How We Build Listings
This page explains where each fact on a NewsyAmerica listing comes from, so you know what you can rely on.
Television stations
Call sign, city of license, channels and licensee come from the FCC’s Licensing and Management System, which the Commission publishes as a daily public database. We include every full-power television station with a current license.
Virtual channel and RF channel. The virtual channel is the number your TV displays and the one you tune. The RF channel is the frequency the signal actually uses. They often differ because many stations moved frequencies after the switch to digital broadcasting and again after the FCC’s 2016–2017 spectrum auction.
Network. Each station reports its network affiliation to the FCC. We show the main network first and list any other networks the station names for its subchannels.
TV market. The market (Nielsen’s Designated Market Area) is the one recorded for the station in the FCC database.
Studio address. When a station’s FCC record names a main studio, we show that address and use it for the map.
Children’s programs. Full-power stations file an annual children’s television programming report with the FCC. Where a station listed educational programs in its latest report, we name a few of them.
Owner and first year on the air come from Wikidata when its entry for the station matches the FCC call sign.
Every listing links to the station’s FCC public inspection file, where you can read its filings yourself.
Radio stations
Call sign, frequency, city of license, licensee, station class and facility ID come from the FCC’s licensing database. We list only stations with a current license.
Format, first year on the air, power and sister stations come from the station’s Wikipedia article. The on-air name comes from the station’s own website when the site names the station; otherwise we show the Wikipedia name only when it contains the call letters or the frequency, because on-air names change often. We use an article only when its FCC facility ID or frequency matches the license record, so a station is never mixed up with another one that once used the same call letters.
Which stations are listed. For now we list news/talk, all-news, talk and public radio stations: the stations whose job includes keeping listeners informed.
Networks carried are named only for networks that are still operating, such as NPR, American Public Media, PRX, BBC World Service, Fox News Radio, Westwood One and Premiere Networks.
Website. We load each station’s website and show it only if the page is live and names the station.
Newspapers
Name, city and print format come from Wikidata, the open knowledge base that libraries and Wikipedia share. Type (daily, weekly, alternative weekly and so on), founding year and owner come from the paper’s Wikipedia article. Papers whose article records that they have stopped publishing are left out.
Website. We load every paper’s website before listing it. A paper is included only if its site is live and identifies the paper. Papers whose old address now redirects to another outlet, or to an unrelated site, are left out.
E-edition, obituaries, public notices, subscriptions, newsletters, contact page and social accounts are links found on the paper’s own homepage. We don’t guess addresses for pages a site doesn’t link to.
Owner. Newspapers change hands often. We show the owner named in the paper’s Wikipedia article; when the article names none, we show the company in the copyright notice on the paper’s own website and label it as such.
ISSN and Library of Congress number are the catalog identifiers libraries use for the paper. They come from Wikidata.
TV market. A paper or radio station is linked to a TV market when TV stations are licensed to the same city, or when a market’s stations are within about 35 km. Otherwise we leave the market out rather than guess.
Corrections
Records change: stations swap networks, sell, or move studios, and newspapers merge, change owners or move their websites. If something on a listing is out of date, tell us and we will check it against the record and fix it.