Antedating of "TV"

Doug_Harris cats22 at STNY.RR.COM
Tue Aug 26 03:12:39 UTC 2008


Was the letter-designations for radio station WCBW totally
random or did that, by some chance, stand for _citizens band
wireless_? It would be an odd coincidence if I am correct in
thinking the term 'citizens band', in relation to radio, didn't
come into use until perhaps the 1960s, or later.
dh


On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 6:48 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
wrote:
>
> TV (OED 1948)
>
> 1946 _N.Y. Times_ 31 Aug. 10 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)  The FCC
also has
> authorized the CBS to change the call letters of its frequency modulation
station
> in New York from WABC-FM to WCBS-FM, it was said, and its television
station from
> the present designatio of WCBW to WCBS-TV.

"Designatio"? How very classical! Would that be "designatio televisionae"?
:->


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list