I certainly didn’t mean to imply I though “The WB” was a good network name, though — it looks and feels wrong to me for all the same reasons I gave regarding “The CW”, including the brain trust that came up with it. Which, in the end, is the reason I predicted The CW to be doomed.

PC’s invocation of FOX as a counterexample misses my point: I think “the CW” fails because it is neither three letters (like FOX) nor rhythmically viable (like the WB). All the other examples PC mentions are cable channels, not broadcast networks, which must be a separate category (though of course there are HBO, MTV, VH1, and so on, that meet what appear to be the broadcast network naming conventions).

And finally, for the record, I never said I was “upset” about this — I just find “the CW” (and also “the C-dub”, should it come to that) to be “a stupid name for a television network”, and I think there are semi-linguistic reasons for my intuition. I have no opinion about whether the network will succeed or flop, and if it flops, I have no doubt it’ll be because of more significant things than the name, stupid-sounding or not.

Seems like foot structure is active here, but the analysis is going to be weird. Let’s say the final foot must carry primary stress in the initialism - generally true of all initialisms regardless of the number of letters or syllables. (e.g., AC, ESPN, NAACP). (This is equivalent to Eric’s grid analysis, with feet instead of columns).

If the last component of the initialism is W, we have a problem. Let’s parse [ˈdʌbl̩ˌju] as two feet: then as Eric points out, primary stress is moved off the final foot.

To this we need to add the exception that penultimate primary stress is OK so long as the antepenultimate is weaker than secondary stress…only to allow POW (and ACW). The second letter holds the antepenultimate stress (penultimate being the [dʌb] of W).

If you think a stipulation for initialisms like this is weird, consider a similar exception is needed to move the primary stress off the final syllable in AJ, CJ, YJ, and anything else ending in J.

Semantic Compositions wrote about this a few days ago, and I just can’t see what everyone is so upset about. Fox is one of the most successful networks (isn’t it?), and it’s only got one syllable (you do well to point out that the “feeling” of wrongness has to do with syllables/stress, not simply number of letters). Likewise with E!, WE, and Starz with the one syllable, plus there’s FX, M2, HG, and Bravo for your two syllables (I know they’re not basic, but still). Particularly if it goes the way of “The C-dub,” I think it will be ok.

I honestly hadn’t though about the unfortunate unavailability of “The WC,” but now I’m laughing very hard.