 | This is an
essay on
Wikipedia:Naming conventions (broadcasting) and
Wikipedia:Article titles, particularly the sections on disambiguation and commonly recognizable names. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | Most of the perspectives in this essay apply primarily to radio stations in the United States and Canada, or other countries where all relevant articles are named for a call sign. |
Radio (and television) station call letters are a finite resource, and a given set typically has represented multiple stations over time. While maintaining all articles on current stations at their present call sign removes almost all need to disambiguate among stations that are currently extant, problems emerge in the naming of articles for defunct broadcast stations.
Prior to 2019, it was common practice within the radio and television realm to move station articles for stations that had gone defunct to titles such as WXXX (defunct), often even when there was no other WXXX. This often left the main WXXX page available for the current holder of the call letters. However, this practice was contrary to the Manual of Style, and it broke down as soon as two stations went defunct when holding the same call letters. In nominating KXBR (defunct), now KXBR (Missouri), at Wikipedia:Did you know, this was pointed out to me. The result was an RfC and a series of requested moves that virtually eliminated the "(defunct)" disambiguator from use in this topic.
The RfC and RM process also exposed some particular problems that occur due to unique phenomena in broadcasting.
Disambiguating
Most radio station articles are disambiguated parenthetically. Much as the FCC has done, for stations that do not have a suffix but need disambiguation, a silent parenthetical is inserted, resulting in article titles like WGHR (FM). A suffix itself is typically a disambiguator. At all times, a primary article title within radio should be available to the current holder of the call sign, though a defunct station can use it if no other station has the call letters: KLWT, KIVA (TV).
However, at times, using parenthetical disambiguation is not a possible event because there are two articles on stations that would be KSUN or KSUN (AM).
The presumption is thus that the active station, if any, is the primary topic for a given call sign. There is a notable exception where there is no primary topic among stations, in Mexico. A series of clerical errors, some of them dating to 1994, created a growing class of duplicated call signs. XHVG-FM is a disambiguation page because there are two active stations with the call letters and neither is a primary topic. Most of the disambiguation is at the state level, though two pairs are in the same state and are city disambiguated.
In determining the correct disambiguation to use for an article for a defunct station, consider these options in this order, determined by their concision and familiarity:
Suffix: Can the articles co-exist at titles that will not cause confusion?
Greenville, South Carolina, has both a current radio station WGVL and a former TV station WGVL. WGVL (TV) does not cause confusion in this case.
However, WACH, a television station, and a separate article titled WACH-TV cannot co-exist. This is because WACH-TV is a reasonable search term for the station in Columbia, South Carolina. (See WP:SMALLDETAILS.) So when it came time to write about a television station in Newport News, Virginia, I chose the title WACH-TV (Virginia).
State or province
Many radio station cases that need disambiguation exist in different political units. The current CHOO-FM is in Alberta, but we also have an article on CHOO-FM (British Columbia). You'll find KPRB, the current station in Colorado, alongside KPRB (Oregon).
If the station is in a large enough city, consider a city disambiguator at this level instead, such as WCLM (Chicago) or WMJX (Miami). This is required for New York City per a 2017 precedent-setting requested move.
City
If a current station and the defunct one, or multiple defunct ones, disambiguate by city. Two stations in North Carolina died with the call letters WGTM: WGTM (Spindale, North Carolina) and WGTM (Wilson, North Carolina). KSUN is an existing station in Phoenix, Arizona, so KSUN (Bisbee, Arizona) cannot simply be KSUN (Arizona).
By the time you've passed "City" with a problem, which can occur if the stations are in or near the same place, these lesser options occur:
Frequency
If multiple stations have used the same call letters in the same market and one or more are defunct, frequency disambiguation is inevitable. For instance, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, had a KPBA (1270 AM) before it had a current KPBA (FM). If there's something of a common history, disambiguation can be more relaxed: KICE (AM)/ KICE (FM).
