Country, AC Still Hot

While Country is still the most prevalent radio format, AC stations collectively garner the largest audience. So says BIA in its latest State of the Industry study.
“Given the present superior fidelity of the FM band, it is not surprising to see that music oriented formats are more prevalent on that band,” said Mark Fratrik, BIAfn Vice President. “However, we expect that with the advent of terrestrial digital radio, and its expected improvement to the fidelity of AM stations, more AM stations will be migrating to music oriented formats within the next five years.”
The study reviews local programming by examining the number of stations airing different formats, the popularity of formats of stations, and the ability of formats to turn audience shares into revenue shares.