This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

This page sets out guidelines for the names of articles relating to broadcasting.

For guidelines relating specifically to television, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (television).

[edit] General

Radio and television stations in countries where call signs are customarily used, such as North America, should always be titled with the official call sign as assigned by that country's regulatory authority. In places where call signs are not normally assigned to broadcast stations, the article title should be the officially registered name of the station, or else the name by which the station most commonly identifies itself (for instance, Voice of Russia or Radio Sawa). Many countries have stations or networks with similar names (e.g., "Radio One" in much of the English-speaking world). Those article titles should instead be chosen to reduce the possibility for confusion and title duplication as much as possible. In places with a mix of call signs and station names, such as most of Central America, South America and Australia, the station name should normally be used, except when the call sign is well-known.

[edit] North America

The official call sign can usually be determined by checking with the FCC's Common Database System (fcc.gov), Industry Canada's Spectrum Direct (sd.ic.gc.ca), or COFETEL's PDF station listings (cofetel.gob.mx). Be aware that many periodicals and even stations themselves do not always use correct call signs. Also be aware that not all call signs are four letters; in Mexico they often have five or six, and in all three countries they may have as few as three.

If the official call sign has a suffix (-CA, -CD, -FM, -LD, -LP, and -TV are the only suffixes currently in use in the United States; only -FM and -TV elsewhere), a redirect or disambiguation should be added for the call sign without the suffix. For stations which do not have a suffix, if disambiguation is necessary (because the official call sign conflicts with an airport code or acronym), place the type of service in parentheses; for example, "KSFO (AM)" or "KDFW (TV)". Note that American and Mexican stations generally have a suffix only if they share their call sign with another station on a different broadcast band, but with the exception of CBC-owned television stations with a call sign in the format CB-(-)T, Canadian stations always have a suffix whether the call sign is shared or not. See North American call sign for more information on assignment practices.

Alternate brand names such as "Fox 25", "The Edge", "Q107" or "Jack FM" are very rarely unique, and "Jack FM Toronto" or "Q107 Memphis" are not appropriate article titles. A brand name may, however, be created as a redirect or a disambiguation page where appropriate.

Where a single broadcast outlet operates several transmitters with different call signs, create the article at the call sign which is considered the primary station, and make the other call signs redirects to that call sign. Where a station has changed call signs, please put the station's entire history in its current call sign, as the old call signs may subsequently be reassigned to new stations. For defunct stations, a title containing some form of disambiguation, such as WVUE (Delaware), may be advisable.

Where a broadcast outlet operates a low-power transmitter as part of a major national network, the same content is often duplicated to a digital subchannel of a full-power TV station or to a local cable television operation. If any independent ITU callsign exists (even with a broadcast translator-like numbering or suffix pattern like W47CK or WNYF-CA) this should be used as the unique identifier even where it is the weaker signal.

The notability of broadcasts carried only on digital subchannels or cable TV depends largely on content; see Wikipedia:Notability. A channel originating content under a major network affiliation unrelated from that of the parent station may in some circumstances qualify for an article but, as a digital subchannel, its legal on-air identity technically remains that of the parent station. A WWTI-DT2 subchannel, for instance, does not receive a unique legal callsign distinct from the parent WWTI-TV, even though it may used to carry entirely different national network affiliations or content from the main channel.

Subchannels with related network content (such as NBC and NBC Weather Plus, or PBS, PBS World and PBS Create) should be treated as one entity and kept in the main article for the parent station. The same is true of purely local content, such as 24-hour news or weather reports. Fictional callsigns (such as WBU (The CW Plus)) should be replaced with names based on the valid calls of the parent station, where such exist (for instance, WKTV-DT2). There is no means to prevent a fictional callsign from being duplicated later as a valid ID on a real station in some other region.