More than 300 new noncommercial FM stations are licensed in the United States compared to a year ago, according to FCC data.
The quarterly Broadcast Station Totals report shows that as of the end of March 2025, there are 4,634 NCE stations.
That’s an increase of 157 stations in just three months and 314 over the past 12 months.
The commission held a filing window for new noncommercial FMs in late 2021.
As Radio World reported three months ago, there are more than twice as many NCEs as there were a quarter century ago. And the number of NCEs recently surpassed the number of AM stations in the country for the first time.
The FCC report also found that the number of AM licenses fell by 16 in the past three months and down by 60 in the past year, to 4,367.
The number of FM commercial stations is 6,625, barely changed from three months ago. The category of FM translators and boosters ticked up to 8,891.
There are 1, 976 low-power FM licenses, up by eight from December. That category should start to grow again thanks to the LPFM filing window of 2023.
[See a Radio World chart of FCC station totals from 2010 to the end of last year.]
