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May 25, 2025 9:29 pm  #1


The U.S. FM Landscape by the Numbers

The following data is reprinted from Radioworld:
https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/the-u-s-fm-landscape-by-the-numbers
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The 21 stats that matter

There are 21,950 U.S. FM stations in my dataset, updated as of May 12. The stations encompass commercial and noncommercial stations, translators and LPFMs from all U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico and Guam. I’ll offer the disclaimer that my data includes all active licenses. It is possible that stations in this count are not actually on the air.

13,159 – The approximate height above mean sea level, in feet, of 93.5 K228AG(FM) Leadville, Colo., the highest AMSL of any U.S. station.

5,945 – The number of FM stations in the U.S. that use directional antennas. That makes up approximately 27% of all stations.

4,558 – The number of active Class A FM stations, the most common, non-translator class.

3,124 – The number of FM stations in the U.S. that run Religious Teaching programming, the most of any format. Country is second, with 2,521 such stations, while Contemporary Christian is third with 2,382 stations.

1,936 – The number of FM stations running HD Radio in the U.S., according to the HD Radio Directory. That makes up approximately nine percent of stations. That count does not include subchannels. Below is a heatmap I generated showing where the most HD stations are concentrated, which you can also view here.

1,496 – The number of FM stations in California, the highest total of any state.

912 – The number of FM stations licensed to Educational Media Foundation, the most common U.S. operator.

739 – iHeartMedia is second and has the most FMs of any commercial broadcaster.

417 –The number of U.S. stations on 88.1, the most of any FM frequency.

263 – The number of FM stations that use the word “Mix” in their moniker. That’s the most of any monikers. “Q” appears in 180 FM slogans and “Hot” in 156.

250 – That’s the most common ERP wattage in the U.S., with 3,671 such stations.

107.9 – The most common commercial FM frequency in the U.S., with 276 stations.

99.7 – The least common commercial FM frequency in the U.S., with 158 stations.

71 – The latitude of 99.7 KAAC(FM) in Utqiavik, Alaska, the nation’s farthest north FM station.

41 – The number of FM stations in Delaware, the fewest of any state.

38 – The percentage of FM stations that fall in the Central time zone. That’s the most of the U.S. time zones. Pacific is next with 25%, followed by Eastern with 24% and Mountain with 10%.

38 – That’s also the percentage of all U.S. FM stations that are translators, or 8,342 in total.

28 – The number of FM stations in the U.S. that have three-letter base callsigns, like KSD, WLS and WRR.

27 – The number of characters in the community of license of 106.5 W293CZ(FM) Elmira Heights – Horseheads, N.Y., the most characters of any active U.S. FM station.

18 – The number of FM stations in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) where their transmitter ERP is greater than 100,000 watts.
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Interesting, is the huge station ownership from Educational Media Foundation.  If you-know-who's "cherished" desires were to ever come true, I would put my money on these guys being first to come to town.

Also, Radioworld gives a heatmap of the USA's HD Radio broadcasters. It clearly seems to favour the east more than the west. Some regions have none.  Also of possible interest to you-know-who is the way the Gulf of Mexico has been displayed on this map.  I guess it's a work-around, at least for now.



https://w2njl.github.io/radioworld_web/hd_radio_heatmap.html
 

 

May 25, 2025 9:43 pm  #2


Re: The U.S. FM Landscape by the Numbers

Evuguy wrote:

107.9 – The most common commercial FM frequency in the U.S., with 276 stations.
99.7 – The least common commercial FM frequency in the U.S., with 158 stations.
 

The problem with 99.7 is that it's not very well protected. 99.9 is a popular frequency that can easily bleed into it in certain areas.
Then again, the same can be said for 107.9, bleeding into 107.7, causing some damage there...
 


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