Template talk:Infobox television station/Archive 1

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Archive 1

ERP (2)

I've again removed ERP, per the discussion above. This template is on nearly 600 articles, and adding this insignificant piece of data to each one would be a long process with very little benefit. Boisemedia 03:00, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

ERP (3)

that's fine with me, since i never asked you to begin with. no need to get upset over it, anyway. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raccoon Fox (talk • contribs) 20 November 2005

Actually, the point I raised doesn't matter now, thanks to the solution provided by Boothy443. - Hinto 16:14, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

ERP should return in my opinion

i thought that the ERP was well-needed. most of the stations have the ERP information anyway. What's the worst that happens if a station doesn't have a stated ERP? it simply is blank? that's ok. As for the class, i could go through the TV stations, and put their class on (LP, CA, TV, DT).

should i put the ERP information back on? i dont' want to start an edit war or anything...

Raccoon Fox 14:22, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

You asked "what's the worst that happens if a station doesn't have a stated ERP". For many articles, it's not simply blank. I refer you to WTVG. Yeah, we could add the ERP tag back to the infobox in those articles, and (if no one reverts this infobox again) you're welcome to do so. However, there are simply too many articles that don't have the ERP tag, and it'll take a long time to track down and update all of them.
To be honest, since you're the one who added the ERP section, I feel you should be the one responsible for bringing all the articles up to standard, should this version of the infobox stays. And I won't help with it, as frankly I just don't have that much time. Happy editing. - Hinto 17:14, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
Sorry folks, I've been out of touch for a while -- but I strongly disagree with the inclusion of ERP. One, it isn't currently on the 763 stories that use this template. Two, why are we including ERP over such things as "station founder," "transmitter location," or something similarly arcane (but relevant) like "date of next FCC renewal." Three, why is it in the template when the data is included in VERY few of the articles themselves? I'm not saying the information is irrelevant -- but I do not believe it rises to the level of inclusion in the infobox. Boisemedia 04:35, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

ERP of Analog or Digital?

If there is to be an ERP included on this infobox, would it be for the Analog or the Digital transmition of a TV station if they have both? A 09:47, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

it would go for both. it would show Analogue power on top, with digital on the right after it.
Example:
COON-TV Television of the Raccoon Fox!:
Effective Radiated Power:
100 kW/100 m(Analog)
973 kW/100 m (Digital)
Raccoon Fox 03:14, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
If you are going to go as far as to include one, why not include a section each for both analog and digital? A 08:00, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

ERP

I have added a line for effective radiated power to this template. --KelisFan2K5 02:28, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Anyone who includes that should probably also include the transmitter height and possibly the station class (height can be just as or more important than ERP in many cases). —Mulad (talk) 02:55, Jun 9, 2005 (UTC)
Height as in above average terrain or ground level? I might also add that information on transmitter location be included as well. Pentawing 03:28, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Is this really something that should be in the infobox? I tend to think not -- it's not really core information (like channel numbers, affiliations, etc.) -- and because it's something that most people will go.. "huh?" to. I think that it should be in the individual articles where it can be better explained -- not in the infobox. Plus, someone very dedicated would have to cull the information for the 100+ stations already using this box. Thoughts? Boisemedia 03:57, Jun 9, 2005 (UTC)
I should say that I am for adding transmitter location however -- that's a little bit more main-stream information. Boisemedia 03:58, Jun 9, 2005 (UTC)
In that case, change ERP with transmitter location and move that entry next to the channel numbers. If everyone is for that, I will be willing to do so. Pentawing 00:52, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I think that this infobox is MUCH too large, so I think the following fields should be delted from the infobox: Slogan, Call letters meaning, Former callsigns, Former affiliations, Effective radiated power. (I'm not saying this info is useless; I'm just saying it it is not something that should be included in an infobox.) Infoboxes are for general info, not specific info, if you want to put specific info, it would be a better idea to put it in the article itself. You can't stuff all the article's info in to the infobox. Also, if we were to delete these fields, it would not be as hard as adding fields. TorontoStorm 02:52, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Power

Recently user:Radiojon changed the link text from Effective radiated power to Power. I think that this is too vauge of a term to use, so I have changed the text to Transmitter Power. I still like Effective radiated power the best, but I think that Transmitter Power is a good compromise. —A 08:08, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree that Transmitter Power is a good compromise TorontoStorm 23:28, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

"Class"?

This infobox has a hidden reference to Class; unfortunately, however, that title is a disambiguation page, and none of the articles linked from that page is particularly relevant to the classification of broadcast stations. (A) Is this link really needed, since it is hidden? (B) If it is needed, could someone contribute a short article about how broadcast stations are classified, so that the infobox could link to that article instead of to the disambig page? Thanks. --Russ Blau (talk) 16:34, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Never mind. I found List of broadcast station classes, which suits the bill just fine. --Russ Blau (talk) 16:36, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

About analog vs. digital...

