A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.

Licensing

While becoming less meaningful over the decades, stations are still required to post a public file somewhere within 25 miles of the city, and to cover the entire city with a signal. In the United States, a station's transmitter usually cannot be located more than 15 miles from the city of license, even if it primarily serves another city. For example, American television station WTTV primarily serves Indianapolis, Indiana; however, the transmitter is located farther south than the other stations in that city because it is licensed to Bloomington, 50 miles south of Indianapolis.

Stations also are required to reference the city of license in legal identifications. However, a station is allowed to reference another city if it primarily serves another city. For example, American television station WOIO is licensed to Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. It is identified as "WOIO - WOIO DT Shaker Heights-Cleveland." If the station is licensed in the primary city served, on occasion the station will list a second city next to it. For example, American television station WTVT, licensed to Tampa, Florida, its primary city, identifies as "WTVT/WTVT-DT Tampa/St. Petersburg", as St. Petersburg is another major city in the market. There is no longer a requirement to carry programs relevant to the particular community. Accordingly, stations licensed to smaller communities in major metropolitan markets often target programming toward the entire market rather than the official home community. Often, studio facilities are moved to the larger urban centre. For instance, the Canadian radio station CFNY is licensed to Brampton, Ontario, although its studio and transmitter facilities are located in downtown Toronto.

This may, at times, lead to confusion — while media directories normally list broadcast stations by their legal community of license, audiences often disregard (or may even be entirely unaware of) the distinction.

Other uses

The term "city" has also become more relaxed to mean community, often including the unincorporated areas around the city that share a mailing address. This sometimes leads to inconsistencies, such as the licensing of one metro Atlanta station to unincorporated Mableton, but the refusal to license another to Sandy Springs, which is one of the largest cities in the state, and was at the time unincorporated only due to political reasons in the Georgia General Assembly. The FCC's reason, in part, was that Sandy Springs was "not a city", though Mableton is not either.