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A concentration of radio towers, atop Mount Wilson in California.
Sanddunes Sunrise.jpg
In Memoriam
Dravecky (1968-2016)
A driving force behind this WikiProject.
He will be missed.

Welcome to WikiProject Radio Stations. We are a group dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of radio stations.

Scope

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The scope of this project is predominantly articles about individual radio stations. However, technology and content contributions are also appreciated, along with articles related to the people who produce such material (provided they meet the notability guidelines).

Open tasks

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A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.

Article alerts

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Did you know

Articles for deletion

Proposed deletions

Articles to be merged

Articles to be split

Articles for creation

Participants

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If you are interested in participating in this project, please add your username to the list by adding an asterisk (*) followed by three tildes (~~~). Members whose names are in bold are Wikipedia administrators, who can be contacted for special functions such as deletions, undeletions, complex page moves and initial dispute resolution.

Active members

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Inactive members

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These users joined the project at some point but have made few or no mainspaces edit to any radio-related article in roughly six months. Any user listed here is welcome to place themselves back on the active members list.

Article naming conventions

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Main pages: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (broadcasting) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (broadcasting)/Call sign appendix
Shortcut

Radio station articles are named in one of two ways:

  • Call sign-titled: For broadcast stations in certain countries, the title of the page is a call sign assigned by a regulatory authority, such as in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. e.g. KCDX, WKVB (FM), CBO-FM, XHLUV-FM. Further information on these practices is in the call sign appendix to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (broadcasting).
    • Call sign-titled pages are renamed when the call sign is changed. Some page moves in this area are intricate and require a page mover. Note that, unlike most redirects, linking to redirects to call sign-titled pages should be avoided because call signs can be recycled for use by other stations.
    • Defunct broadcast stations that used a call sign now utilized by another, active, station should be disambiguated. A priority order for disambiguation is presented in the guidelines.
  • Common name-titled: The name of the station is the title of the article in most other areas of the world: 107.1 Rugby FM, NPO Radio 4. If disambiguation is needed, disambiguate by country and then by location if necessary: Star FM (Kenya), Touch FM (Coventry). Note that, per MOS:TMRULES, we do not necessarily follow the capitalization preferred by a station.
    • Common name pages are typically renamed when the station changes its name. They are rarely split due to major changes in format or operation.

A handful of countries, such as Australia, may have articles with call sign and common name titles.

Article content

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Infobox

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{{Infobox radio station}} should be utilized for all radio station articles. Usage instructions are available on the template page.

Introduction

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Here is one suggestion on how to begin:

KLMN (102.3 FM, "The Illuminator") is a radio station broadcasting an oldies music format. Licensed to the suburb of Smallville, Kansas, United States, it serves the Metropolis metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1933 under the call sign KRYP. The station is currently owned by Lexcorp.

Note: Link "AM" to AM broadcasting and "FM" to FM broadcasting, instead of "AM" to amplitude modulation and "FM" to frequency modulation, since the broadcasting articles are less generic.

Body

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Include a detailed history of the station. In addition, when applicable, include a complete call sign history. (For stations in the United States, the FCC database can help provide call sign history for as far back as about 1980, while the History Cards linked from the database can provide call sign and all other history back to a station's beginning.) Per WP:NOTDIR, an article on a radio station generally should not list upcoming events, current promotions, phone numbers, current schedules, etc., although mention of major events, promotions, or historically significant program lists and schedules may be acceptable.

You may add properly sourced, encyclopedic content describing a station's programming, but a simple list of a station's on-air staff should not be added. To a reader who isn't already familiar with the station, a plain airstaff list doesn't do anything to help them understand or get a feel for the topic. Describing a station's programming gives the reader a much better sense of the station, its personalities and its on-air style than a meaningless list of people they've never heard of.

Stubs

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If you only know a few details about a particular station, add a stub tag to the bottom of the article, in order to inform other project members that the article needs help being completed. Please be as geographically-specific as possible in the stub tag added. For most international stations, use a country-specific stub tags. For countries with a large number of radio stations, use regional-specific stub tags, or where applicable, state- or province-specific stub tags.

Stub templates

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If an adequate geographically-specific stub tag can not be found for a station, use the {{radio-station-stub}} tag.

Categories

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As a general rule, radio station articles should not utilize a sort key when categorizing, as these categories often include both radio stations with different initial call letters, as well as articles whose names are not call signs.

