Superserved Radio Markets

[Steve Green NEPA]

According to Radio Locator, New York has 121 available radio stations to enjoy, AM & FM combined.
Los Angeles has 114. Chicago has 104.

Of course, there are fringe stations included in those lists. For example, no one actually sits in that Jack Webb/Dragnet building and has 114 choices of listener delight while at work.

With so many foreign countries disengaging their AM stations, I was wondering whether there are other markets on the globe as saturated with AM & FM signals as NYC.

(Bermuda might come with an asterisk, since they must have 100 stations along coming in daily as the result of all those directional 'regional' signals from the USA East Coast alone which aren't licensed to Metro Bermuda.)

 

[ansky212]

Out of 121 radio stations in the NY market there are only 1 or 2 that I listen to on any regular basis. Kind of reminds me of watching 1 or 2 channels out of a big cable TV package. Luckily with radio there is no cost.

 

[davideduardo]

According to Radio Locator, New York has 121 available radio stations to enjoy, AM & FM combined.
Los Angeles has 114. Chicago has 104.

I do not know how radio-locator calculates its station counts, but the FCC considers a market to be the Nielsen Metro Survey Area. LA has, including translators and LPFM stations, 133. Chicago has 186. Those are the totals for stations that are "home" to the metro.

Of course, there are fringe stations included in those lists. For example, no one actually sits in that Jack Webb/Dragnet building and has 114 choices of listener delight while at work.

With so many foreign countries disengaging their AM stations, I was wondering whether there are other markets on the globe as saturated with AM & FM signals as NYC.

Buenos Aires: with stations licensed by the federal government, the provincial government and the individual cities that are suburbs of greater Buenos Aires (as well as some semi-permanent pirates), the market has around 300 stations.

But in most of the world, the idea of 100 watt community stations and loads of highly directionalized AMs or daytimers does not exist. So you can look at Mexico City, for example, and find that nearly all the AMs and FMs... over 60 of them... cover the whole market. Or much smaller Quito, Ecuador also has over 60 stations, every one of them covering the whole market day and night. All FMs the same power and all AMs non-directional.

 

[vb2285]

90 of the stations play the same 5 songs over and over. New York City radio has no variety! It only caters to those who like Rhythmic or Pop music! HD 2 has no variety its basically the same stations!

 

[CTListener]

It only caters to those who like Rhythmic or Pop music!

In other words, most New Yorkers.

 

[TheBigA]

90 of the stations play the same 5 songs over and over. New York City radio has no variety! It only caters to those who like Rhythmic or Pop music! HD 2 has no variety its basically the same stations!

If you want variety, try tuning below 92 on the FM dial.

 

[BruceNYC]

I agree with TheBigA. I regularly listen to WFUV and WBGO and contribute monthly to both.

 

[CTListener]

I agree with TheBigA. I regularly listen to WFUV and WBGO and contribute monthly to both.

It seems that most of the people who complain about the state of New York City radio are looking for one of three things: kick-ass current hard rock, '50s-early '70s oldies or soft AC. Those aren't found on left-of-92.1 stations. If the OP had some other musical needs in mind, I apologize for the assumption. But I would think that if the non-comms were satisfying him in even the slightest, he wouldn't have taken such a broad brush to the whole NYC FM dial.

 

[vb2285]

In other words, most New Yorkers.

The New York City radio stations also broadcast to New Jersey and Long Island NY State and CT all different than NYC.

 

[TheBigA]

I would think that if the non-comms were satisfying him in even the slightest, he wouldn't have taken such a broad brush to the whole NYC FM dial.

Maybe. All he said was NYC radio has no variety. That tells me he hasn't tried the non-coms, because they offer lots of alternatives to the most popular music formats.

My point is variety exists. But as you point out, that's not usually what complainers really want. They want what THEY want, they want it as a 24/7 format, and they want it for free. That's not always going to happen.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

@ CT Listener & Big A :

Perhaps I wasn't clear ; quite often I'm not (he said, through a translator). I wasn't moaning about 'lack of variety' on the NYC dials. I was merely curious as to what places might have more signals issued to it.

