CALL LETTERS

Pioneering broadcasters in Latin America were Radio Argentina (1920), Radio Chilena (1922) and Radio México (1923). Available records do not show that

they were using call letters, which was a common practice among stations in North America and Australia at that time.

As broadcasting stations proliferated international conventions were agreed upon for allocation of frequencies and call letters . By the end of the 20’s, call

letters had been assigned to each country.

In Latin America, call letters became compulsory.

Shortwave listeners in the 30’s needed frequency tables with the corresponding list of call letters in order to identify the station and country they were

receiving. The January 1934 issue of RADEX, The All-Wave Radio Magazine, published at Mount Norris, Illinois, contained a list of “the best” shortwave

stations from various countries.

With the proviso that radio telephone services perhaps are included in this list, the 1934 survey of Latin America contained the following number of entries:

Call letters, country and frequency were given for each station. given.

Many of these call letters (siglas or indicativo) are familiar with us even today, CP5, HI1A, HC2RL, HCJB, TGW and OAX4D.

In some countries, Colombia, Costa Rica and Venezuela, call signs were similar to those assigned to today’s ham operators. This was, by the way, also the

case in many other countries, viz. USA, Canada, Australia, Portugal and Spain.

First on shortwave from Venezuela was YV1BC, in Caracas. From the list one cannot tell if the company name, Broadcasting Caracas, was used

independently or in together with the call sign.

Nowadays, in Europe, none of the regular broadcasters are using call signs. Spain was one of the last countries to abandon the use of their EAJ, EAK, EFE

and EFJ call letters well-known to European DXers in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

In Latin America, there are still a good many stations that display their call signs in logos, and use them as part of their regular station identification.

Newbies, however, seem to care less about call letters than the actual frequency on the AM or FM band.

Recently, with the upsurge of national networks, the “legal” identification procedure will not always include a call sign, at least not at night or during

weekends. In Mexico, which is part of North America, it still does. In Brazil it is also fairly common that the station, on top of the hour, says, “Let’s pause

for prefixos”, which is what the call sign is being called in Portuguese.

PRONUNCIATION OF CALL SIGNS

The letters in the Spanish alphabet are not pronounced along identical patterns in all countries. The letter Y, i griega in Spain, is often ye in Latin America.

(In Portuguese it is rendered as ípsilõ).

Historically, B and V are pronounced the same way, either roughly as a B in English or as an approach to a B, where the upper and lower lips fail to meet.

The uve for V in Spain, is nowhere to be heard in Latin America. The labiodental V (which is the normal way of pronouncing it in English) is a strange sound

to native speakers of Spanish. People in Argentina and Uruguay may use the labiodental V, supposedly due to influence from Italian speech patterns.

(In the recorded ID for La Voz de Carabobo it is impossible to distinguish between the V and the B in the call sign YVLB. The Y is pronounced as ye).

W is seen as a foreign letter in Spanish. To some people it is doblebé (or doblevé, which will be pronounced in the same way), others prefer dobleú.

(You may see the letter rendered in one word or in two). The international La W network is referred to as la dobleú in all member countries excepting

Chile, where it is mentioned as la doblevé.

W is also extraneous to speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, who will use the English pronunciation of the letter.

For figures is is convenient to remember that Brazilians often render the figure 6 as méia (from meia dúzia, half a dozen).

Mentioning call letters as station identification is mandatory in North America, which includes Mexico. In Central and South America this rule appears to

have been softened during the past few decades, one of the reasons probably being the existence of nationwide networks in many countries. Networks will

break for station identification and local advertisements only during the day, and not during weekends.

In old DX bulletins shortwave and medium wave information would refer to the call letters and location only. QSLs were (and still are) reported much the

same way. Nowadays, the station name or slogan is common. In a listing of frequencies, however, a station without call letters will create an

uncomfortable hiatus, and so bulletin editors tend to supply at least the country identifier in order to fill the empty space, for instance “HO---“ for Panama.

In the Swedish DX magazine Nattugglan (No. 10, vol. 4, 1949) a listener writes: “On approx. 49.0 metres I have been getting a station from Bogotá

announcing ‘Cadena Radio Colombiana’. Reception is quite good, despite severe interferences at times. Which is their call sign?”

To be sure, he did not ask for the company name, just for the call sign.

In some countries, such as Colombia, the call sign is affixed to a frequency, in others to a company.

In Ecuador, changing ownership would also imply a change of call letters. The new call sign, shown on the company stationery, would sometimes sport the

initials of the owner’s name, or those of his wife etc.

At Radio Guaranda, in Ecuador, we asked the owner, Sr. Jorge Carvajal, which were the station call letters. The station was a newcomer, and in their

transmissions they did not mention any call sign at all. “Well”, he said, “I don’t know but as we are in the 6^th region, so our callsign should of course be

HC6JC”.

Thus he suggested J for Jorge and C for Carvajal.

The call letter issue, which still is very important to many DXers, does not play any major role in Ecuador. not even with the licensing body, IETEL (in 1987).

In an official list, published in the mid-80’s by the Ecuadorian government agency IETEL, there were three different frequencies in the town of Guayaquil

identified as HCDE2.

