FM Radio Stations in the US declined by roughly the same number as AM Radio Stations in the past year

Air1 is a Christian music format, broadcast nationwide on many FM stations across the US. Owned by the EMF organization, Air1 and other services like it are one of the few growing aspects of the radio industry in the US.

According to the online radio periodical Radio World, both AM and FM stations numbers in the US are dropping, and the FM/AM drop numbers are closer than one would normally think.

Radio World looked at the FCC data going back 10 years, and also over the past year, and the numbers are interesting.

First off, over the past year, AM stations and FM stations declined in numbers at roughly the same rate -- 41 AM stations went off the air since 2024, and 36 FM's went off the air during the same time period.

There are more FM's in the US than AM's, so the actual 'rate' isn't close, but the raw numbers are closer than one would expect, being that a lot of people think FM radio is impervious to decline. And 36 FM's having their plugs pulled isn't something one would expect in just one year in the US.

If one looks back over the past 10 years, to 2015, AM dropped in the US by 7%, and FM stations dropped in number by 2%. 

It's estimated there are 10,000 FM stations in the US, 6600 of them commercial FM's. According to RadioWorld, 112 commercial FM's have gone off the air since 2015. By the same token, being that there are around 4367 AM stations in the US, a loss of 7% is 342 since 2015.

Here is a link to the Radio World article that has the info.:

Here’s How FCC Station Totals Have Changed in 10 Years - Radio World

While it's not great news that Radio stations are going off the air, the numbers show that FM is also in trouble in the US. 

The only bright spot, numbers wise, is in the Non-Commercial part of the US FM band, where Non-Comm station numbers increased, but it's not clear if it's college radio, or religious institutions like EMF building FM relay stations between 88 and 92 MHz. There also is an increase in translators and LPFM's. LPFM numbers are slightly up, but down from their peak at over 2200 LPFM's in 2017-2018.

In the US, you have religious broadcasters who expand their coverages regionally, and even nationwide, by using translators, and being religious, they are non-commercial enterprises.

K-Love is arguably the most popular of EMF's religious music formats. They have stations in nearly every large radio market in the US.

EMF (Educational Media Foundation) -- the company that has K-Love and Air1 stations all over the US -- is one of these organizations. EMF is a radio company that runs two Christian music formats, and they have stations in nearly every major radio market.

Because of their growth, EMF gets a lot of negative commentary in Radio forums. Some Radio hobbyists insist that EMF has 'ruined' FM by putting up so many translators, and even buying commercial FM stations.

While it's true the many religious organizations have put up a lot of translators, there are also a lot more translators in general than there were 35 years ago. Also, EMF was able to purchase big city FM stations (with long histories) like WLUP-FM in Chicago, WPLJ-FM in New York City, and WAAF-FM in Boston because there were no other buyers. 

The logo of famous Boston Rock station WAAF-FM, which was sold in 2020 to the religious music broadcaster organization EMF. WAAF now has different call letters (as well as a different logo, obviously) and plays K-Love.

Such is the state of radio today. WLUP was an influential Rock station, that singlehandedly 'killed Disco'. WPLJ was an influential pop station and AC station during the 80's and 90's. WAAF in Boston was one of the stations that broke major acts, especially rock acts from New England like Godsmack, Staind, Aerosmith, Theory of a Deadman, and Shinedown. Now each of those stations play K-Love or Air1.

Here's a short article on WAAF's format flip, and a look at their 50 year Rock music history.:

https://www.insideradio.com/free/waaf-signs-off-after-half-a-century-of-rocking-boston/article_37fad950-54f4-11ea-832d-438b5d55563b.html#:~:text=The%20final%20day%20of%20WAAF%20Boston%20(107.3),close%20in%20the%20second%20quarter%20of%202020.

(Yeah, the link is a long one, but it is genuine).

The most disturbing part of the Radio World news article is that 41 AM's and 36's FM's went off the air across the US in just one year. If that trend continues, both the AM and FM bands will start to sound very different by the end of this decade -- a drop of 41 AM stations a year could be 164 less stations by 2030. If FM continues to drop by 36 stations a year, that would 144 less FM stations nationwide. There are maybe 200 major radio 'markets' in the US, ranging from the big ones like New York City, L.A. and Chicago, to smaller markets like Spokane (Market #88), Boise (Market #83), Eugene (Market #145, (medium sized cities in the Pacific Northwest, where I live), which rank in the market 50-150 range.

If 144 FM's go off the air by 2030 or 2035 or so, that would be the equivalent of one FM in each major market (probably a lot of suburban rimshotters) going off the air.

I suppose we'll have to see how the numbers play out over the next 4-5 years. I hate to see Radio stations go off the air. But it's a reality. The Radio industry is in decline. Everyone working in the industry knows it, and nearly ever Radio hobbyist knows it. 

HD2's -- A RADIO DISAPPEARING ACT

One glaring example: Remember HD Radio? Nearly every AM DXer does, as many of them loathed hearing IBOC hash surrounding strong radio stations with HD, that hash blocking off nearby DX frequencies. But FM was using HD also. And on FM, HD tech allowed for additional channels -- an FM station could have an HD2, HD3, etc.

