radio-Canada O&O in pattern CB...T, CB...ET or CB...FT (for television, English language television or French language television, respectively). For instance, SRC's O&O CBOFT-DT would represent "CBC Ottawa Français Télévision - Digital Television". Canada does not use the -LP or -CA suffixes that are in use in the United States but makes limited use of -SW for privately-owned shortwave radio stations.

For rebroadcasters which use a numeric suffix, the suffixes usually follow a 1–2–3 numeric sequence which indicates the chronological order in which rebroadcast transmitters were added. There are some cases where television rebroadcasters are suffixed with the channel number on which the transmitter broadcasts (for instance, CIII-TV's rebroadcasters are numbered with their channel assignment rather than sequentially), but this is not generally the norm.

Experimental television stations in Canada had call signs beginning with VX9.

The CG prefix is used by Canadian Coast Guard stations and ship-to-shore radio on Federally-owned ships. Coast Guard Radio stations have also used VA through VF. Individual ships will use call signs with a Canadian two-letter prefix (such as CF, CY, CZ, VB, VC or VY) followed by a four-digit number. Aircraft are identified with a prefix such as CF or CG followed by three letters. Military radio fixed stations also bear call signs in the CF-CK, CY-CZ, VE and VX-VY series. "Environment Canada" weather stations have call signs of three letters and three numbers, issued from various C, V or X Canadian prefix series.

Canadian amateur radio stations generally begin with VE, some also use VA. The number following these letters indicates the province, going from VA1/VE1 for Nova Scotia, VA2/VE2 (Québec), VE3/VA3 (Ontario) through VA7/VE7 for British Columbia and VE8 for the Northwest Territories, with latecomer VE9 for New Brunswick. (VE1 used to be for all three Maritime provinces.) VE0 is for maritime mobile amateur transmissions. VY1 is used for the Yukon Territory, VY2 for Prince Edward Island, and VY0 for Nunavut. CY0 and CY9 are Sable Island and St. Paul Island; with little or local population, reception of these distant points is rare, although amateur radio stations do temporarily operate from these islands during shortwave radio contests. Special prefixes are often issued for stations operating at significant events.

The Dominion of Newfoundland prefix VO remains in active use by amateurs in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, VO1AA atop Signal Hill in St. Johns being the most famous amateur station. Radio amateurs on the Island of Newfoundland use calls beginning with VO1, while Labrador amateurs use VO2. A popular backronym for VO stations is "Voice of...", although prefixes do not have any official meaning.