What am I supposed to do if the station doesn't have a digital signal, to the best of my knowledge? Morgan Wick 04:18, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

This is one situation that having the single field for 'Channels' creates. What most stations currently have listed is '(none)', or they are blank. Does anyone have a suggestion for better wording? —A 05:42, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Recommend "Digital Sub-channels" entry

I would like to suggest a sub-channel entry in the template to distinguish it from the "affliations" where the current sub-channels are currently listed.--Kevin586 (talk) 16:04, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Done. --carlb (talk) 16:41, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

(Note: Discussion of digital channels and subchannels has been moved here --carlb (talk) 13:29, 31 May 2008 (UTC))

Recent changes...

...made by Carlb and his suspected IP socks, 66.46.167.154 (talk) and 72.140.46.227 (talk) have been reverted. At issue is the inclusion of post-transition digital information, such as virtual channels and effective radiated power.

Some of us, myself included, have argued that including some of this information isn't yet necessary, as there is still eight months to go before the transition deadline. That leaves us with enough time to tweak the current infobox format and, if necessary, create a new infobox. While a notable concession is made on the inclusion of subchannels, the other issues are still being discussed. This user has been making the changes without engaging in dialogue with other users, or waiting for a consensus on how to approach them. Should this continue, I suggest requesting some form of protection for the template. Rollosmokes (talk) 16:49, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Stream

Can we have something added if the station provides an live Internet stream.

Also, I believe there is some confusion surrounding the channels info and analog, digital. It would be wise to add a cable variable or to make analog optional with a channel number having a varible for strictly cable channel entry. Some stations ... specifically college stations ... do not have an over-the-air channel number.Krocheck 19:55, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Satellite coverage may also be of interest, mostly for stations such as Equity Broadcasting on Galaxy 18 where the DVB-S footprints of otherwise-tiny terrestrial UHF LPTV's cover the entire continent? --66.102.80.212 (talk) 06:20, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Name

I think the name of this template should be moved from "Template:Infobox Broadcast" to "Template:Infobox Television Station" as it is more relevant that way and that it is more accurate. In fact, this infobox is about television stations anyway. Does anybody agree?. Mythdon (talk) 08:08, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Duplication of template resources

Why is there both "affiliation" and "network"? This is most prevalent on Australian television articles (NTD, for example). Perhaps having network redirect to affiliation would suffice, but i find it extremely easy to get mistaken and put BOTH in ("Affiliations: x network. Network: x network", for example). RingtailedFox • Talk • Contribs 19:18, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Color

I think we should have a "color" parameter that allows editors to change the color of the template. Anybody agree?. Mythdon (talk) 15:59, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Format

I think we need a format line for each digital channel or sub channel to identify 1080 720 or 480 P or I the channel is broadcasiting in. Sattmaster (talk) 17:37, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Opinions on delinking the word "Website"

It seems common enough a word that I don't think we should link it.--Rockfang (talk) 05:20, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Merge Proposal - Solution Presentation

I have posted a potential solution for the merge proposal from August of last year at Infobox Broadcasting network. Please visit and provide feedback. Krocheck (talk) 11:28, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Just to let you all know...

I've added an optional "enddate=" parameter for use on defunct stations. Bearcat (talk) 21:28, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Virtual

Now that many stations in the USA have stopped broadcasting in analog, I propose that we replace the analog channel (when it goes)with the term virtual channel. That way the reader of Wikipedia can see right away what channel they would tune to. 99.26.91.7 (talk) 03:30, 18 April 2009 (UTC)eric

Owner

In the template [[Owner]] needs to be changed to [[Ownership|Owner]]. TJ Spyke 02:12, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Should we remove the "Analog" section of the infobox

Discussion please Griffin5Talk/Contributions

No we should not remove the analog section of the infobox as there are still low power analog stations and analog stations outside the U.S. Powergate92Talk 02:08, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Redirected lower-case here

{{editprotected}} Template:Infobox broadcast (with a small "b") was nearly the same template as this one, so I've redirected it here. Two items I noticed that should be edited on this protected template:

  • Transmitter Coordinates should probably be Antenna Coordinates (as it was in the lower-case version), since it's the antenna's precision (or the center of the antenna pattern) that matters.
  • I found interwiki link [[id:Templat:Kotak info penyiaran]] when redirecting Template:Infobox broadcast here. It should go on this template. --Closeapple (talk) 00:58, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
Did you ensure that all parameters of Template:Infobox broadcast are supported by this template (with the same parameter name)?
  • Perhaps you could obtain a consensus for the Transmitter -> Antenna change on this template?
  • Please add interwikis to the documentation. Thanks.
— Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:42, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

PSIP/Virtual Channel

{{editprotected}} Currently the U.S. stations articles are cluttered with transition text about the PSIP virtual channels, an issue raised before and lost in the merger merry go round. I offer three options for solutions:

  1. one Adding a "virtual=" parameter
  2. two Revising "subchannels=" parameter to list single ".1" channels and eliminate "see text" references, then presuming the proximity will imply the virtualisation.
  3. three Specifying (Virtual),(PSIP), or (virtual PSIP) as a second line within within the "digital=" parameter, akin to VHF or UHF.