STATION NAMES, MONIKERS, SLOGANS

By the mid 50’s, judging from the same magazine, the Swedish Nattugglan, the compulsory listing of call letters was gradually being expanded to include a

station name and/or a slogan. This reflected a reality. Call letters were less often heard on the air than the slogan.

Latins are prone to call their friends by nicknames, handles, and so the habit of adding a moniker or a slogan to a call sign or to a corporate name is quite

normal. The idea is of course to create a profile and an identity that listeners might feel comfortable with.

For AM and FM stations, which people would listen to in their cars, an alpha-numerical identification pattern is very useful. Typically, this pattern would

indicate a frequency and an easily remembered catch-word, Valencia 12-20, on 1220 kHz, Canal 115 – Radio Variedades, on 1150 kHz, Radio Trece, on

1290 kHz, or Mara Ritmo 900 AM.

Stations emphasizing a particular format will eventually have to change their slogan – and jingle, if they have one - as they switch to another format.

In Mexico the old-timers on mediumwave, XEX, XEW, XEQ are known as “la X”, “la W” and “la Q”. The latter had a tropical format in the mid-80’s and the

station was then called la Tropi-Q, a paraphrase of “trópico” (for “música tropical”).

Right now, in Lima, Perú, the letter Q, is a reference to the Colombian “cumbia”, at least for listeners to a station on 1360 kHz, frequently heard in Europe,

and on107.1 FM, La Nueva Q FM, donde manda nuestra cumbia.

Slogans are often ambiguous. The la ke buena type of slogans common in Mexico (and the USA) carry the implicit idea that the station is a woman.

The whistle heard in connexion with the Mexican Radio Mil identification refers to a woman, in this case to ‘a whistling approval’ of a very beautiful woman

in Mexico, Claudia Isla.

Half a century ago, in Latin American towns you would awake in the wee hours of the morning by roving street vendors crying out the name of the

newspaper they were selling. With such an experience on your mind you will easily accept the shouted presentation of news slots such as “El Reportero

Caracol” with its slogan “el primero con las últimas” (first with the latest news).

Now that roving news vendors are scarce and news is available anywhere, any time, this would seem as an old-fashioned way of opening a newscast.

Still the opening curtain for a programme is important, and considerable thought is given to this detail.

The World Radio TV Handbook will give us access to call letters and station names and only to a lesser degree to slogans and catchwords. These are

however worth keeping in mind as the identifier, if correctly quoted in a reception report, provides good evidence of actual reception.

Some slogans are elusive and changing, even with the season of the year. In Colombia, this will happen as of November each year, when many stations are

gearing up for Christmas festivities, “En Radio Santafé la música es de diciembre”, or “Radio Santafé, la emisora de diciembre” or “su emisora de todos

los diciembres”.

Some stations will excel in slogans between music selections.

During a nighttime broadcast in 1971, Radio Colosal, in Neiva, Colombia, on 4945 kHz, offered different slogans between the musical selections,

Esta es la jacarandosa alegría Colosal, “colosal”, enormous, refers to the station itself and is also a qualifier of “la alegría”, the joy, which is

“jacarandoso”, boisterous. This is a slogan where the station name is used in an ambiguous way.

Some of the announcements are read by a DJ who is relatively tired as it is at 3 a.m. The carted slogans are emphatic, trying to convey emotion.

Colosal, colosal, por ahí es la cosa, Colossal, enormous, that’s the word for it.

Radio Colosal, la llave grande para el progreso del sur de Colombia, key to progress of southern Colombia.

Radio Colosal, imagen del Huila ante el mundo, Huila in southern Colombia is the province, departamento, where the station is located, and so Radio

Colosal is conveying an image of Huila to the world.

Radio Colosal, profesional is the common Todelar network ploy “somos profesionales”, we are no amateurs, we are pros.

Radio Colosal, la emisora que sirve en el Huila (“sirve” means that the station is a service institution that does its job well) Va más lejos y siempre está en

el corazón de los huilenses, the station reaches afar and yet it stays in the hearts of the people in Huila.

Radio Colosal, calidad y capacidad certificadas por millares de oyentes, thousands of listeners testify to the quality and professionalism of the station.

Radio Colosal distingue a quien la escucha, Radio Colosal is for truly discerning listeners or if you are not, the stations programming will turn you into one.

Excepcional, colosal, por ahí es la cosa, Exceptional, colossal, that’s the Word for it.

STATION NAMES

When naming a radio station, the idea is to find a name which the intended recognize as theirs. The name of a river or a mountain or some historic person will serve as a catalyst for the targeted audience.

Without pretending to present an all-embracing list, we shall try to give some station names sorted out by concepts.

When publishing my book in 1989 there was no such thing as Google or Wikipedia. Now there is. It can be of wonderful help to us, now that also pictures can be retrieved when googling a concept.

In the following list you will find “Catatumbo”, “chasqui”, “Chinchaycocha”, “Ingapirca” or “Tawantinsuyo”. Looking up any of these words from your Google toolbar you will find not only more words but also pictures to explain their meaning.

Present-day geographical names

2.Names of historic interest