Madman Muntz and TV

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 26, 2008, at 9:44 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:

> Ben Zimmer wrote:
>> WCBS-TV has had those call letters since Nov. 1, 1946, according to
>> Wikipedia. I'd imagine that and other similar station names had a big
>> influence on the use of "TV".
>
> And Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>> Wikipedia has WBKB-TV in Chicago adopted those call letters on 6
>> September
>> 1946, a little bit earlier.
>
> Call letters are assigned by the FCC, and there can be AM, FM, and
> television stations with the same call letters in the same market. The
> suffix is very helpful in distinguishing these media for publicity and
> publication (see cites below), but I don't believe it's an official
> part of the call letters. Unless the "TV" part of the name is
> explicitly attested, I wouldn't call either of those an antedate.

agreed.  but note that Ben Zimmer merely suggested that the station
names might have *had a big influence* on the use of "TV".

so the question is when uses of "TV" as a noun (a mass noun for the
medium, a count noun meaning 'television set') appeared.

arnold

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