Geographical

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For most countries, use the general radio stations category for the country as a whole.

However, for some countries where Wikipedia already has a large number of articles, more specific regional categories should be used instead of the primary country category when possible:

  • United States, Australia, Mexico and Canada: All first-level divisions (states, provinces and/or territories) have their own dedicated "Radio stations in (Division)" subcategories. The only exceptions are the American, Australian and Mexican capital districts — because all three are essentially coterminous with the capital city itself, they are represented by categories at the city level (Washington, Canberra, Mexico City) rather than distinct district-level categories. Regardless of an individual category's current size, these should be kept as comprehensive sets; nearly all of them still have further articles to be written anyway. Some markets may also have their own "Radio stations in (City)" categories as well. Use only the city category if one exists, and use only the divisional category otherwise — do not apply both categories simultaneously, and do not use the primary national category.
  • United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales each have their own dedicated subcategories. Numerous county-level regional categories do exist for England, and city-level categories exist for London, Manchester, Dundee, Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow, but neither of these levels of categorization currently exist as a comprehensive set. For those areas, use only the regional or city subcategories. Outside of those areas, use the categories at the appropriate constituent-country level, or create and populate a suitable subcategory at the regional or city level. The primary UK category should be used only in those rare cases where none of the more specific categories fits at all, such as a station that's heard in all four countries on a digital radio platform.
  • Philippines: Several city-level subcategories are in use (see Category:Radio stations in the Philippines by city), and a few provinces now have province-level categories (see Category:Radio stations in the Philippines by province). For those areas, use the appropriate regional category. However, for a city or province which does not have its own dedicated category yet, either create one or use the main Category:Radio stations in the Philippines, and do not leave articles sitting in a redlinked city or province category.

Generally, a station should not be added to more than one geographical category. In cases where a station is heard across multiple geographic areas (states or countries), select the one category that best describes where the station is licensed (or the transmitter is located). In a few very unusual and isolated cases where a station actually has operations — not just audience, but official operational status — on both sides of a state, provincial or national border, it may be necessary to add a station to multiple geographic categories, but this should only be done after soliciting input from this WikiProject. A station should never be added to a country or divisional-level category that already parents the same station's regional-or-city-level category.

If an appropriate country-level category does not already exist, create it rather than adding a station directly to Category:Radio stations. Creation of new regional or local subcategories is also permitted, but you should immediately populate it with all of the relevant articles. Do not create a new city or regional category if you're not prepared to populate it, do not create a new city or regional category with only one or two articles in it, and do not leave an article sitting with a redlinked category on it. When in doubt, solicit opinions on this project's talk page as to whether a new geographic subcategory is warranted or not.

Notes
Example: WHFS utilizes the geographical category code [[Category:Radio stations in Baltimore|HFS]]. However, it uses no sort code in non-geographic categories — i.e. [[Category:Talk radio stations]].
  • Use of the {{DEFAULTSORT}} tag is discouraged in radio station articles because of the sorting notes above. Even in an article where only a geographic category is present at the moment, non-geographic categories will very likely be added in the future, which would then sort improperly.

Ownership

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A station should be added to an appropriate ownership category (if it exists). These ownership categories are categorized under Category:Radio stations by owner by country. Some examples of these are Category:iHeartMedia radio stations, Category:Disney radio stations, Category:Citadel Broadcasting, and Category:Bell Media radio stations.

Format

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A station should be added to an appropriate format category (if it exists). These categories can be found in Category: Radio stations by format. Many of these categories include sub-categories sorted by nation - use these if applicable. Format-by-country subcategories should not, however, be further subdivided by state or province.

Assessments

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The single Blaw-Knox transmission tower for radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Click on the category listing in the table below to view all articles in that category. See the article's talk page for more information about the article's status, including its featured article review process, good article review process, and peer review (if available).


Radio station articles by quality and importance
Quality Importance
Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total
FA 1 1 2
GA 1 8 12 21
B 1 7 31 244 5 288
C 29 138 1,211 42 1,420
Start 1 15 275 6,122 1,115 7,528
Stub 39 7,989 4,437 12,465
List 1 164 453 3 113 734
Category 9 1,446 1,455
Disambig 103 103
File 10,101 10,101
Project 3 3
Template 1 1,723 1,724
NA 2 437 4,879 5,318
Other 37 37
Assessed 2 53 658 16,479 18,295 5,712 41,199
Unassessed 10 381 391
Total 2 53 658 16,489 18,295 6,093 41,590
WikiWork factors (?) ω = 119,016 Ω = 5.48


Lists

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Lists of radio stations are currently organized by country, with sublists by state or province for some countries with a larger number of radio stations. These should be organized as a single list, using the "wikitable sortable" format so that it can be rearranged to list the stations in the sort order of the reader's choice. Do not create multiple articles listing the same group of stations in a different order.

