The volunteer editors at Wikipedia are shaking up some of the information included in radio station articles. A new “infobox” — basically a sidebar that provides a quick overview of the article’s subject — has been rolled out for radio stations.
The new template harmonizes the radio and television station infoboxes, reorganizing content and adding several new fields.
It went live on Aug. 8, although some maintenance edits are still being made to finish the migration.
Among the additions to the new infobox is a “licensing authority” field. For U.S. stations, if this is set to FCC and the station’s facility ID is in the infobox, it automatically adds links to the station’s LMS and public file database entries.
The documentation for the new radio station infobox, along with a listing of all the supported fields, can be found here.
Because Wikipedia pages tend to appear high in Google search results, it is worth checking your stations’ articles to see if there is incomplete or missing information, both in the new infobox and the article. However, take care in editing an article. Wikipedia’s rules against promotional and paid editing are strict and it’s easy for a company to run afoul of them.
Readily verifiable information, such as adding the station’s FCC facility ID, RDS program service name, or slogan to the infobox, will likely be uncontroversial.
Adding full program schedules and DJ bios to the article, however, will likely be reverted as too promotional. All changes to articles are tracked and connected to user accounts and/or IP addresses, so if edits are made from an IP address connected to the company, it may be flagged as problematic.
If significant information is missing from the page, consider posting something to the article’s talk page, along with links for verification, and asking an editor to incorporate it into the article.
On Wikipedia, third-party sources are always preferred, so a newspaper or magazine article is a more trusted source than a station’s website.
If a station logo is missing, one can be uploaded, but encyclopedia’s rules about non-free images can be complicated. Unless a logo is released for public use under a Creative Commons license (basically relinquishing trademark and copyright rights), it must be low resolution and limited to use only in an article infobox. This can be another situation where asking an editor for help may be the best strategy.
For more information about how radio stations are included in Wikipedia, visit WikiProject Radio Stations. The project includes a list of Wikipedians working actively on radio station pages who might be willing to help make sure your station’s page is complete.
