BIA Advisory Services has tallied up the dollars and has released its look at the Top 10 radio stations by revenue for 2023. But, the Northern Virginia-based research house this year also offers a look at the Top 10 AM radio stations by revenue — a perhaps not-so-subtle reminder that stations on the kHz band earn millions of dollars each year as the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle” Act nears Congressional approval.
Based on the latest data from BIA, released early Thursday, Audacy-owned WBBM-AM is the No. 1 AM radio station by revenue. It earned $30 million in 2023. However, the BIA top 10 is inclusive of stations only available on the kHz and stations that benefit from a MHz-based HD1 simulcast. This is the case with “WBBM Newsradio,” which has been simulcast on WCFS-FM 105.9 since August 1, 2011.
How much of an impact does WCFS-FM bring to WBBM’s all-News format, which has been on 780 kHz for decades? That’s unclear, as WBBM-AM is listed under a single line-item in Nielsen Audio’s Chicago radio ratings. WBBM Newsradio ranks fourth, overall, and head of WGN-AM 720, the Nexstar Media Group News/Talk standalone radio property owned by the No. 1 owner of broadcast TV stations in the U.S.
WGN was not on the list. Neither was another high-profile AM-band only standalone in a top market, WABC-AM 770 in New York, owned by John Catsimitidis though his Big Apple Media.
That said, the No. 2-rated AM in the nation by billing is Audacy’s WCBS-AM 880 in New York. The longtime News station, which is also the audio home of the New York Mets, can only be heard on FM via WCBS-FM HD2. And, it tallied $29.7 million in 2023 revenue.
The remainder of the Top 10 stations do not include any other New York or Chicago stations. Meanwhile, Los Angeles, long-considered to be the nation’s No. 1 market by billing thanks to in-car listening on traffic-clogged freeways, sees two AMs among the top 10 … sort of.
BIA places KNX Newsradio at No. 7 with some $20.8 million in revenue. However, since December 6, 2021 it has been simulcast on the former KNOU-FM 97.1 in Los Angeles, which dropped Top 40. Today, the station is branded as “KNX News 97.1 FM” and downplays its 102-year old 50,000-watt Cass A AM signal that can be heard from Santa Maria to Ensenada during daylight hours and across much of the American West at night.
The other L.A. radio station is a property with no FM HD1 simulcast — iHeartMedia‘s KFI-AM 640.
In 2023, the venerable Talk station ranked fourth by billing, taking in $23.8 million. This puts KFI at No. 4 by billing among AM radio stations as measured by BIA, with News/Talk sibling KTRH-AM 740 in Houston coming in at No. 3 among AMs with some $24.63 million in revenue.
In a tie with KFI for billing is WSB Newsradio. However, like KNX, it largely benefits from its full simulcast on a HD1 FM station: WSBB-FM 95.5, a 100kw Class 1 facility. And, WSB’s branding only reflects its FM home and not its century-old AM signal at 750 kHz. The simulcast on 95.5 MHz dates to August 2010.
The remainder of BIA’s “Top Ten AM Radio Stations by Revenue for 2023 also includes AM radio stations benefiting from a HD1 FM signal in their respective markets — even KOA-AM 850 in Denver, as the iHeartMedia News/Talker added K231BQ at 94.1 MHz in Golden, Colo., as a way to bring its programming to the FM dial in November 2015.
KTCK-AM in Dallas is fully simulcast on KTCK-FM in Flower Mound, Tex.; KYW-AM in Philadelphia is simulcast on WPHI-FM 103.9 in Jenkintown, Pa.; and KCBS-AM in San Francisco simulcasts on KFRC-FM 106.9.
Asked about how it developed its rankings, a BIA representative tells RBR+TVBR that BIA follows Nielsen’s Total Line Reporting (TLR) policy. This allows stations like WINS-AM & FM to combine their revenue. “That means we don’t separate the share of revenue between AM and FM,” the company representative said.
