Everyone has heard of callsigns with -FM and -TV suffixes. But what do -CD and -DR mean? Here’s a list:
| AM | There is no such suffix! Though often used by stations in their ID’s and promotional material, the FCC does not actually have -AM suffix. |
| CA | Class A TV. A station that operates at the same power levels as low-power TV but agrees to additional requirements in exchange for additional rights. |
| CD | Class A Digital TV. |
| DR | Digital TV Replacement translator. Unlike other TV translators, this type of translator is listed as part of the primary station’s license rather than a separate facility. |
| DT | Full-power Digital Television; the same type of license as the TV suffix. Not all digital TV stations use the DT suffix; some have a -TV suffix or no suffix at all. |
| FM | Full power FM license. In Canada, all FM stations have a -FM suffix. That is not the case in the U.S., where FM stations usually only have an -FM suffix if there is also an AM station with the same callsign. However, that is not a requirement, and there are some stations with an -FM suffix even though there is no AM counterpart. |
| HD | There is no such suffix! Though stations must receive FCC approval to operate in HD mode, they are not separate licenses from their analog signals and there is no separate station licensed with an -HD suffix. (Also, it does not stand for Hybrid Digital or High Definition. Ibiquity, the owner of the HD Radio trademark, has said it is not an abbreviation for anything.) |
| LD | Low-power Digital TV. |
| LP | Low-power FM or low-power TV. |
| TV | Full-power digital TV; the same type of license as the DT suffix. Some digital TV stations have a DT suffix, and some have no suffix at all. |