Time period
Sometimes, you have no choice. (This is how we got WSM-FM (1939–51).) However, if two stations on the same frequency in the same place used the same call letters, often quickly apart, there may be continuity. In this event, it may be advisable to fold them into one article. For instance, WBRL (AM) covers two FCC licenses with the same call letters on the same frequency in the same place.
When the last call sign isn't appropriate as a title
In most of the cases above, the articles for the defunct stations use the last call letters that were associated with the facility. There are, however, some compelling circumstances to ignore this general rule.
In 2010, Cumulus Media sold radio station WTOD in Toledo, Ohio. It opted to keep the call letters by placing them on the former WHSC of Hartsville, South Carolina. Parking call signs is nothing new in the business. But what happened next aggravated problems. In 2016, Cumulus opted to keep the WTOD call letters, but not the license, which was running a ramshackle 10 watts from a longwire antenna. On March 11, 2016, the call letters were changed to WLQR, in advance of surrendering the license on the 15th. Six months later, Cumulus moved the WTOD call letters again, changed a station's call letters to WLQR (this time in Toledo), and surrendered that license. This made it the second station to close as WLQR in six years; there was "WLQR (AM)" and "WLQR (defunct 1450 AM)", with the latter incredibly untenable as a title.
Our South Carolina station barely broadcast as WLQR—just the last five days on the lowest power possible, with Cumulus fully intending on surrendering the license—and it wasn't very much recognized as WTOD, either. However, it had used the WHSC call letters for almost all of its history. We opted for the title WHSC (Hartsville, South Carolina), as the WHSC call letters appeared in Conway, South Carolina, after the parking move. The second station had used the WLQR call letters for most of the last 21 years, with the exception of when WTOD was parked on them; it retained the title WLQR (AM).
No Viking funerals
With the WLQR change in March 2016, this facility also became an example of a Viking funeral. A licensee may have no intention of operating the station, but it wants to maintain rights to its call letters; as such, it swapped call signs with another station's call letters, a set it has no intention of keeping either. In this case, Cumulus sent the license and the WLQR call letters, neither of which it wanted to keep, out on a flaming boat to the FCC. (In 2020, Cumulus did this with two further AM stations.)
After going off the air with its normal programming in 1996, the KPPC (AM) license was given the call letters KXPA. When the owners wanted to place the KXPA call letters on the station that had been KBLV in Bellevue, Washington, they swapped them and they became KXPA (in Washington) and KBLV (in Los Angeles). But the latter station never used them on air. With strong anecdotal and dating evidence that the facility never was known as KXPA or KBLV on air, the KPPC call letters were chosen for the final article title.
On March 23, 2017, the call letters of two simulcasting stations in Oregon—940 AM Bend (KICE) and 94.9 FM in Terrebonne (KCOE)—were swapped. The next day, 940 AM began broadcasting a loop asking listeners to retune to the 94.9 frequency, now known as KICE. In 2019, KCOE (AM) was changed to KICE (AM) because of the Viking funeral and the fact the station's last meaningful programming was as KICE.
KSUN (Bisbee, Arizona) is also an example of a different kind. KSUN last broadcast at the end of 1981. In 1982, its owners sold the call letters to a station in Phoenix which became KSUN and still is to this day. But as KBZB, the facility never broadcast again. Titling the article KBZB violates WP:COMMONNAME, because the station never operated under those call letters.
Exceptional circumstances
In exceptional circumstances, a defunct station may have achieved such massive notoriety under one call sign, or operated using it for so long, that it makes sense outside of the confines of broadcast naming conventions to use that instead. KTTL ended its life as KMCS (the article was originally KMCS (Kansas)), but its notoriety was national as KTTL, so much so that even subsequent news articles used KTTL in headlines. WBOW (1230 AM) was WBOW, an important radio station, for all but the first year and the last five of its history. (WBOW is an example where the station moved to a new facility, which also went defunct: WBOW (640 AM).)
| This is an
essay on
Wikipedia:Naming conventions (broadcasting) and
Wikipedia:Article titles, particularly the sections on disambiguation and commonly recognizable names. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
| Most of the perspectives in this essay apply primarily to radio stations in the United States and Canada, or other countries where all relevant articles are named for a call sign. |
Radio (and television) station call letters are a finite resource, and a given set typically has represented multiple stations over time. While maintaining all articles on current stations at their present call sign removes almost all need to disambiguate among stations that are currently extant, problems emerge in the naming of articles for defunct broadcast stations.