I was born and raised there, but it's been over ten years since I've even been *near* NYC, so despite my pedigree-ing I'm likely the last one here qualified to comment on any diversification on its AM or FM dials. That wasn't my question, though. I was only interested in the number of signals, not what they were programming. Gee.

 

[TheBigA]

@ CT Listener & Big A :

Perhaps I wasn't clear ; quite often I'm not (he said, through a translator). I wasn't moaning about 'lack of variety' on the NYC dials.

Yes I know...I was referring to post #4. See below:

90 of the stations play the same 5 songs over and over. New York City radio has no variety! It only caters to those who like Rhythmic or Pop music! HD 2 has no variety its basically the same stations!

 

[vchimpanzee]

It seems that most of the people who complain about the state of New York City radio are looking for one of three things: kick-ass current hard rock, '50s-early '70s oldies or soft AC. Those aren't found on left-of-92.1 stations. If the OP had some other musical needs in mind, I apologize for the assumption. But I would think that if the non-comms were satisfying him in even the slightest, he wouldn't have taken such a broad brush to the whole NYC FM dial.

Don't forget standards! How can a city like NYC not have those, even on the left side of the dial?

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

I forget what year it was, VChimp -- I'm thinking late 70's -- when a major NY daily ran a clever headline reporting that the population of the Five Boroughs officially had become 'more than 50 % minority' in terms of ethnicity/race/antecedence.
If the deduction indeed had been that far back, that figure was from over 35 years ago. And of course, things have changed since ~ 1980. That's going on eight presidential elections ago.

Putting it another way : If NYC proper doesn't even have 50's - 60's oldies because of the demo stigma, the Standards may as well be considered as effective a 2017 product as opera.

I love the stuff -- my Folks' music. Perhaps one day the genre will be considered as America's Second Classical Music' (Jazz being the first). But for now the Standards and pre-70's oldies only can be found in the suburbs.

 

[Tomgsinger]

NYC lacks an alternative rock, a rhythmic AC, an adult hits, an active rock, and a dance station. Dance isn't a widespread format, but given the NYC lifestyle I'd think that NYC would have a dance station. Vegas had 2 of them at one point: KYLI and KHYZ, both rimshots. I'd think that at least one station (excluding WPTY) would be able to pull the niche off.

 

[TheBigA]

NYC lacks an alternative rock, a rhythmic AC, an adult hits, an active rock, and a dance station.

Try WFUV. They play alternative and active rock. Dance is a weekend format. There are stations that do dance on the weekends. That's enough.

 

[MarcB]

In Hartford the Alternative Rock station is the lowest rated FM station in the market not counting two translators that are sister stations to the Alt Rock Station. The two translators are Spanish CHR (run from the HD2 channel of the Alt Rock Station) and 60s-80s Oldies (run from an AM sister station). And I don't know if it's because they are owned by a small local company there isn't a lot of variety in the advertisers on these 3 stations. Car dealerships seem to make up most of the advertising. The Alt Rock Station they have ads for bars and vaping shops too. Speaking of Car Dealerships the Spanish CHR station has 2 five minute commercial breaks every hour. On more than one occasion I have heard no fewer than 4 different dealerships in one commercial break.

Then you got events the company is putting on. Chances are they aren't paying for ads on their own station. For example last week the Alt Rock Station hosted a concert - "Radio 104.1 Fest Featuring 311 and New Politics". They were running the ad at least once an hour for at least 2 months. They ran the ad on the Oldies station too. Only they called it "311 Fest". Once an hour every hour. They put on a Hispanic Concert last week too. Bomba Summer fest featuring Victor Manuel. The commercial was airing during both stop-sets. Now they're gearing up for Motor Jam 2017 in September. The ad has been running once and hour on all 3 stations.