The HD1, of course, was the main station's broadcast. If you have an HD radio (like the Sangean HDR-16, which I have), tuning to an FM with HD will switch from analog to digital, HD reception. Then, if the station has an HD2 or HD3, you tune upwards to hear those channels. In the 2010's, most FM's with HD had HD2's at least -- sometimes it was an AM station in the cluster, other times it was a music channel. 

I think one of the local FM'ers might have had an HD4, but don't quote me on that.

However, today HD Radio is dying. My city, Seattle, is 'Market #11' in the US, and it used to have HD2's on nearly every FM commercial station in the metro, and a bunch of them had HD3's. When I got my first HD Radio, a Sony XDR, in 2017, I think there were two FM stations that had no HD2. The local NPR station, KUOW-FM 94.9, even had the BBC World Service on their HD2.

Today? Most of the FM's in Seattle have no HD2. The rocker, KISW, shut down their HD2 4 years ago or so. Another station which had a Blues HD-2 yanked the plug on it  around the same time. There are also listings for HD2's online that do not exist anymore. For example, Jim Rome's famous Sports show is listed as being on an HD2 in Seattle that does not exist. The NPR station, KUOW-FM, has no HD2 at all anymore. They play the BBC World Service overnights, but it's not on their HD2 -- because there isn't one.

Radio stations are pulling the plug on HD2's, partly because it's just another bother for the engineers to deal with, and partly because most HD2 channels don't make money.

It's just one more factor showing that Radio is in decline. The 'new' HD tech is great. But it's not being utilized to its greatest extent -- because, generally, there is no money in it.

Radio is contracting, as well as losing influence and importance -- and listeners. And, like I said, there are many diverse explanations for this, but different explanations aside, the decline is a fact.

I go into my own take on Radio's decline with this article I wrote a couple years ago, called "Who Killed Radio?". You can read that here.:

https://interrocknation.blogspot.com/2024/02/who-killed-radio-processes-people-and.html

I just hope that the decline of Radio doesn't speed up.

Peace.

C.C. January 17th, 2026.

Silent Radio Station KRLC 1350 LEWISTON burned down in Fire Training exercise

KRLC, Lewiston, Idaho's "Hometown Radio" station, a station whose plug was pulled about a year ago and recently had its license deleted, has been burned to the ground in a Fire Training exercise. The Fire training exercise took place in late November.

Over the past several years since the Pandemic ended I have written about several AM (and FM) stations in my region of the US going off the airwaves, and in those articles I have included the fact that many of those stations had FM translators, FM sister stations, and several had radio streams on the internet -- a factor that is supposedly necessary to 'save AM'.

KRLC, Lewiston, Idaho was one of those stations. KRLC 1350 was usually heard nightly here in the Seattle area up until it went off the air about midway through last year. Even though we have a strong local (KKMO 1360) here in the metro, KRLC could still be heard right next to it, playing Classic Country music.

In the 1960's and 70's, KRLC was a Top 40 station, but they switched to Country some time in the late 1970's, and then Classic Country about a decade or more later.

Lewiston is in Northern Idaho, and it's right across the Snake River from Clarkston, Washington -- the two are 'twin cities', and they both serve an area of dry wheatfield farmland, as well as some orchard farming. Lewiston is known as Idaho's 'seaport', being that it is on a section of the Snake River that is navigable all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Even though the Lewiston-Clarkston metro region is around 50,000 or more, there just wasn't enough revenue to keep KRLC on the air. And the Pandemic economy finished the station off, just as it finished off KNPT Newport OR, KBCH Lincoln City OR, KUTI Yakima WA, KMED Medford OR, KKPZ Portland OR, KDUN Reedsport OR, and even big city KDWN Las Vegas, NV -- all stations which I've written about here when they were taken off the air.

In KRLC's case, one night I tuned in to 1350 to hear nothing, and then I looked KRLC up and found out they went off the air. They recently had their license deleted at the FCC.

I used to listen to Sunny 1550 at night while writing fiction. Their mix of Standards and easy listening Oldies was well presented and fun to listen to. Then they went Vietnamese, and then they went silent during the Pandemic.

A couple other stations, like KKOV 1550 Vancouver WA, the former "Sunny 1550", are silent and their futures are uncertain. Even an Asian language format couldn't save KKOV. It's been silent since the Pandemic. KZIZ 1560, a small station in Sumner, WA, just 20 miles south of me has been off the air for more than a year. A Punjabi / South Asian format apparently couldn't save it. They went off the air around the time the Pandemic happened.

It's tough for Radio all over -- and especially AM Radio, although FM is not exempt.

You can also add a bunch of Canadian AM'ers whose plugs have been pulled -- also done in by the Pandemic economy, as well as the changing economics of Radio -- CKMX 1060 Calgary, CFTE Vancouver, CKGO Vancouver, CKST Vancouver, CFRN Edmonton, and several others.

Of the American stations I mention here, all of them, except possibly KKPZ in Portland, had streams. The streams did not save the stations. Most of them also had FM translators, and KNPT Newport was part of a group of stations on the Oregon Coast. All had their plugs pulled.

