Now some preliminary results from the process of sorting out the “Hard Core” political talk from other types of talk radio stations.
There are about 15,015 full power licensed AM and FM stations stations licensed by the FCC. Of that group, about 2000 are either silent, have no web site or it is unclear what kind of programming they broadcast. About 2,300 stations are merely simulcasting another radio station (not to be confused with a “Translator” of another station). About 3,700 stations have a web site, but do not stream their programming.
Ignoring stations that are All Sports, Religious Teaching and Public Radio, there are about 900 stations that are one variant or other of News / Talk which have a web site and stream.
There are 25 stations that are “All News”, 12 that are “All Black Talk”, 25 that do “Financial / Biz Talk”, and 22 that are syndicated “Progressive Talk” more than 12 hours a day.
213 radio stations are blaring Syndicated Conservative Talk 12 or more hours a day – 52 are operated by Clear Channel, 33 by Cumulus Radio and 22 by Salem Radio.
229 radio stations carry mostly syndicated talk shows, but less than 12 hours a day of Conservative Talk with more variety (Clark Howard, Dave Ramsey, Bob & Tom, Mancow, Doug Stephan, Coast to Coast, Jim Bohannon)
138 stations have a schedule dominated by local talk shows (6 or more hours a day) with little or no syndicated political talk.
About 230 appear to be what are called “Full Service” radio stations – the stations typical of the 1960s that are all local programming (except for network news) and carry no syndicated programming at all – the Morning show talking with the Lions Club about the fund drive, the obituaries, the Swap Shop, the midday woman talking about the Garden Club and what the local theater group is putting on this weekend, and coverage of local high school sports in the evening, and maybe a little music playing on the old 45 and 33 1/3 rpm turntables.
There are about 600 “local” radio stations that don’t stream and will require further research to identify what the focus of their station is – most are likely either more “Full Service” stations or play music most of the day (probably Country music) – some may carry one or two syndicated talk shows like Rush Limbaugh, but are not motivated to stream their programming onto the Internet, which requires studying the station’s web sites in order to classify their programming, and the web sites often contain little more than a statement that they are “News / Talk / Sports” stations.
>”“Full Service” stations or play music most of the day (probably Country music) ”
I use the hell out the Country Music station listing! Awesome !
Thanks Art,
Parrott
The dirty little secret of the radio business is that Country is the most popular music format unless you combine all oldies, classic rock, classic hits, Album Rock, Contemporary Hits and Variety into a single category. Admittedly I don’t break out Country other than there is a category for Bluegrass.
The bad news is that relatively speaking a small percentage of Country stations stream. My working theory on this is that Country music didn’t have the same rigorous “Performance Rights” policing by ASCAP, BMI, SESAC. I lot of “old” country music was just sung by people without any thought that 70 years later their 523 great grandchildren should each get $10 a year because radio stations play their music. That was not really an issue for radio since radio doesn’t pay performance royalties, but that exemption doesn’t apply to streaming. So either radio stations have to limit their playlist to songs with well documented authors, lyricists and performers (including the background musicians) or they risk down the road someone claiming damages for not being paid, or just not stream.
A fair amount of the above is speculation – if you are “in the biz” and confirm or deny that, I won’t bite your head off.
Great work as usual, Art. I enjoy sampling what’s left of the full-service stations in the same way I enjoy visiting cities and towns which are off the tourism trail.
The unsorted list I’m going through is not what I expected when I wrote that. Many in the list were the small town Clear Channel stations, which are now streaming, and mostly the Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity standard fare. There were a few each of various music formats, a few of which were country. It’s still a pretty long list, and that doesn’t count the ones I don’t even have a web site for.