Prior to 2019, it was common practice within the radio and television realm to move station articles for stations that had gone defunct to titles such as WXXX (defunct), often even when there was no other WXXX. This often left the main WXXX page available for the current holder of the call letters. However, this practice was contrary to the Manual of Style, and it broke down as soon as two stations went defunct when holding the same call letters. In nominating KXBR (defunct), now KXBR (Missouri), at Wikipedia:Did you know, this was pointed out to me. The result was an RfC and a series of requested moves that virtually eliminated the "(defunct)" disambiguator from use in this topic.
The RfC and RM process also exposed some particular problems that occur due to unique phenomena in broadcasting.
Disambiguating
Most radio station articles are disambiguated parenthetically. Much as the FCC has done, for stations that do not have a suffix but need disambiguation, a silent parenthetical is inserted, resulting in article titles like WGHR (FM). A suffix itself is typically a disambiguator. At all times, a primary article title within radio should be available to the current holder of the call sign, though a defunct station can use it if no other station has the call letters: KLWT, KIVA (TV).
However, at times, using parenthetical disambiguation is not a possible event because there are two articles on stations that would be KSUN or KSUN (AM).
The presumption is thus that the active station, if any, is the primary topic for a given call sign. There is a notable exception where there is no primary topic among stations, in Mexico. A series of clerical errors, some of them dating to 1994, created a growing class of duplicated call signs. XHVG-FM is a disambiguation page because there are two active stations with the call letters and neither is a primary topic. Most of the disambiguation is at the state level, though two pairs are in the same state and are city disambiguated.
In determining the correct disambiguation to use for an article for a defunct station, consider these options in this order, determined by their concision and familiarity:
Suffix: Can the articles co-exist at titles that will not cause confusion?
Greenville, South Carolina, has both a current radio station WGVL and a former TV station WGVL. WGVL (TV) does not cause confusion in this case.
However, WACH, a television station, and a separate article titled WACH-TV cannot co-exist. This is because WACH-TV is a reasonable search term for the station in Columbia, South Carolina. (See WP:SMALLDETAILS.) So when it came time to write about a television station in Newport News, Virginia, I chose the title WACH-TV (Virginia).
State or province
Many radio station cases that need disambiguation exist in different political units. The current CHOO-FM is in Alberta, but we also have an article on CHOO-FM (British Columbia). You'll find KPRB, the current station in Colorado, alongside KPRB (Oregon).
If the station is in a large enough city, consider a city disambiguator at this level instead, such as WCLM (Chicago) or WMJX (Miami). This is required for New York City per a 2017 precedent-setting requested move.
City
If a current station and the defunct one, or multiple defunct ones, disambiguate by city. Two stations in North Carolina died with the call letters WGTM: WGTM (Spindale, North Carolina) and WGTM (Wilson, North Carolina). KSUN is an existing station in Phoenix, Arizona, so KSUN (Bisbee, Arizona) cannot simply be KSUN (Arizona).
By the time you've passed "City" with a problem, which can occur if the stations are in or near the same place, these lesser options occur:
Frequency
If multiple stations have used the same call letters in the same market and one or more are defunct, frequency disambiguation is inevitable. For instance, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, had a KPBA (1270 AM) before it had a current KPBA (FM). If there's something of a common history, disambiguation can be more relaxed: KICE (AM)/ KICE (FM).
