BIA Advisory Services has revealed its Top 10 by revenue for both the nation’s radio broadcasting companies and for individual AM and FM radio stations in the U.S.
What station is No. 1? It is hardly a surprise, as it has been in the No. 1 spot for seven consecutive years and continues to be a spoken word Goliath.
At the top: WTOP, the Hubbard Radio all-News station heard on multiple FM frequencies across the Washington National Capital Region.
According to BIA estimates, WTOP magnetized some $70 million in revenues in 2021 — up 12.9% from $62 million in 2020.
This surpasses the overall growth rate of 10.3% that BIA forecast for over-the-air radio from 2020 to 2021, as the industry started to pull out of the pandemic slump.
WTOP is also the only Radio brand on this list to surpass its pre-pandemic revenue figure of $69.8 million in 2019.
With 103.5 MHz (formerly WGMS) its main over-the-air home, WTOP also serves Northern Virginia’s growing suburbs at 107.7 MHz and the Frederick, Md., region on 103.9 MHz (formerly WWVZ and, before that, WZYQ). Hubbard’s other service in the market is “Federal News Radio,” housed on WFED-AM 1500 — the original home of WTOP.
Together, WTOP and “Federal News Radio” attracted some 30.5% of the over-the-air revenue in the Washington, D.C. market in 2021 — 29.1% of which went to WTOP-FM.
What station was No. 2? It’s a storied iHeartMedia property that is the No. 1-billing music station in America — 102.7 KIIS-FM in Los Angeles.
Today the lone Top 40 station in the market, BIA estimates show KIIS-FM accounting for 9.1% of the over-the-air revenue in L.A.
However, the $43 million it took in during 2021 compares to pre-pandemic revenue of $59.9 million in 2019.
Taking the No. 3 slot, in terms of billing, is iHeartMedia sibling WLTW-FM “106.7 Lite FM” in New York. WLTW accounted for 8.7% of all over-the-air radio revenue in the New York market, attracting $34.6 million in 2021. That’s down from $44 million in 2019.
Showing the most year-over-year growth, according to BIA, is Audacy’s WBBM, the all-news radio station in Chicago. It moved from No. 5 in 2020 to No. 4 in 2021, growing its revenue by 14.5% to $34.0 million in 2021, from $29.7 million.
However, BIA notes that WBBM is down from $39 million in 2019.
Then, there is the disappearance altogether of Cox Media Group flagship WSB-AM & WSBB-FM in Atlanta. The News/Talk station, No. 4 in 2020, slid to No. 12 in 2021.
For 2021, iHeartMedia and Audacy dominate the Top 10. While Hubbard is at No. 1, the only other company to place in the BIA top 10 is Beasley Media Group, as its Sports WBZ-FM 98.5 in Boston is a billing monster.
BIGGEST HOLDINGS, LARGEST REVENUE
With 865 AM and FM radio stations, iHeartMedia sits in the top spot, with its properties across 150 markets capturing some $2.2 billion in revenue.
This is up from $1.97 billion with 865 stations in 2020, but down from $2.56 billion (tied to a total of 858 stations, making for a slightly unfair comparison) in pre-pandemic 2019.
The No. 2 revenue generator is Audacy, with its 231 AM and FM stations in 47 markets bringing in $1,345,000,000. This is up from $1.2 billion in 2020, but down from nearly $1.6 billion in a pre-pandemic 2019 when Audacy had four more stations in the mix.
“A distant third,” revenue-wise, is Cumulus Media. Its 407 AM/FM stations in 85 markets brought in $481 million. This is up from $470 million in 2020 (when Cumulus had 415 stations), but down from $531 million in 2019 (when Cumulus had 425 stations).
Hubbard Radio finished 2021 as the largest privately owned radio group owner.
Meanwhile, TelevisaUnivision finished 2021 as BIA’s top-billing Spanish language broadcaster, according to its data and how it compiles total revenue for radio broadcasting companies.
