Market table header key

Upated: 03/19/2005

FieldTable(s)Explanation
Freq AM & FM Frequency: A stations operating frequency in kHz (AM stations) or mHz (FM stations).
Chan FM & TV Channel:
Network TV Type of programing or network affiliation of a station. Please see the following table for a listing of the network abbreviations, their equivalent network name and a blurb about the type/content of programing featured on that network.
Call Sign All A call sign is a unique station identifier composed of three (normally for stations licensed before a certain year, next to impossible to get now) or four letters choosen by the license or issued by the FCC. Broadcast stations east of the Mississippi River begin with W while those to the west start with K (there are exceptions). Stations beginning with a C are licensed in Canada and those starting with X are based in Mexico with the XE prefix reserved for AM station (although some border stations are owned/managed by American companies). For kicks it appears that stations licensed in Japan begin with J, in the Philippines broadcast AM stations start with D and in South Korea it is H. Australia also employs a call sign system as well with lettering schemes varying by licensee. Although a licensed call sign may not have a service prefix I employ them on this site to differentiate between full service (FM or TV), backup (FS or TS), low power (CA or LP) and digital services (DT for TV stations only).
CoL All City/Community of License: city or town the stations signal must cover. While this is often an easily recognizable city or town it is not uncommon for many stations to be licensed to much more obscure communities. During a top of the hour id stations are required to name the legal community of license first followed by any additional areas they cover.
ERP All Effective Radiated Power: Power of the stations signal in kilowatts (kW) for AM, FM and many TV stations.
PU TV Power Unit: Not an officaly recognized broadcasting related term, it is used here to denote wether a television stations ERP is being listed in kilo (kW) or megawatts (mW).
Sig FM & TV Signal: Refers to the possible characteristics of a stations signal; offset, directionality and polarization. An offset can be -, + or 0 and applies only to TV stations. Directionality on the otherhand can apply to both FM and television stations and is denoted by a D. Polarization can be a H for Horizontal, V for Vertical or H on one line and V on the other for FM stations that have a different ERP in the horizontal and vertical planes. WJFK-FM is a station that does this by broadcasting 22.5 kW ERP horizontally and 18.5 kW vertically. In situations like this the horizontal operating parameters are listed on the first row with the differing vertical properties on a second row. The signal format was inspired from -linkhere-'s DXing info page.
HAAT FM & TV Height Above Average Terrain: Average height (in meters) of a stations antenna with respect to the terrain surrounding the transmitter site. Although only an average and not an exact figure with respect to the transmitter site, this is still very a useful tool in determining which antenna belongs to which broadcaster on multi-tenant sites. For some reason the FCC does not list the HAAT for low power/class a television stations or all FM translators.
Class AM & FM Class applies to both AM and FM stations. For AM stations the FCC defines four domestic classes (A, B, C or D) that dictate many of the stations operating parameters (such as day and night ERP with respect to other stations). Please see the FCC's page on AM classes for a detailed look at this aspect of AM stations. The FCC operating class (A, B, B1, C and C0 through 3) for an FM station determines the max HAAT of a stations antenna and its ERP. A table of the classes with their respective max HAATs and ERP can be found here (extracted from 47CFR73.211). Class D is reserved only for translators and booster stations and the max ERP of any station is 100 kW although there are several grandfathered exceptions around the county (two of which are in Virginia, WRVQ-FM and WSLQ-FM both licensed at 200 kW).
Mode AM A three character alphanumerica code for the operating properties for of an AM station such as DAD (daytime only), NDD1, etc. More information coming soon.
Owner All The name of a stations licensee. In many cases this is the name of a holding or subsidary company and not the actual owner. For instance while some stations are correctly licensed to Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses (Clear Channel) while many more are licensed to AMFM Radio Licences (a company Clear Channel took over several years ago).