Forum:Federal States/Broadcast Station Branding

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Call-sign branding

Hello all, I'd like to get this discussion pushed through the forums ahead of the omnibus happening soon. The main idea floating around is that the FSA would have its radio stations preceded with O (with stations such as OMLN or ODIU). This would have evolved from an old naval identification signal as a circle turning into a radio code as a circle followed by 3 letters, and the circle later turning into the letter O (credit for this idea goes to Aces California). I hope we're able to make this canon, so that we can tag radio stations accordingly on the OGF map. PoisonDog522 (talk) 04:31, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for the proposal. I would further like to propose that this be extended to television stations and that we vote on this in conjunction with the next omnibus. We'll need a couple weeks of discussion to see if there are objections from within the FSA community, but this is certainly reasonable if we open that window now. As for the proposal at hand, I like Aces's idea very, very much. From an administrative perspective, this works well and is adaptive to however international call signs would develop (either introduce shapes, revert to letters and grant the FSA the 'O' block, or find other workarounds. Of course, branding by call sign is a very American phenomenon with only rare exceptions elsewhere, so it has meaning in this project that makes this step useful. — Alessa _(talk) 14:37, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for putting this proposal up PD. I'd just want to expound on the concept I introduced that you and Alessa mentioned, just so that can be factored into any conversation about this, perhaps spur different iterations of the same concept.

I think Pole explained that in reality the US uses W and K for broadcast signifiers and contemporarily as branding as they were used in Naval Communications (I presume Morse-Code) in the Atlantic and Pacific (respectively I presume). Knowing we should steer away from using anything extremely similar as using W and K, I proposed we take the Naval Communication origins idea even further back to using Maritime Signal Flags, in which Federal State Ships (in whatever message they were getting across) used a shape on a flag for broadcasting. I used the example of using a circle for initial branding purposes (e.g. stations being called Circle-XXX firstly), and the idea that it was co-opted for later as a O instead was evolved from later discussions.

I can understand and support the idea of using O / Circle for Broadcast Station Branding, but I hope the explanation of the context I propose can lead to further conversation with different ideas. For example arguably a Triangle could be co-opted into being an A. Two Triangles AA or M. --Aces California (talk) 16:11, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

I very much like the proposal already. To me it makes perfect sense historically and differs enough from the RW US codes. I don't have much to say on the matter; I like this idea, and would love to see more discussion here. Geoc3ladus (talk) 17:22, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

I second this. RhodeIslandWV (talk) 21:48, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

Agreed. Glauber (talk) 21:24, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

I concur with Alessa's opinion to include television stations in the mix. Otherwise, would it be worth reserving particular codes for matching areas? For example, should OHUN be reserved for Huntington and OWAH for Wahanta? Presumably the state-owners would decide what the actual code is, but perhaps the idea overall has some legs? ItsTybear (talk) 17:06, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

Personally I don't think we need to reserve them. I would hope people would be mindful and not intentionally squat on something that someone else would really want if it were a clear-cut state name or city name reduction. — Alessa _(talk) 19:14, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

Some resolutions, especially with the stations for collaborative territories, may have to be resolved on a national level. I only say this because when I saw OHUN, my mind went to Ohunkagan instead of Huntington. PoisonDog522 (talk) 02:57, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

I would tend to disagree. In the cases of collaborative territories, they're all managed by active users. I see no reason to escalate every potential disagreement to a national conversation, when the users can work it out themselves. We are talking a small number of letter combinations in the grand scheme of things. There will be some stepping on toes in the initial rush, yes, but I do not anticipate too many issues. — Alessa _(talk) 12:51, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

Station frequency and spacing

Given that we have an active proposal on call-sign branding, the next question then becomes frequencies. I am of two minds about this. We could safely ignore it and just not care about how stations are actually placed on the spectrum (is anyone really going to notice?). Or, if we wanted, we could worry a bit about how that would unfold. I simply want to broach this subject in a controlled way with facts first, and then we can see if it is worth the hassle. Assuming it is based on the US allocation, here would be what we would work with.

Service	Channel/Frequency	Approx. Frequency Range	Grade B / Mid-Tier Radius (Full Power)	Grade B / Mid-Tier Radius (Medium Power)	Approx. Same-Frequency Spacing
Low VHF	Channel 1 (historical)	44–50 MHz	90–110 mi	60–75 mi	225–275 mi
Low VHF (A)	Channels 2–4	54–72 MHz	85–105 mi	55–70 mi	225–250 mi
Low VHF (B)	Channels 5–6	76–82 MHz	80–95 mi	50–65 mi	180–225 mi
High VHF	Channels 7–13	174–216 MHz	60–80 mi	40–55 mi	150–190 mi
Low UHF	Channels 14–36	470–608 MHz	45–65 mi	30–45 mi	100–140 mi
High UHF	Channels 37–69*	608–806 MHz	40–55 mi	25–40 mi	90–130 mi
FM	88–108 MHz	—	55–75 mi	35–50 mi	140–180 mi
AM (Daytime)	530–1700 kHz	—	60–90 mi	35–60 mi	150–200 mi
AM (Nighttime)	530–1700 kHz	—	Groundwave: 60–90 mi Skywave: 500–1,000+ mi	Groundwave: 35–60 mi Skywave: 250–700 mi	600–900+ mi

Now, given this, there is a delicate balance between stations especially in the AM and VHF parts of the spectrum. The AM is particularly delicate, because of ionospheric propagation. It's why someone in Pittsburgh can hear stations on certain nights as far away as Dallas, and why the US and Canada implemented 'clear channel' zones. Similar things happened before. I remember watching a few minutes of WSB out of Atlanta with 'rabbit ears' during an aurora when on vacation in northern Michigan a couple decades ago (before the digital transition) for the same reason, despite Chicago and Detroit both being closer on the same frequency. The FSA is much, much smaller, and we're much more on top of each other with spacing. It is going to be hard to space 250 miles easily between all of our major cities enough to have good VHF spacing.

