NAB Written Style

Specific Style Formatting by Category

a.m. (ante meridian), p.m. (post meridian)
Lowercase with periods.

App
Short for application, software written for a mobile device or personal computer, typically for a specific task such as making airline reservations or watching Netflix. App is acceptable in all references.

Ampersand (&)
Do not use unless part of an official title. Should never be used in place of “and.” except for some accepted abbreviations: B&B, R&B.

Association
Lowercase when it stands alone. Example: The association will meet at the spring convention.

Attribution
Follow AP style with the name, title/company, said or title/company, name said. Example: “We are encouraging every station in America to run these public service announcements,” NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said.

Board of Directors, Board of Trustees
Capitalize when it’s the full name with “NAB”: NAB Board of Directors, NAB Radio Board. Otherwise use lowercase. Note: This differs from AP style.

Broadcast Positioning System (BPS)

Use BPS as a brand.

Avoid using BPS in sentences where we describe what the system does.
Incorrect example: “BPS provides timing and location data..”

Use generic nouns to describe functions.
Use nouns like “technology” or “services” when you’re explaining what we’re building, functions, or how BPS works.
This avoids language that makes BPS sound like a generic technical term.
Correct example: “BPS technology provides timing and location data..”

If you’re unsure, try swapping BPS with another brand
Replace BPS with another brand (ex. Verizon, Tesla, Spotify, etc.) to see if the sentence still makes sense as a brand identifier.
If it sounds like you’re describing an underlying system rather than the brand, it’s a signal to adjust the wording.

Commas:

• Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction (and, or) in a simple series. Example: The flag is red, white and blue.
• Put a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series, however, if an integral element of the series requires a conjunction. Example: I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast.
• Use a comma also before the concluding conjunction in a complex series or phrase. Example: The main points to consider are whether the athletes are skillful enough to compete, whether they have the stamina to endure the training, and whether they have the proper mental attitude.
• Place a comma before and after the following when they appear in the middle of a sentence:
  • A year, if it follows a month and date. Example: I was born on November 6, 1958, in Madison, Wisconsin.
  • A state, if it follows a city or county name. Example: I was born in Madison, Wisconsin., on November 6, 1958.

Composition titles
Apply the guidelines listed here to book titles, computer game titles, movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, album and song titles, radio and television program titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches and works of art:

Capitalize all words in a title except articles (a, an, the); prepositions of three or fewer letters (for, of, on, up, etc.); and conjunctions of three or fewer letters (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet, etc.) unless any of those start or end the title.

Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material. In addition to catalogs, this category includes almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications. Do not use quotation marks around such software titles as Excel or InDesign.

Italicize proper newspaper and magazine titles. Note: This differs from AP Style.

Capitalize “the” in a newspaper's name if that is the way the publication prefers to be known.

Translate a foreign title into English unless a work is known to the American public by its foreign name.

Examples: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” “Gone With the Wind,” “Of Mice and Men,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Time After Time,” the NBC-TV “Today” program, the “CBS Evening News,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

Congress
Capitalize U.S. Congress and Congress when referring to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Although Congress sometimes is used as a substitute for the House, it is properly reserved for reference to both the Senate and House.

Lowercase “congressional” unless part of a proper name. Example: congressional salaries, the Congressional Quarterly, the Congressional Record..

Use lowercase members when saying members of Congress.

Use Congress’ for possessive form.

Lowercase references to nongovernmental bodies. Example: the student senate at Yale.

Congress, Members of
As the salutation in a letter, spell out Representative and Senator for titles of members of Congress. Example: Dear Senator Landrieu.

For abbreviations, use Rep., Reps., Sen. and Sens. as formal titles in regular text.

A member of Congress’ name should be followed by his or her state and congressional district, except when sending correspondence to the Hill. A senator’s name will be followed by only his or her state. Example: Rep. John Dingell (MI-15), Sen. Daniel Akaka (HI). For congressional citations, NAB prefers the postal abbreviations such as (VA-06).

Do not capitalize "member" when writing "member of Congress."

Court cases
Italicize. Use v., not vs. Example: NAB v. ATT Note: This differs from the AP Style.

Dates
Always use numbers without st, nd, rd or th. Examples: January 30, 2007, is the date the report is due. Does January 6 work for lunch?

DMA
Local station designated market area. Also see entry for markets of local stations.

Email
Lowercase and no capital E unless at sentence start. No hyphen.

Hyphen

• Hyphens are joiners. Use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words.
• Do use a hyphen if it’s needed to make the meaning clear and avoid unintended meanings. Examples: small-business owner, better-qualified candidate, little-known song, French-speaking people, loose-knit group, low-income workers, self-driving car, one-way street.
• Hyphenate well- combinations before a noun, but not after. Examples: a well-known judge, but the judge is well known.
• Generally, also use a hyphen in modifiers of three or more words. Examples: a know-it-all attitude, black-and-white photography, a sink-or-swim moment, a win-at-all-costs approach.