An inglorious end to an 80 year-old Radio station. KRLC gets burned down in a Fire Dept. training exercise. The station was burned in November, 2025.

Photo courtesy RadioWorld dot com & Big Country News

Now KRLC is gone -- and even more, the station's building was burned down in a Fire Department training exercise, in November (I didn't find out about the building being burned down until recently). It was an inglorious fate for a station that served the city and region of Lewiston for 80 years. The once proud server of Classic Country to the wheatland region of the Palouse is now nothing more than ashes.

It all went up in flames. One wonders if that is the ultimate future of the industry I worked in for 20 years -- for it all to end up going up in flames.

Here is a news article on the burning down of KRLC.:

Longtime Idaho Radio Studio Burned Down in Training Exercise - Radio World

It's sad, in a way, but it's also indicative of the ultimate fate of probably every on-air Radio station in the United States. Eventually, when everything goes online, there won't be any Radio stations left, and the majority of remaining, online-only stations will disappear as well, because the internet is one vast content resource with endless competition for eyes and ears.

A pic of Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington, from the old US Highway 95 switchbacks just north of the small metro. These switchbacks inspired the song "Hot Rod Lincoln". In this pic, Lewiston is to the left side, and Clarkston is to the right. These two cities are located in the sunnier and drier part of Washington state, and a dry region in Northern Idaho.

Online Radio is promising, but the promise just won't hold out for most who believe that going online-only will save Radio stations. Online radio stations have to find advertising or funding, just like On-Air stations do. And then you have the issue of Digital Royalties for the music played.

An example of this hit the radio press recently. There is an online station in San Francisco -- one of the most concentrated populations in the United States -- called HydeFM that is struggling to stay alive, even though it reportedly has a 'loyal local following'.

Here is an article on HydeFM's challenges.:

Independent S.F. radio station seeks donations to remain on-air

Even online, it's tough for a content operation like a streaming radio station to make enough money to survive.

We live in interesting times.

IN OTHER LIFE...

In other life, everything is plodding along. My internet went wonky last Saturday. Then it went good for 5 days. My cat Bear is getting used to me. She likes the bagpipes -- only if I play them downstairs, though. But she knows that when I play the bagpipes, soon enough I'll be feeding her. She is a very skittish cat, so I wanted to ensure that she associated bagpipes with a good thing. That way she wouldn't be so scared of the noise.

THE SHORTWAVE BANDS ARE 'DEAD, JIM'

DXing has been spotty lately. The SW bands are mostly dead, compared to where they should be -- being that we are still technically in a Solar peak period. I heard T88SM, a ham station out of Palau, on CW (Morse Code) two afternoons ago on 21025 kHz in the 15 Meter ham band. The rest of the band was basically dead, though. I heard 8P5AA out of Barbados on 10 Meters the same afternoon (28470 kHz, around 2058 UTC -- about 1 p.m. here), and a few faint whispers of East Coast US hams trying to talk to him. 

Earlier that day I heard Brazil, PV8AL (?) on 28350, but I couldn't hear the US guys trying to reach him. The rest of the 10 Meter band was dead.

It seems that sometimes there is ionospheric propagation to various regions of the world, but no one is on. Then again, last night the SW and HF ham bands were basically nothing but static with a few faint carriers and just whispers of audio on WRMI and WWCR.

Even the Desert Whooper, a low-power, unlicensed, 'whooping' beacon on 4096 kHz, hasn't been heard here in weeks. Last year I was hearing them now and then, and in 2024 I was hearing them nightly, unless there was a whopper of a solar storm. The Desert Whooper is located probably somewhere in the deserts of California, and if you tune into it you'll hear 'whoop whoop whoop' and then a CW identifier ('DW'). If you tune in with LSB, the 'whoops' sound sad, if you tune into the Whooper with USB, it's upbeat whoops.

But it's been MIA for weeks.

Propagation lately could be summed up thusly.:

"It's dead, Jim." (a take on a famous Star Trek quote).

SEEMS LIKE THE SOLAR MINIMUM IS STARTING ALREADY

This Solar Cycle is playing out the way I sort of thought it would. It's depressing, in a way, but it's reality, and with reality, one must adapt and survive. One way I've attempted to 'adapt' is get a DSP SSB radio, and of the three of those I've got this year (Tecsun PL-330, Raddy RF760, and XHDATA D808), the D808 is the best for raw SSB and CW signal performance, and the Tecsun is the best for SSB readability.

I'm going to put up an outdoor wire to try to hear more when the REAL solar minimum hits -- and I think it's going to hit next year. In fact, I think it's starting to hit us already. I have the space for an outdoor wire. I just have to figure out a way to put one up again. I used to have a 100 foot wire, but it went down in a windstorm in 2005 or so. My next outdoor one will be shorter.

Here's hoping all of you are doing well and having an OK start to 2026.

Peace.

C.C., January 14th, 2026.

Jan. 15th, 2026: I forgot to add the bit about the Desert Whooper, so I added it today. The Desert Whooper is one of those fun things about Shortwave, but it's not the same when you can't hear it because propagation is so poor.