We could get clever and reallocate a different spectrum, but that's starting to get into the weeds beyond mapping that I'm not a proponent of it. Or, we could simply ignore it and just ask people not to duplicate channel numbers with their nearest neighboring cities. If we do that, we'll end up with a de facto system that allows for reasonable spacing and could be retconned later if there is a reason to a completely different part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is what I would prefer and is the easiest to implement. The other step would be to ensure that people do not take adjacent frequencies in the same market for verisimilitude (e.g. cannot have 3 and 4 as television stations in the same market but could have 4 and 5, since they are different tiers with a gap). Feel free to let me know what you think. — Alessa _(talk) 19:14, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

I think getting into the spectrum might be a little too niche, especially for someone who isn't as familiar with the intricacies of radio and television networks on the electromagnetic spectrum. I think it would be simple enough to just make sure people don't build stations of similar frequencies too close to each other by just working with one another and making sure they're adequately spaced out according to the right side of the table. PoisonDog522 (talk) 15:55, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

I think this should be talked about, since even though they might not seem important, the frequencies of the TV and Radio stations do matter, since if 2 stations on the same frequencies are close to each other, you will get interference between them. This is why you won't see TV stations in neighboring media markets to not be on the same channel, due to the fact that if they were, the 2 will interfere. So despite the nicheness this is, we should take consideration about the frequencies of stations in the same and surrounding media markets. RhodeIslandWV (talk) 21:48, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

I think the solution is to assume the same spectrum and just tell people to do their best to honor the distance between others on that frequency. It will be suboptimal in places, especially in the east and lakes, but I really do not think we need to redefine an entire spectrum or do a full-fledged allocation. If someone spots a blatant conflict, then the question can be raised with the users in question just as we have with other matters. That's why I included preferred spacing in the table. I would hope users could interpret that accordingly. — Alessa _(talk) 12:06, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

I think just using the broad categories in the table above, like you said, would be best just to that we don't get too into the weeds with everything. PoisonDog522 (talk) 02:57, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

I have no understanding of frequencies, so I would prefer the simplest version. Glauber (talk) 21:24, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

Station tagging

With overpass and the wiki, we have some powerful tools to keep track of our stations. I think a first-come, first-served way is fine (like with airport codes), inasmuch people are respectful and willing to share. If someone decides they want six VHF channels in a small city of 50,000 people, that's a verisimilitude issue. I suggest we follow the basic guidance at office%3Dbroadcaster:

If by building (preferred): office = broadcaster + studio = radio
If by antenna: man_made = communications_tower + communication:radio = yes or communication:television = yes
callsign = [*]
If radio: frequency = [*] (kHz for an AM radio station, MHz for an FM radio station)
If television: channel = [*]
is_in:city = [*] ("city of license")
is_in:state = [*]

This basic framework would allow us to easily keep track without having to constantly update the wiki, allow for a clear list, and have consistent tagging that is our standard for the future. If we ever add network affiliations or things like that, then we can add a tag for that accordingly. That'd be easy to do. As wiki admin, I am strongly a proponent of this unified tagging and will build the queries accordingly. If there are suggestions for tweaks or changes, please let me know. — Alessa _(talk) 19:14, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

I like all of those tagging ideas, especially if we could add them to a subset of a page such as the Collab:Federal States/Franchises#Media and Entertainment page or something similar so that they can easily be queried without having to build the Overpass query every time. The only thing I may consider is tagging the is_in:city=* and is_in:state=* as addr:city=* and addr:state=* , unless those are meant for a different purpose. PoisonDog522 (talk) 15:55, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

The use of the is_in tag is standard on OGF (although depreciated on OSM), and that keeps consistency in our tagging. The other reason is that it is generic, whereas addr is intended for specifics. Not everyone is going to have an address fully worked out for every site, and address cities would need to be specific. The use of is_in in this case could be a bit more vague and be assigned to the major city in the region. — Alessa _(talk) 12:06, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

Gotcha, that makes sense. I like the idea for tagging and making sure there's a way to build queries for this, it could also help in terms of making sure things are far enough apart as well. Would the callsign tag be used for both radio stations and television stations, or would that be reserved for just radio stations? If for TV stations as well, would we use the "-TV" suffix (e.g., OAAA-TV) to distinguish TV stations like the OSM tagging info for callsign=* says? PoisonDog522 (talk) 02:57, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

That's a good addition for when the callsign is shared in a city. I don't think they should be required, but if someone has a television and radio station with the same callsign, then adding -TV, -FM, -AM to it makes a ton of sense. — Alessa _(talk) 12:51, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

Voting

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Initiative: Call-signs beginning with O, as historically derived from a circle

Please choose one (1) option below.

Yes, I approve the call-sign proposal

Pole (talk) 15:45, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
PoisonDog522 (talk) 17:15, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
Infinatious (talk) 17:25, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
CityGuy (talk) 17:58, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
IiEarth (talk) 20:46, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
Jr000 (talk) 21:00, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
~ Canada LaVearn (talk) 03:55, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
Mantan (talk) 08:45, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
RhodeIslandWV (talk) 23:22, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
Geoc3ladus (talk) 15:10, 2 September 2026 (UTC)
— Alessa _(talk) 15:51, 2 September 2026 (UTC)
Glauber (talk) 19:24, 2 September 2026 (UTC)
JustSomeMapper (talk) 22:52, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

No, I do not approve the call-sign proposal

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