Additionally, do not create standalone "List of radio stations in (city)" articles for individual radio markets. Radio market templates are used for this purpose. However, it is permitted and encouraged to create more general "Media in (city)" articles which can discuss and list the city's radio stations, television stations and print media in a single article.

Useful templates

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Talk page template

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  • {{WikiProject Radio Stations|class=|importance=}} — should be added to the top of the talk page of all articles maintained by this project.

Userbox template

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Database templates

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These templates are a combination of FCC call sign, Radio-Locator and Arbitron queries for AM or full-power and low-power FM stations.

FCC

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Information in the infobox should come from the FCC database as it's the only official source for U.S. stations. However, these templates should not be used for non-U.S. stations: those FCC records include only facility changes to which the U.S. has the right to object under international agreements, and thus do not reflect a station's status with its own regulators.

Radio-Locator

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Links to a station's Radio-Locator.com (formerly the M.I.T. List of Radio Stations) entry may be included for convenience. These pages are also convenient for finding station URLs and other information. However, Radio-Locator.com is not always accurate and only the FCC database should be considered official for U.S. stations. Note that Radio-Locator is also subject to the same limitations as the FCC site when it comes to non-US stations.

  • {{FMXL|callsign}} — Radio Locator entry for an FM translator station
  • {{LPL|callsign}} — Radio Locator entry for a Low-Power FM station

Nielsen Audio

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Links to a U.S. station's Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) entry may also be included for convenience. Note that many low-power FM stations are not included in Nielsen's database.

  • {{AMARB|callsign}} — Nielsen Audio entry for an AM station
  • {{FMARB|callsign}} — Nielsen Audio entry for an FM station

Recnet

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  • {{RecnetCanada}} — To be used for Canadian stations. This site does a straight weekly import of the official Industry Canada database, and is thus an equivalent authority. Note that because the site updates weekly, however, major ownership or technical changes may not be reflected for a few days after IC's initial update.

IFT

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  • {{Mexico-inf|AM}}
  • {{Mexico-inf|FM}} — This template (which has a parameter to select AM or FM) provides centrally updated references to the Mexican Federal Telecommunications Institute's PDF lists of AM and FM radio stations in the country. The lists include information such as effective radiated power, concession/permit status of the station, location and licensee. It should be used with the |accessdate= parameter and, unlike the other templates, generates an inline citation.

Rebroadcaster templates

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Some U.S. stations use rebroadcast translators to broadcast over a wider geographic area. Translators should be included in the parent station's article and should not have their own page.

Rebroadcasters located in other countries should also be included in the parent station's article and should not have their own page. However, because the above template includes links to the FCC and Radio-Locator databases, there is a separate template for listing rebroadcasters of non-US stations:

In both cases, however, a rebroadcaster should have a separate article only if it has a sourceable and verifiable history of originating its own programming prior to becoming a rebroadcaster of another station.

Logos

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When uploading radio station logos for use in articles, be sure that the image(s) passes the fair-use criteria and that the rationale is properly documented on the image's page. For logos used in infoboxes, consider using

{{logo fur|Article=NAME|Use=Infobox|Source=SOURCE}}

remembering to change "NAME" to the title of the article and "SOURCE" to the source of the image. The FURME tool can be helpful in fixing fair-use criteria issues on existing logo images.

When a station changes logos, this is usually triggered by a significant event in the station's history (format change, ownership change, etc.) that logo should be archived along with the rest of the station's history. The old logo should be moved from the infobox to the section of the article describing the history of the station while that logo was in use. If no such section is available, consider creating one or move the old logo to the end of the article's history section and use gallery tags to organize the previous logos. Include the years the logo was in use in the image caption.

HD Radio

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To emphasize that HD Radio is available on a station, add {{HD Radio}} next to the frequency in the Radio Station infobox. See KBZT for an example. A list of HD Radio stations in the United States is available here.

Parent projects

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Task forces

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Other resources

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Clean up list

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A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.

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