I have implemented c) on WGN-TV as an example.

digital = 19 (UHF)
Virtual: 9 (PSIP)|

Clearly do not delete "Analog=" Not only are there are analog stations outside the U.S. but, within the US, many low power (-LP or -CA) stations will not convert for a few more years. JKPrivett (talk) 19:53, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree with JKPrivett a "virtual=" parameter should be added to the template. Powergate92Talk 20:17, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Not done for now: I suggest letting the discussion run for a few days, at least until the original proponent has had a chance to comment again. Please replace the request when the best option is decided. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 22:04, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Insert "Virtual Channel" as a line in Infobox Broadcast

I edited this into the documentation page already, but following the "Digital" line in the infobox, there should also be a line that says "Virtual", that way there can be an accurate display in the infobox about whether or not the station uses a virtual channel. This line should be located right under the "Digital" line, so it reads like this:

digital = 34 (VHF)|
virtual = 4 (PSIP)|

{{edit protected}} KansasCity (talk) 13:49, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Question: should this perhaps link to Virtual channel (for those of us who didn't know what it was) ?  Chzz  ►  20:40, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Affiliate

{{editprotect}} Since this is a template and used in many articles, all links should be correct. [[Affiliate|Affiliation]] needs to be fixed to [[Network affiliation|Affiliation]]. TJ Spyke 23:22, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Also, [[Owner]] needs to be [[Ownership|Owner]]. TJ Spyke 23:24, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Not done; network affiliation is a redlink, and it's not clear what you mean by "correct". Do you just want the redirects bypassed?  Skomorokh  04:30, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Sandbox merge, move

{{editprotected}} Requesting sync with the template sandbox and a move to {{infobox broadcast}}. Minor output changes to match the existing style of contemporary infobox templates; significant cleanup of the code. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 08:59, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Seems uncontroversial.  Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:21, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Name

Wouldn't this template be more accurately named Infobox broadcaster?Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 12:02, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Capitalization correction needed

{{editprotected}}

The display field label "Transmitter Power" should be rendered as "Transmitter power" for consistency with the rest of the template and with Wikipedia's sentence-capitalization style. I'd change it myself, but this template is protected, and I haven't yet run the gauntlet of adminship here. (There should be a user access level that allows trusted copyeditors to edit protected pages, IMHO.) ~ Jeff Q (talk) 18:34, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Done (well the part that I can easily change at least!) Peter 20:55, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Unlink request

{{editprotected}} The subheadings Owner, Website, Brand and Slogan are all familiar terms - there's no benefit in linking them. Could they be unlinked, please, per WP:OVERLINK? Colonies Chris (talk) 00:20, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

No opposition, so  Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 16:14, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. Colonies Chris (talk) 11:27, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Suggestions for amendments to the template

Heya, guys... I've been doing some research on broadcasting, and I've noticed that Mobile DTV seems to be taking off in the United States. So, I've made some amendments and upgrades to the template, that you can view on my Sandbox page.

I do believe that Mobile DTV should be mentioned if it's broadcast on a television station's signal as part of its 6-MHz (or 5, 7, or 8 Mhz) channel. I've also included provisions for datacasting services like UpdateLogic. RingtailedFox • Talk • Contribs 21:39, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Merge in sandbox changes for country, licensing authority, licensing-info web links

For discussion prior to using {{edit protected}} A link to this discussion will be posted to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Television Stations and possibly elsewhere.

Please merge in these sandbox changes (diff) which add country and licensing_authority tags and, if the licensing authority is the FCC, links to two FCC web pages showing useful regulatory and technical information regarding the station. These changes are designed to be expandable to other countries' licensing authorities which might have similar public registration-information web sites. If present, the country shows below the city in the header.

Changes are in header1 and in label/data lines 24 through 26.

The matching documentation changes are in this edit (diff). This will need to be merged in as well.

Note that the updated doc page is based on and is not a copy of WCVB-TV's template. In particular, I have commented-out the picture and added the country and licensing_authority lines here, which I have not done on the station's article page.

"Live" test cases are available here. Ignore the first two items in this page, start with "test 1." Once the template is changed, notice that it now automatically-generated links to FCC web pages for those test cases that list the FCC as the licensing authority. It also shows the country in the template header if one is given.

An "archive" version of the test-cases with the Infobox broadcast and Infobox broadcast/sandbox subst'd in is here. This shows how things look and does not depend on the current state of {{Infobox broadcast}}.

