Broadcast Station Trends

Following are the trend lines for the past three months for the broadcast stations, according to the FCC’s published broadcast station totals from March 31, 2013 and June 30, 2013 tracking the number of licensed stations.

On the radio side, two AM stations have gone dark, three more commercial FM stations are on the air, and 40 more non-commercial FM stations are on the air.  In addition, there are nine fewer FM translators operating.  Low Power FM stations dropped by five.

On the television side of things, there are 15 fewer Class A UHF stations, and six fewer Class A VHF stations.  Full power television stations, commercial and non-commercial, remain static, with an increase of one UHF commercial TV station during the quarter.  UHF TV translators increased by six, but VHF TV translators dropped by seven.  UHF LPTV stations increased by five, but VHF LPTV stations dropped by three.

A quick look back to the end of 2011 shows that all of the above trend lines hold true for at least the last 18 months.