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.