By the way, I've sync'ed up the sandbox with the template and removed my test cases from the current version of testcases page so others can use them for their own proposals. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 22:52, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

Seeing no controversy, please make the changes listed above. Thanks. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 23:55, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
I made the change to the template. Hopefully, I got it right. I will leave the changes to the documentation to you. Thanks! Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 05:13, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 Done and thanks. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 21:48, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Template:Infobox broadcast not in sync with Template:Infobox broadcast/doc

In Template:Infobox broadcast/doc and missing in Template:Infobox broadcast:

| virtual = (added to template doc (diff) 13:39, 10 July 2009‎ by 75.81.119.180); Usage references:
| '''virtual'''
| Indicate the virtual channel number of the station's primary ''[[Digital television|digital]]'' transmitter if it differs from its actual channel number and that it is created via the [[Program and System Information Protocol|PSIP]].
| former_locations = (added to template doc (diff) 16:47, 12 April 2008‎ by 70.237.103.74); Usage references:
| '''former_locations'''
| List any previous locations the station had during its history.
| former_cities = (added to template doc (diff) 02:32, 8 March 2009‎ by 71.137.232.6); Usage references:
| '''former_cities'''
| List any previous cities the station had during its history.
Above could be deleted from unprotected Template:Infobox broadcast/doc to clear clutter and not mislead novice editors that using these inactive parameters will produce results in the infobox. Since Template:Infobox broadcast is so extensively used and I am new to Wikipedia, should they be deleted and would there be negative ramifications, possibly from bots?

In Template:Infobox broadcast and missing in Template:Infobox broadcast/doc:

| network = (deleted from template doc (diff) 23:55, 21 July 2008‎ by Huntster); template references:
| label9 = [[Television network|Network]]
| data9 = {{{network|}}}
What is the difference between "network" and "affiliations": "Identifies which network(s) the station is associated with and which contribute regular programming. Use "Independent" if the station does not belong to any regular broadcast network. Do not list temporary or special-event networks; do not duplicate information already listed elsewhere."?
As noted in Duplication of template resources above, "network" is used in Australian TV NTD article.

BTW do like and use "licensing_authority" as quick access to new "FCC TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files". Have encountered "licensing authority" along with "country" deleted in an article, but there is the fallback of adding external reference Template:FCC-TV-Station-profile. (This entry may be deleted.) Bob08033 (talk) 23:02, 23 October 2012 (UTC); added history references Bob08033 (talk) 07:18, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

market

Any thoughts on adding an optional media market field? This would identify stations serving a similar group of viewers. It's well defined in the United States (Nielson DMAs) and Canada (BBM) and elsewhere these markets are defined in articles such as List of television stations in North America by media market. The field could even automatically add the station to a Television stations in the XYZ market --RadioFan (talk) 03:37, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 1 August 2013

As mentioned numerous times above, |network= is undocumented, but supported as line header/data9 (after |affiliations=). Why? The fact that the doc says not to duplicate information doesn't seem to stop people from putting the same value in both params (like TV Tokyo, which I just fixed), displaying it twice (incorrectly). If there's a need for both params, please document it. Otherwise, it should be deprecated and existing usage sorted out. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 00:44, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

@AlanM1: Probably we should put in a tracking category so that we can see which articles use the deprecated parameter. From the above, I'm guessing that you would like to see |network= deprecated, rather than |affiliations=? — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 05:15, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
@Mr. Stradivarius: I suspect |network= is the one that is less used, since it is not documented, though I didn't look in the history. Thanks. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 05:31, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
Done for now - the |network= parameter is now tracked at Category:Broadcast infoboxes with deprecated parameters. Let's leave a couple of weeks for the change to filter through the job queue, and then see how many articles are affected. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 05:58, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

The United States Federal Government Shutdown of 2013

With the government shutdown, I was thinking that perhaps we should use http://www.RabbitEars.info/ as a mirror. In addition to acting as a complete mirror of the FCC, it also has extensive data on most Canadian and select Mexican stations (those within the 300 km border region with the United States). The site is run by an employee of the FCC, and I'm fairly certain it's either public-domain or CC-By-SA (i'll ask him which). It has information from the FCC, augmented by viewer contributions (such as myself), and even some from television station employees.

For example, I propose the following:

  • United States: FCC data + RabbitEars Information
  • Canada: CRTC Data + RabbitEars Information
  • Mexico: SCT/COFETEL + RabbitEars Information (for stations within the border region)

There is a precedent for such activity. A couple years back, I added radio-locator.com information to many AM and FM stations in Canada and the United States, and created templates for them, which were ultimately merged into Template:AM station data and Template:FM station data. There are also templates for RecNet and TVFool. I believe that adding RabbitEars.info (either as a separate template, or a more direct inclusion into the Infobox Broadcast template) would be prudent.

Failing that, we could simply merge TVFool and a proposed RabbitEars template (possibly with RecnetCanada) into Template:TVQ

As it stands, I've upgraded the Template:TVQ article to include RabbitEars.info and TVFool.com information.

I'd like to know what everyones' ideas are on the topic... 08:00, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Automatic FCC links

The inclusion of a "Facility ID" should be included in the logic to choose whether or not FCC links should be included. "Facility ID" means its a FCC-licensed station. Int21h (talk) 20:27, 1 April 2014 (UTC) I should note that both the profile and CDBS (the "facid" parameter) can be linked to with the "Facility ID" alone.

But as it stands, adding "| licensing_authority = [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]]" to every article on Wikipedia to get links to that information is superfluous in the extreme. Int21h (talk) 20:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Virtual channel

Reading through the history of this talk page, it looks like this issue was raised almost six years ago, with hardly any discussion. Meanwhile, we've all been working around it for those six years (and longer, in fact).

