[uf-discuss] Marking up radio stations

[Toby Inkster]

On Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:04:50 +0100
Corey Mwamba <send.missive at coreymwamba.co.uk> wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to how to mark up a
> radio station using microformats, especially in relation to the
> frequencies - which I see as a type of address! Any thoughts?

Interesting question. hCard is probably a good start:

	<div class="vcard">
		<b class="fn org">Heart FM (Sussex)</b>
		<i>102.4 MHz</i>
	</div>

Now, how to encode the frequency? It is an address of sorts, or at
least a locator. Not the kind of address that is suitable for marking
up with class="adr" though. If there were a URI scheme for radio wave
frequencies this would be a little easier:

	<div class="vcard">
		<b class="fn org">Heart FM (Sussex)</b>
		<a href="radio:fm:102400000"
	           class="url" >102.4 MHz</a>
	</div>

Radio stations are very geography-specific. 50 miles away a completely
different organisation could be broadcasting on the same frequency. So
our hypothetical "radio:" URI scheme would probably need a geographic
signifier to be attached:

	<div class="vcard">
		<b class="fn org">Heart FM (Sussex)</b>
		<a href="radio:fm:102400000;context=geo:50.9761,0.2293"
		   class="url">102.4 MHz</a>
	</div>
	
However, such a URI scheme does not exist. It could be registered with
IANA, or you could bypass that requirement by using a specialised HTTP
prefix instead, a la <http://dbooth.org/2006/urn2http/>.

Short of specialised URIs to identify radio signals, the most
appropriate construct in hCard would probably be class="note". e.g.:

	<div class="vcard">
		<b class="fn org">Heart FM (Sussex)</b>
		<i class="note">
			102.4 MHz
			<abbr title="50.9761;0.2293"
			      class="geo">(Eastbourne)</abbr>
		</i>
	</div>

-- 
Toby A Inkster
<mailto:mail at tobyinkster.co.uk>
<http://tobyinkster.co.uk>