KDRT Studio in 2011 (Photo: J. Waits)
The FCC just released its quarterly list of the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States. Based on their statistics through June 30, 2012, the number of licensed broadcast radio stations is still on the rise, continuing the trend that we saw last quarter as well as in the quarter ending in December, 2011.
Based on this list, there are more radio stations today (15,082) then there were a few months ago. The number of FM commercial stations and FM educational stations has incrementally increased since the end of March, 2012 (as well as since the end of December, 2011). The only categories in which there was a decrease in the total number of radio stations were AM stations (8 fewer) and Low Power FM (6 fewer).
By the end of June, 2012, there were 53 more FCC licensed radio stations in the United States than there were at the end of March. FM translators and boosters picked up the most stations and increased by 108. By the end of June, there were 48 more FM educational stations (college radio, high school radio, public radio, community radio, and religious broadcasters) and 13 more FM commercial stations than there were at the end of March.
As of June 30, 2012:
AM Stations: 4,754 (down from 4,762 in March 2012)
FM Commercial Stations: 6,568 (up from 6,555 in March 2012)
FM Educational Stations: 3,760 (up from 3,712 in March 2012)
Total Radio Stations: 15,082 (up from 15,029 in March 2012)
Not included in Total Radio Stations:
FM Translators and Boosters: 6,105 (up from 6,097 in March 2012)
Low power FM: 824 (down from 830 in March 2012)