The template documentation appears to have been updated to show a parameter for virtual channel. However, the template itself has never been changed, and so anyone trying to use the parameter will find it doesn't work. I'm at a bit of loss as to why this change wasn't made; it's not like we're going to have fewer digital channels over time.

So, I'm going to advocate for adding virtual channel as an optional parameter. If anyone has thoughts or can explain the history, please weigh in. If consensus is that the parameter shouldn't be added, then we should at least be updating the documentation to reflect how the template actually works. Mlaffs (talk) 15:21, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

11 days with nobody weighing in, so I've been bold and implemented this change (after testing it in the sandbox and testcases first, naturally). Seems to work fine. Mlaffs (talk) 12:54, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Add new field: operator

Due to the significant proliferation of local marketing agreements and other similar arrangements that are basically the same in practice, I feel that this infobox should explicitly separate the "owner" of a television station from a company that operates it, rather than our current practice of shoving them in with the Owner field.

This would require the addition of a new field, "operator". Operator would be listed in the infobox below the current Owner field (or maybe should it be above?). If the station is being operated by a company that is different from its owner, i.e. those Mission Broadcasting stations that are actually run by Nexstar Broadcasting Group and treated as their own, the operating company (Nexstar) would be listed in this new "Operator" field alongside the FCC license holder (Mission) in the "Owner" field.

Would this make sense? ViperSnake151  Talk  20:48, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit template-protected}} template. Primefac (talk) 04:16, 25 December 2015 (UTC)
ViperSnake151, done. Frietjes (talk) 14:15, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

British English variant - licence instead of license

Please see my comment on Template talk:Infobox radio station. It also applies to this template. Thanks, Bazonka (talk) 07:43, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

No response in 2½ years, so I've simply changed "City of license" into "City", per WP:BRD. Bazonka (talk) 12:48, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Branding formating

I would like to change the example to comply with Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Infoboxes#Style.2C_color_and_formatting. The example uses small formatting for "(general)" and "(newscast)" in branding. Iboxes already is already formatted small and additional small is additional formatting that the above MOS section indicates should be avoided. And I have some other editor attack me as "Trying to do things 'your way'". these tags could be removed as in most cases based on the branding it is clear which is which as "News" usual is in the newscast branding. I would also like to show the branding field as using 1:, 2:, etc. for branding (if used) for separate multicast channels. --Spshu (talk) 13:31, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Area field

There is considerable confusion between Location vs. City. For the U.S. market (my primary expertise), there is no official field for the Designated Market Area (DMA) and space for the Wikilink to the corresponding Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) article. The problem is that the Location field deceptively looks like a DMA link, but the city proper and state are only being Wikilinked. There is no context that the MSA article provides for the DMA. The City of License field is universally always left blank if the station is licensed to the main city of a market area/metropolis.

The Template:Infobox radio station has a field for this purpose called Area which should be implemented in this template. One way to accomplish this is to rename the City field into Area or Market. Another way is to remove the location formatting at the top and create a new field named Area or Market below the existing City field. Any other ideas on how to implement this? SirChan (talk) 19:49, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

What about cable stations?

Do we use this template for cable stations such as CP24 in Toronto, Ontario? If we do, how can we put a callsign. On the Infobox Network article talk page, it says this tempalte should be used for TV stations.

TorontoStorm 02:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Cable station is generally a misnomer. There are cable channels, which should use Template:Infobox television channel. Spshu (talk) 00:58, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

"Location" parameter for Template:Infobox broadcast

Copied/pasted from my talk page. Mvcg66b3r (talk) 11:20, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Sigh... I see from your edit history that KGO-TV is far from the only article on which you've changed the "Location" parameter value to what I guess is a service area or market.

The documentation for this infobox (see template:Infobox broadcast) is very explicit: The "Location" parameter is for, and I quote:

The name of the municipality in which the station's programming originates. That is, the primary studio and office location. This is opposed to the transmitter location which may be in a different community, and also opposed to regional "satellite" studios or facilities.

I see no way that "San Francisco Bay Area" can be interpreted as a "municipality".

Wikipedia is supposed to be edited collaboratively. Accordingly, before making a large number of similar changes to a batch of related articles, please at try to achieve WP:CONSENSUS for your changes first. If you come upon a series of articles that, in your opinion, all seem to show the same mistake, it would be best if you'd ask if it really is a mistake! Or if you are misinterpreting how e.g. a particular template is meant to be used. In this case, [[talk:Template:Infobox broadcast]] would be a good place to ask. Jeh (talk) 08:33, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

NOTICE: Although I wrote the above I did not write it on this page, nor intend it to appear here in these words, and I object to Mvcg66b3r's copy and paste. Discussion here should solely be about the template, not about any users' use of it, except as required to provide context for discussion . Jeh (talk) 23:39, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Formatting for slogan and branding

There is no guideline specifically for character coding of the "slogan" and "branding" arguments. Many editors use italics, many use bolding, some use bold italics, some use quotes, some use various combinations of them, and some use nothing. As a result you will be able to find numerous examples of just about any style you care to defend. My read of MOS is that they are quotations and nothing else, so per MOS:QUOTE they get quote marks. And nothing else, because nothing in MOS:BOLD or MOS:ITALIC supports their use for slogans or brands. See e.g. MOS:NOITALQUOTE. Unless it's in a foreign language, in which case italics and quotes are called for.

