The Federal Communications Commission has released its mid-year broadcast station totals for the United States.
As of the end of June, there were 4,413 licensed AM stations, down by 50 stations from this time last year and 85 from two years ago. This continues a gradual but consistent erosion in the AM total in recent years.
Also dropping slightly were FM commercial stations; there were 6,620 as of mid-2024, down by 55 stations over 12 months and by 69 over two years. That’s a shorter trend, as this category had been growing prior to that.
Meanwhile the number of FM educational stations continues to grow. As of the end of June 2024 there were 4,356 of those, up by 120 from last June and 172 from two years ago.
The category of FM translators and boosters has 8,906 licenses, which is down by 29 from a year ago and by 45 from two years ago, though still up by almost 3,000 from a decade earlier. It will be interesting to see how the recent decision by the FCC to allow geotargeting on FM will affect this category.
And at mid-year there were 1,965 licensed low-power FM stations, down by 24 from last year and by 69 from two years ago. This is another category due to grow soon, following the window for applications for new CPs last winter.
The data are released quarterly.