WHY RADIO FACT SHEET
Radio Format Analysis
Individual preferences in Radio listening are wide and varied – and Radio operators respond by offering a broad range of programming to serve every taste! Here’s a list of the current popularity of formats aired on over 11,000 commercial Radio stations licensed in the U.S. today. An additional 275 commercial stations are licensed under construction permits for future broadcast; 199 commercial stations are currently dark/off the air. Over 2,300 HD Radio stations are using HD Radio Technology, and there are over 1,550 HD2/HD3/HD4 multicast channels on the air. Number of commercial streamed AM/FM Radio stations: 7,898; 3,775 non-commercials report streaming. NextRadio reports nearly 3.2 million app downloads of FM radio on smartphones.



Rank  Format  # Commercial Stations 
1  Country  2,126 
2  News/Talk  1,343 
3  Classic Hits  920 
4  Spanish  866 
5  Sports  768 
6  Adult Contemporary  601 
7  Contemporary (CHR Top 40)  584 
8  Classic Rock  498 
9  Hot AC  465 
10  Religion (Teaching, Variety)  318 
11  Oldies  316 
12  Rock  299 
13  Black Gospel  212 
13  Adult Standards  191 
14  Contemporary Christian  176 
15  Ethnic  167 
16  Urban AC  163 
17  Adult Standards  162 
18  R&B  150 
19  Southern Gospel  138 
20  Alternative Rock  114 
21  Soft Adult Contemporary  109 
22  Modern Rock  107 
23  R&B/Adult/Oldies  72 
24  Variety  56 
25  Jazz  24 
26  Rhythmic AC  21 
27  Easy Listening  19 
28  Gospel  15 
29  Classical  13 
30  Modern AC  9 
31  Pre-Teen  1 
32  Other/Format Not Available  53 
Source: Inside Radio/M Street Corp., December 2016 (No Canadian or Mexican Stations are included). HD Radio stats from iBiquity/HD Digital, December 2016. TagStation/NextRadio, November 2016.