This would be consistent with the recommendation at Wikiproject Radio Stations: Introduction, which shows using e.g.

KLMN (102.3 FM, "The Illuminator") is a radio station ...

... putting the station call in boldface (as it's the article title) but the branding in quotes with no other embellishment.

I would like "put them in quotes per MOS:QUOTE, unless they are non-English words, in which case add italics within the quotes" stated explicitly in the template documentation. Thank you for your consideration. Jeh (talk) 05:02, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Support There is too much funky formatting. |licensee= also displays italics, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for special formatting there. It might also be worth putting a note with |callsign_meaning= to curtail some of the special formatting like KIRM (Keep Informed Every Minute) which goes against MOS:ACRO "Do not apply italics, boldfacing, underlining, or other highlighting to the letters in the expansion of an acronym that correspond to the letters in the acronym." – Reidgreg (talk) 19:40, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

Proposing parameters for cable/satellite channel assignments

I'd like to field a possible addition of an "Availability" section, akin to that included in the Infobox television channel template, that would include parameters to denote cable, satellite, IPTV and OTT MPVD channel assignments of local stations within the market associated with the corresponding article. In order to account for article space, an "Availability" section in the Infobox broadcast template could be formatted as a dropdown section set to hidden by default, allowing users to toggle that section to unhide the associated parameters to view such information. Also, to account for variancies in cable channel assignments within the respective market, the parameters would limit the mentioned cable channel assignments to encompass cable providers within the metropolitan area(s) of service, with a boilerplate sentence along the lines of "Available on other cable systems within the [market name] DMA. Consult your local cable provider or program listings source for channel availability" that could be included in a spare cable parameter for relative brevity and summarical reasons. TVTonightOKC 14:43, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 20 December 2018

Revert to this revision [[1]] before Muboshgu unilaterally changed format without seeking consensus. Mvcg66b3r (talk) 19:01, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

The edit was in keeping with MOS, as I noted in the edit summary. MOS:ACCESS#Text / MOS:FONTSIZE say to "Avoid using smaller font sizes in elements that already use a smaller font size, such as infoboxes, navboxes and reference sections." – Muboshgu (talk) 19:10, 20 December 2018 (UTC)
 Not done: As the computed values from before for the font-height are "10.472px", which is below the minimum required font-size of 11.9px (I am using the Vector Skin) per MOS:SMALLFONT. You can check this, on chrome, by "inspecting element" on the smaller version of the text and clicking on the menu tab "Computed". In the table of values, the "font-size" row shows a value of 10.472px. Even if consensus exists for using the smaller font-size, the wording clearly states that [i]n no case should the resulting font size drop below 85% of the page's default font size (i.e. 11.9 px in Vector skin or 10.8 px in Monobook). To restore this change would require changing the manual of style on this matter and will almost certainly need an RfC. Dreamy Jazz 🎷 talk to me | my contributions 20:26, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

Then the entire template would have to be reformatted: new fields for licensee name, construction permits, etc. Mvcg66b3r (talk) 21:46, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

Request for comment on broadcast infobox format

The consensus is against reverting the infobox to its previous format. There is no consensus to make further changes in this RfC. There is no prejudice against proposing changes in a new discussion.

Cunard (talk) 01:20, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Should this infobox be reverted to its previous format? If not, what further changes should be made? Mvcg66b3r (talk) 21:59, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

The silence is deafening. – Muboshgu (talk) 23:13, 1 January 2019 (UTC)
 – by Mvcg66b3r (talk) 23:29, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Request for comment on Template:Infobox broadcast

 – by Mvcg66b3r (talk) 02:06, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

Should the broadcast stations infobox be reverted to its previous format? If not, what further changes should be made? Mvcg66b3r (talk) 23:28, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

  • No reversion to previous format: The guidance at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility #Text and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting #Font size states:

    "Avoid using smaller font sizes in elements that already use a smaller font size, such as infoboxes, navboxes and reference sections. In no case should the resulting font size drop below 85% of the page's default font size (i.e. 11.9 px in Vector skin or 10.8 px in Monobook)"

