These notions from the radio world have their direct counterpart entities in Radio Explorer.
The term broadcast is used to identify transmissions, which can be approximately described as the times when a particular station is on air on a particular frequency or frequencies. Information about broadcasts is provided by broadcasting schedules.
The term program refers to a single program (a news report, a language lesson, or similar), of which there may be several contained in one broadcast. Information about programs is provided by programming schedules.
Listed below are descriptions of stations, broadcasts, and programs, as they are handled in Radio Explorer, and the descriptions of styles of their display in the Stations tree table and on the Stations Gantt chart.
A station comprises all its broadcasts and programs.
Stations may be displayed as bars of varied thickness. The thinner parts indicate periods when there is no broadcast on air for the station.
A single broadcast corresponds to a single record in a SWBC broadcasting schedule, to a single record in the seasonal schedule table of an HFCC schedule, or to a single frequency in a broadcast record (which usually includes several parallel frequencies) in EiBi and Prime Time Shortwave time‐ordered schedules. Also, with Prime Time Shortwave schedules, if for a single frequency in a broadcast record it is indicated that the frequency is used by more than one relay location, then a single broadcast corresponds to the usage of the frequency by one of the relay locations. In such a case, several single broadcasts correspond to this single frequency in a broadcast record, each of the single broadcasts corresponding to a different relay location.
Single broadcasts are displayed as plain bars.
A parallel broadcast is formed by several simultaneous single broadcasts with identical content (the same program in the same language) but different frequencies.
The simultaneous broadcasts should take place on the same days. Single broadcasts, which form a parallel broadcast, are called parallel to each other.
Parallel broadcasts are displayed as two overlapping single broadcast bars having the same start and end times.
A serial broadcast is formed by several consecutive broadcasts, single or parallel, with related content (the same program in the same language) and the same frequency or frequencies.
The consecutive broadcasts should take place on the same days. Single or parallel broadcasts, which form a serial broadcast, are called serial to each other.
Serial broadcasts are displayed as several single or parallel broadcast bars following each other.
An overnight broadcast starts before the midnight and ends after the midnight. A single broadcast, a parallel broadcast, and a serial broadcast may be overnight.
Overnight broadcasts are displayed as two broadcast bars, one from the broadcast start time to the midnight (the one at the right), another one from the midnight to the broadcast end time.
If there is a programming schedule opened, then bars of stations and broadcasts that can be expanded into programs are decorated by overlapping program bars, like this .
See also
What schedule types are supported?
About viewing schedules in the Stations view
View detailed information about a station, a broadcast, or a program
Stations tree table
Stations Gantt chart