Radio’s station count dipped for a third straight quarter, and the pressure is landing on AM. The FCC’s newest totals show commercial stations on both bands still shrinking, with noncommercial FM growth no longer enough to keep the overall radio tally from sliding.
As of September 30, the FCC counted 4,258 licensed AM stations, down 42 from June 30 and 84 from the end of 2025. The decline has now erased 125 AM stations since the end of 2024.
Commercial FM fell 20 stations to 6,540, extending its slide to eight consecutive quarters. Educational FM added just 9 stations to reach 4,815, after gains of 23 in the second quarter and 28 in the first. Combined, the FCC counted 15,613 licensed AM and FM stations, down 53 from the second quarter and the third straight quarterly dip.
FM translators and boosters slipped 20 to 8,826, while low-power FM rose by 1 to 2,014.
In July, the second-quarter count showed AM at 4,300, a decline that had already erased 83 stations over six quarters as broadcasters pressed the FCC for looser AM ownership caps in the 2022 Quadrennial Review. Salem Media has called for eliminating the caps, while NABOB has argued that eliminating subcaps would accelerate sales of minority-owned AM stations to larger competitors.
Compared with a year earlier, AM is down 85 stations, or 2.0%, and commercial FM is down 54, or 0.8%. Educational FM is up 85, or 1.8%, a sharp slowdown from the 353-station, 8.1% gain in the 12 months ended September 30, 2025. The combined AM and FM total is down 54 from a year ago, a 0.3% decline.