    and enjoys site-wide consensus, so needs very good reason for any exception. There is no reason why Template:Infobox broadcast should be an exception by having text at 75% of the page's default font size. --RexxS (talk) 00:00, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
  • No reversion per User:RexxS. Said it better than I could. – Muboshgu (talk) 00:06, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
  • No reversion, reducing infobox text to 85% of the size fails accessibility. This RfC shouldn't be happening here, it should be happening at that infobox, and we should be informed of it. Walter Görlitz (talk) 00:35, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
@RexxS: @Walter Görlitz: @Muboshgu: So, on to part 2 of my question: What further changes should be made? New fields for licensee name, construction permits, etc.? Mvcg66b3r (talk) 02:06, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
No further changes need to be made as far as I can tell, other than to manually (or with an automated process like AWB or a bot) to go through all the transclusions of {{Infobox broadcast}} to remove {{small}} and the inappropriate bolding per MOS:NOBOLD. – Muboshgu (talk) 02:29, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
One change I'm suggesting is that the licensee field be like the owner and operator fields, example: Owner xxx / Licensee xxx / Operator xxx Mvcg66b3r (talk) 03:57, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
@Mvcg66b3r: usually when proposing changes, you make the case by explaining how the change would improve the article. What do you feel would be the advantage of your proposed change? --RexxS (talk) 14:32, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
The infobox itself is fine. There are other issues, such as manual addition of small, italics and WP:OVERLINKs, that should be addressed as part of its implementation. Walter Görlitz (talk) 15:36, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Edit request

Would create new licensee field [2] Mvcg66b3r (talk) 04:02, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

 Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit template-protected}} template. It looks like your proposed code will work, but given the kerfuffle above, you should get consensus for this change. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:31, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 27 June 2019

In the Channels field, the Digital and Virtual labels should be bolded so they can stand out. Mvcg66b3r (talk) 16:21, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

 Not done for now: they aren't bolded because they aren't the primary headings - "Channels" is already bolded. Also, why just those 2 and not "analog"? DannyS712 (talk) 16:43, 27 June 2019 (UTC)
@DannyS712: Yeah, that too. Mvcg66b3r (talk) 18:19, 27 June 2019 (UTC)
@Mvcg66b3r: okay. Lets leave this for a few days and see if anyone objects --DannyS712 (talk) 18:22, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

"Other_info" field?

From my talk page:

In the infobox, the "call letters" parameter is supposed to be nothing but call letters. Otherwise the FCC "Public license information" links aren't created farther down in the infobox. See Template:Infobox_broadcast. 63.226.200.123 (talk) 17:02, 16 October 2019 (UTC) (This was referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KVEW&oldid=921575369.) 63.226.200.123 (talk) 18:39, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Should we create an "other_info" field to put in this additional information—i.e., the stuff after the call letters? Mvcg66b3r (talk) 17:08, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

RfC about TV and radio station style variances

Editors of this Template may be interested in an RfC at Talk:WNGH-TV#RfC about TV and radio station style variances. – Reidgreg (talk) 17:41, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

MOS harmonization

Per RfC about TV and radio station style variances I've made some changes to the template instructions, particularly to the example infobox, in order to harmonize it with the MOS. You can view my changes in this diff. Here is a summary of my changes:

  • Noted under §Usage that an infobox should summarize key facts, and that anything in the infobox which isn't stated in the article should have an inline citation in the infobox.
  • Noted that call signs should not use special formatting.
  • Removed special formatting and capitalization from the infobox example.

If you disagree with the way I made changes or want to suggest a better way of stating the issues, feel free to reply here. If you want to contest the RfC, however, please do so in another section. Thanks. – Reidgreg (talk) 22:48, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Edit request to remove italics from licensee field

The template applies both italics and parenthesis to the text entered for |licensee=. These are conflicting styles as parenthesis removes emphasis while italics adds emphasis. Applying multiple styles results in confusing style clutter. There is no special reason to apply italics to a business name. Parenthesis alone is sufficient in this case.

In Template:Infobox broadcast, the line to change is: 

| data10       = {{br separated entries|{{{owner|}}}|{{#if:{{{licensee|}}}|''({{{licensee}}})''}}}}

my suggested change is: 

| data10       = {{br separated entries|{{{owner|}}}|{{#if:{{{licensee|}}}|({{{licensee}}})}}}}

Thank-you. – Reidgreg (talk) 23:06, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

 Done – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:34, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Move licensee to its own row

The most recent change looks awkward, however I feel compelled to agree with the rationale. However, I would like to propose a compromise of it becoming its own row. ViperSnake151  Talk  23:49, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

Ah, sorry, I thought that'd be non-controversial. Is it because "Licensee:" now appears inside the parenthesis, that you feel it adds too much text there? – Reidgreg (talk) 23:58, 31 January 2020 (UTC)
That added text wasn't actually requested by Reidgreg above. We can remove it if it's not needed — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 00:09, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
It was not requested, but I saw no indication that the parentheses had meaning to the reader, so we were left with parenthetical text and no explanation of what is was for. I could be wrong about that, but that's how it looked to me. I think a separate Licensee label would be reasonable, if it is valuable information to have in the infobox. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:28, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
Please see Template:Infobox broadcast/testcases for an example of how a separate Licensee label could look (in the sandbox version). If that looks OK, anyone is welcome to move the sandbox code to the live template. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:30, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
Looks good. The documentation says that |licensee= and |operator= should only be used if different from |owner= (owner being a required field), so these should only be used in a minority of cases. – Reidgreg (talk) 14:12, 1 February 2020 (UTC)
I've deployed that. Thanks Jonesey95 — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 22:59, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

FCC CDBS TV Query link change to LMS

For television stations in the United States with a facility ID, this template automatically places a link to the FCC TV Query using {{TVQ}}. While once a good idea, in the particular case of TV, the FCC has not updated TV Query with new information from its Licensing and Management System database. TV Query information is increasingly out of date for stations that have changed call letters or facilities in the last several years. A template exists to call the information from LMS, {{FCC-LMS-Facility}}.

