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Wednesday, January 10, 2024

U.S. Broadcast Station Counts 1922-2022

100 years of AM broadcast in the U.S.

Shown below on the graph are the counts of licensed stations in the FCC's AM broadcast service for the years 1922-2022. You will see a steady rise in counts from 1922 to 1990.

I remember listening as a kid in Philadelphia in the very early 1960s. The band was literally alive with stations every night from as far away as St. Louis (KMOX), San Antonio (WOAI), New Orleans (WWL), Minneapolis (WCCO), and many others. Even the Mexican border blasters with the likes of Wolfman Jack were a normal catch every night.

We are in slow decline over the past thirty years and gaining more downward speed in the last ten. When will it end? What decade was the heyday of AM broadcasting? You decide.



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