Time period
Sometimes, you have no choice. (This is how we got WSM-FM (1939–51).) However, if two stations on the same frequency in the same place used the same call letters, often quickly apart, there may be continuity. In this event, it may be advisable to fold them into one article. For instance, WBRL (AM) covers two FCC licenses with the same call letters on the same frequency in the same place.
When the last call sign isn't appropriate as a title
In most of the cases above, the articles for the defunct stations use the last call letters that were associated with the facility. There are, however, some compelling circumstances to ignore this general rule.
In 2010, Cumulus Media sold radio station WTOD in Toledo, Ohio. It opted to keep the call letters by placing them on the former WHSC of Hartsville, South Carolina. Parking call signs is nothing new in the business. But what happened next aggravated problems. In 2016, Cumulus opted to keep the WTOD call letters, but not the license, which was running a ramshackle 10 watts from a longwire antenna. On March 11, 2016, the call letters were changed to WLQR, in advance of surrendering the license on the 15th. Six months later, Cumulus moved the WTOD call letters again, changed a station's call letters to WLQR (this time in Toledo), and surrendered that license. This made it the second station to close as WLQR in six years; there was "WLQR (AM)" and "WLQR (defunct 1450 AM)", with the latter incredibly untenable as a title.
Our South Carolina station barely broadcast as WLQR—just the last five days on the lowest power possible, with Cumulus fully intending on surrendering the license—and it wasn't very much recognized as WTOD, either. However, it had used the WHSC call letters for almost all of its history. We opted for the title WHSC (Hartsville, South Carolina), as the WHSC call letters appeared in Conway, South Carolina, after the parking move. The second station had used the WLQR call letters for most of the last 21 years, with the exception of when WTOD was parked on them; it retained the title WLQR (AM).
No Viking funerals
With the WLQR change in March 2016, this facility also became an example of a Viking funeral. A licensee may have no intention of operating the station, but it wants to maintain rights to its call letters; as such, it swapped call signs with another station's call letters, a set it has no intention of keeping either. In this case, Cumulus sent the license and the WLQR call letters, neither of which it wanted to keep, out on a flaming boat to the FCC. (In 2020, Cumulus did this with two further AM stations.)
After going off the air with its normal programming in 1996, the KPPC (AM) license was given the call letters KXPA. When the owners wanted to place the KXPA call letters on the station that had been KBLV in Bellevue, Washington, they swapped them and they became KXPA (in Washington) and KBLV (in Los Angeles). But the latter station never used them on air. With strong anecdotal and dating evidence that the facility never was known as KXPA or KBLV on air, the KPPC call letters were chosen for the final article title.
On March 23, 2017, the call letters of two simulcasting stations in Oregon—940 AM Bend (KICE) and 94.9 FM in Terrebonne (KCOE)—were swapped. The next day, 940 AM began broadcasting a loop asking listeners to retune to the 94.9 frequency, now known as KICE. In 2019, KCOE (AM) was changed to KICE (AM) because of the Viking funeral and the fact the station's last meaningful programming was as KICE.
KSUN (Bisbee, Arizona) is also an example of a different kind. KSUN last broadcast at the end of 1981. In 1982, its owners sold the call letters to a station in Phoenix which became KSUN and still is to this day. But as KBZB, the facility never broadcast again. Titling the article KBZB violates WP:COMMONNAME, because the station never operated under those call letters.
Exceptional circumstances
In exceptional circumstances, a defunct station may have achieved such massive notoriety under one call sign, or operated using it for so long, that it makes sense outside of the confines of broadcast naming conventions to use that instead. KTTL ended its life as KMCS (the article was originally KMCS (Kansas)), but its notoriety was national as KTTL, so much so that even subsequent news articles used KTTL in headlines. WBOW (1230 AM) was WBOW, an important radio station, for all but the first year and the last five of its history. (WBOW is an example where the station moved to a new facility, which also went defunct: WBOW (640 AM).)