I propose to replace {{TVQ|{{{call_letters}}}|CDBS}} with {{FCC-LMS-Facility|{{{facility_id}}}|3=LMS}} to link to the LMS search portal instead of CDBS in the #switch in field data26. For television station articles such as WWJE-DT (which has changed call letters), this will ensure that accurate information is being provided by the link instead of outdated material from TV Query. Raymie (t • c) 05:32, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/2020 infobox redesign proposal

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations/2020 infobox redesign proposal. Raymie (t • c) 17:35, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

The sandbox code has been updated to support the new formatting and parameters discussed at the link above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:11, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

Requested move 7 August 2020

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved to Template:Infobox television station; it's snowing. Primefac (talk) 19:59, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox broadcast → Template:Infobox television broadcast – Because this template is used for television stations and because its new name will be more specific than its current name. PK2 (talk) 21:46, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

This is a contested technical request (permalink). Anthony Appleyard (talk) 04:00, 7 August 2020 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Bug fix request

Add a third opening curly brace before "callsign" in this section in the switch in |data51=:

|{{FCC-TV-Station-profile|{{{call_letters|{{{callsign}}}}}}|Profile}}|{{FCC-LMS-Facility|{{{facility_id}}}|3=LMS}}|

Raymie (t • c) 19:05, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

 Done Primefac (talk) 20:32, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
Raymie, the documentation says that |callsign= is optional, but when it is missing, the Profile link is invalid. That data line should check to see if those parameters are populated before displaying the Profile link. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:35, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Jonesey95 Good catch. That code is carried over from the prior version of the template. The Profile link won't display unless |licensing_authority= is set, either. There should also probably be a similar check for the LMS link, which requires |facility_id=. However, those can't really be suggested because they are US-specific. Raymie (t • c) 03:44, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
Jonesey95 Is there a way to fix this? I did something similar with an expansion of the licensing capabilities in the radio station infobox but I cannot get even an if statement to work properly. Raymie (t • c) 17:35, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

News brands

You might want to add this to the branding.

If the news branding merely appends "News" to the general branding, having both seems redundant in a different sense. 2601:547:1202:35C0:E08B:FBCB:404F:1EB2 (talk) 16:26, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

I agree with this. I would also like to add that if the news branding is drastically different from the general station branding, they can be used in the same line for "branding" with no italics. For example, WKYC has two station brands - "3" and "wkyc studios", but the news branding "3 News". Therefore it can be rendered in the ibx as branding = wkyc studios; 3 News.
Another example is WJZY, which can be branding = Fox Charlotte; Carolina's Own Queen City News instead of branding = Fox Charlotte, Fox 46 ''(general)''<br>''Carolinas' Own Queen City News'' ''(newscasts)''. Having (general) and (newscasts) in the field feels unnecessary in my opinion and I've been shying away from the practice.
My stance applies specifically to Anglophone television stations; in the case of an article like WNEU the field would have to be branding = {{ubl|Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra|''Noticiero Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra'' ''(newscasts)''}} for the benefit on an enwiki reader. Nathan Obral • he/him • t • c • 19:41, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

ATSC 3.0 flag

@Sammi Brie and Nathan Obral: The ATSC 3.0 flag doesn't show up when two infoboxes are combined with the "child" flag (see WTTV for an example; WTTK is the 3.0 station). Can you fix this? Mvcg66b3r (talk) 20:16, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

This might be a limitation of embedding. It doesn't seem like a |above= field will show either (which makes sense as they occupy the same position). Quite unfortunate, but this is an edge case. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 22:57, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Country field

@Sammi Brie and Nathan Obral: @BlueboyLINY: said he had a workaround to remove the space between the location and country fields, but it moves the country name to the location field, leaving the country field blank. Is this right? Mvcg66b3r (talk) 03:16, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

I'm taking this to Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) to get advice on the underlying issue. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 03:32, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

Incorporating some parameters from Template:Infobox company

Couldn't some parameters from Template:Infobox company be incorporated into this template, so many articles about television stations in Japan don't have to place both templates? JSH-alive/talk/cont/mail 03:55, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

@JSH-alive, have you tried embedding? This template supports it. So does Infobox radio station. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 07:25, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
@Sammi Brie: Just tried with TBS Television (Japan) and TBS Radio. Works fine when either Infobox television station or Infobox radio station is inside Infobox company. Thanks for your tip. JSH-alive/talk/cont/mail 15:33, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
@JSH-alive You can also embed other templates in this one, including support for a custom header in the parent infobox with |embed_header=. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 15:47, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
@Sammi Brie: Unfortunately, it can't be achieved the other way round because Template:Infobox company doesn't have a "child" parameter. JSH-alive/talk/cont/mail 02:28, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
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