Channel number, Call letters,or What?

Who the hell are you?

LEGALLY, the FCC requires you to ID three things once per hour: your call letters, your channel number and your city of license. So, you are WABC-7 Los Angeles on your ANALOG signal.
On the digital side, you are WABC-DT 11 Los Angeles. (I made up their dt allocation because I don't know it.)

So that we don't have to use seperate hardware to ID the two channels when they simulcast 100% of the time, most of us have combined the two ID requirements into ONE logo.
WABC-7/WABC-DT11, Los Angeles.

Now, your dilemma in a small-medium market is, how do viewers know you now, and how will they know you in the future? Keep in mind, you don't want to know how the general population feels, you want to know how HEAVY users feel. Every research project I have ever done outside of top 50 markets comes back the same. Channel number. this only varies depending on cable penetration and cable channel parity.

In one such market, with 80% cable penetration, we went with a our CABLE channel number instead of our broadcast number for all our branding. We still did a small legal ID, but that was it! Because, heavy users knew us as Channel 4, even though we were broadcast 46.
But here is how you can do some cheap research.

Go to a TV retail store, and talk to the sales people about channels people watch. DON'T lead them any, just ask, "what seems to be the channel people want to check out the most?"
What I always find is, "channel 12, channel 4, etc" are the answers.

Now, add that to the future of tv tuner allocation. And, what cable has done with NAMES.
the future is channel number combined with NAME, not calls. IN 5-10 years set top boxes will display name and number, plus program.

So, you will be "Detroit News 9" not WXYZ. Just like "Speed 127", or "Discover 75" The lazy stations will simply put their call letters there, and miss the great opportunity. Brand NOW, what you want displayed onscreen in the digital age!

Okay, I rambled on. Does this make any sense? I have along story to post about how SMPTE and set manufacturers came up with set top channel allocations and labels, but that will have to wait until I have time.