Our fair nation has nearly 32,000 total licensed broadcast stations — to be exact, 31,816. That’s up 784 from six months ago, which was the last time the commission released its broadcast station totals.
That number includes AM and FM educational and commercial stations, commercial and educational TV, low-power FM and TV stations, and translators and boosters.
At the half-year mark for 2016, the Federal Communications Commission reported that the nation had 4,676 licensed AM stations, 6,714 commercial FM stations and 4,099 educational FM stations, for a total of 15,489. Those categories were relatively constant when compared with the broadcast station totals reported on Dec. 31, 2015: 4,684 AM stations, 6,701 commercial FM stations and 4,095 educational FM stations, which adds up to additional nine stations.
The FCC also reported 6,816 licensed FM translators and boosters, which is a jump of 310 licensees in six months (6,506 in 2015).
LPFM growth continued as well in 2016. A total of 1,565 were reported on June 30, 2016, compared to 1,433 six months ago.
The latest FCC report is available here.
