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.
2 comments:
hi do you have a source for this i've been looking for graphs on number of stations but have yet to find a reliable source i can access?
More current years can be found at the FCC website: https://www.fcc.gov/media/broadcast-station-totals
Some of the old totals I've gotten from old publications like White's Radio Log. Others from old radio publications. The FCC's records are scattered much before 1970.
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