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 nearly 11,000 commercial Radio stations licensed in the U.S. today. An additional 203 commercial stations are licensed under construction permits for future broadcast; 032 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  2,115 
2  News/Talk  1,364 
3  Spanish  859 
4  Classic Hits  855 
5  Sports  779 
6  Adult Contemporary  605 
7  Contemporary (CHR Top 40)  579 
8  Classic Rock  488 
9  Oldies  379 
10  Religion (Teaching, Variety)  317 
11  Rock  302 
12  Black Gospel  217 
13  Adult Standards  191 
14  Urban AC  168 
15  Contemporary Christian  167 
16  Ethnic  161 
17  Southern Gospel  151 
18  R&B  147 
19  Modern Rock  102 
20  Soft Adult Contemporary  120 
21  R&B/Adult/Oldies  68 
23  Variety  43 
24  Jazz  23 
25  Rhythmic AC  21 
29  Easy Listening  16 
26  Gospel  16 
27  Pre-Teen  14 
28  Classical  11 
30  Modern AC  10 
22  Format Not Available  67 
  Other/Format Not Available  60 
Source: Inside Radio/M Street Corp., September 2015 (No Canadian or Mexican Stations are included). HD Radio stats from iBiquity/HD Digital, August 2015. NextRadio/Emmis, July 2015.