Internet
Lowercase unless the word begins a sentence.

Markets of local stations
Always refer to a station as being in the major city located within its DMA, which is not always its mailing address. Example: WCVB-TV is in Boston, not Needham, Mass.

Mic
For microphone. Do not use mike.

NAB Events and Programs
NABPAC: NAB Political Action Committee (there is no space between “NAB” and “PAC”); NAB Show (for more information please consult the Show Style Guide).

Names/titles individuals
Capitalize titles when used immediately before one or more names. Example: NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt.

Do not capitalize formal titles when they are used immediately following a name or offset by commas. Example: John Brown, vice president of Communications. Be consistent with the format used throughout the document.

Do not place a comma before Jr. or Sr. in a name; however, if a person prefers the use of the comma, then you may use it. The same applies to placing a comma before Inc. or Ltd. in a company name. Examples: John J. Henry Sr.; Cost Cutters Inc.

Use the word chair, not chairman, when referring to committee chairs, as it is gender-neutral. For the same reason, use representative, not congressman, when referring to members of Congress.

NextGen TV
To be used when talking about the ATSC 3.0 standard technology.

NEXTGEN TV
To be used when describing NextGen TV-enabled consumer products. Example: Consumers should look for NEXTGEN TV sets that can deliver new services from broadcasters, including enhanced emergency information.

National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
Write out on first reference with the abbreviation in parentheses. Use NAB on second and subsequent references. When using “NAB” in a sentence, do not use “the” before it. Example: He works at NAB.

NAB Leadership Foundation
Spell out “NAB Leadership Foundation” on the first mention. In subsequent mentions, use “foundation” lowercase. Using “NABLF” occasionally is fine, but the preferred name is “foundation.” If using the acronym, be sure to include it in parentheses after the first mention of “NAB Leadership Foundation.”

Numbers
Any number up to the value of 10 must be spelled out. Example: 10 little boys, five apples.

RANK: He was my No. 1 choice. (Note abbreviation for "Number"). Kentucky was ranked No. 3. The band had five Top 40 hits.

AGES: a 6-year-old girl; an 8-year-old law; the 7-year-old house. Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun. A 5-year-old boy, but the boy is 5 years old. The boy, 5, has a sister, 10. The race is for 3-year-olds. The woman is in her 30s. 30-something, but Thirty-something to start a sentence.

Percent
Use the % sign when paired with a numeral, with no space, in most cases. Examples: Average hourly pay rose 3.1% from a year ago; her mortgage rate is 4.75%; about 60% of Americans agreed; he won 56.2% of the vote. Use figures: 1%, 4 percentage points.

Phone numbers
Use figures. The form: 212-621-1500. For international numbers use 011 (from the United States), the country code, the city code and the telephone number: 011-44-20-7535-1515. Use hyphens, not periods. No parentheses.

If extension numbers are needed, use a comma to separate the main number from the extension: 212-621-1500, ext. 2.

Q-and-A
Use Q-and-A within the body of a story and not Q&A. Example: There will be a Q-and-A session with the audience after his remarks. Note: This differs from AP style.

Quotation marks and punctuation
The period and the comma always go within the quotation marks. The dash, the semicolon, the colon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

Radio or television station call letters
If the TV station ends in TV, as in WXTV, do not repeat the TV. Example: WTOP-AM Washington, D.C. or KTLA-TV Los Angeles, California, but WXTV Omaha, Nebraska.

States

• The names of the 50 U.S. states should be spelled out when standing alone in the body of a story. When in conjunction with a city in the body of a story, use the state abbreviations. Note: This differs from AP Style.
• For a full listing of state abbreviations, refer to the abbreviations page. The names of eight states are never abbreviated: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
• Use the two-letter Postal Service abbreviation to note the state after the name of a member of Congress: Rep. Howard Berman (CA-28).
• Use the two-letter Postal Service abbreviations with full addresses, including ZIP code.
• When referring to Washington, D.C., in running copy, always place a period after D and C.
• Use lowercase in all “state of” constructions. Example: the state of Maine.

Time

Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a.m. and p.m. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes. If there are no minutes, use hour only. Example: 11 a.m. not 11:00 a.m. When referring to a time range, use a hyphen with no space before and after it. If in the same time frame, only use one a.m. or p.m. Example: The session lasts from 9-10 a.m.

URLs
Write out a website’s URL in lowercase letters, unless the URL forms more than one word. Do not use www. Examples: nab.org, WeAreBroadcasters.com

Web and website
In web and website, the “w” is lowercase. Website is written as one word.

When using the terms webcam, webcast, webfeed, webmaster and webpage, they are lowercase and one word. The terms web address and web browser are lowercase and two words.