[uf-discuss] Marking up radio stations

[Corey Mwamba]

> 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>
>

That's what I thought too. That's what I'm doing at the moment. The frequency 
I see as a form of location. Except on the electromagnetic spectrum.


> 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>

I read Andy's post and went looking for the hMeasure draft which looked 
promising - but then ran across 

http://microformats.org/wiki/broadcast-examples

which would define exactly what I need [and has the class name "frequency"]. 
However it is worth noting that some radio stations are not placed at one 
frequency, but a range: however the idea doesn't deal with that as it stands.

So, bearing in mind my bias towards frequency being a location [albeit a fuzzy 
one], I'm thinking on the lines of

<div class="vcard">
<strong class="fn org">BBC Radio 3</strong>
<span class="role">radio station</span>
<em class="frequency">
<span class="low">90</span>  - <span class="high">92</span>
<span class="band">FM</span>
</em>
</div>

I'm ignoring the Hertz units because:
1. As far as I can recall, no one has ever mentioned them while speaking; and
2. the band [FM/UKV, AM, SW, LW, MW] is more important for physically finding 
the station on a radio.

If you DID want to use the units [which from a scientific point of view would 
be correct] then this could be like this:

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


I do agree that stations are very geography specific, though. But to my 
thinking, the geo block does not need to be inside the frequency class if the 
information is contained in a hCard [although it could be].

So for the Sussex Heart FM example, it'd look like this:

<div class="vcard">
<b class="fn org">Heart FM (Sussex)</b>
<i class="frequency">102.4<span class="band">FM</span></i>
<!-- and then you could move the latitude/longitude out into its own section 
if you like -->
(<abbr title="50.9761;0.2293" class="geo">Eastbourne</abbr>)
</div>

Or more formally:

<div class="vcard">
<b class="fn org">Heart Radio in Sussex</b>
<i class="frequency">
<span class="low">102.4</span>  and 
<span class="high">103.5</span>
<span class="band">FM</span>
(<abbr title="50.9761;0.2293" class="geo">Eastbourne</abbr>)
</i>
</div>

What do you think?

C. 



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