Counties without radio stations

Can any of you name a county that does not have a radio station of any kind licensed to or broadcasting from it?
I can find only 1.5 in Michigan:
The full one is Keweenaw County, which has never had a station licensed to or broadcasting from a community within its boundaries.
The .5 is Benzie County. There are three stations licensed to cities in the county, but two (licensed to Frankfort and Beulah and used to share a common tower) are silent and the one that is on the air (licensed to Honor) has their tower less than 250 yards into neighboring Grand Traverse County. There is a CP for a new station with a tower in southern Benzie County (COL is Onekama in Manistee County), a CP for another station licensed to Thompsonville in Benzie County with its tower in Grand Traverse County, and an existing radio station who has their tower about 150 yards into neighboring Manistee County (COL Bear Lake).
Honorable mention goes to Lake County, as the only radio station in the county is a satellator. Oscoda County technically qualified until recently, as their only licensed radio station was silent for a few months before returning to the air a couple of weeks ago.

Keokuk County in Iowa has no stations at all. But it borders a few counties that have several stations.

There are many counties in Texas with no local radio and a couple of counties where there is nothing on the radio dial. Terrell County, Texas comes to mind. I recall driving through the Sandhills of Nebraska with no local radio for miles and miles...as in 60 to 80 miles or more.

Van Buren County in Iowa also has no radio signals of it own.

I don't think Ferry County, Washington has a radio station. Neither does Wahkiakum County. That is, unless they have FM translators.

When you start getting into rural counties in "K" country, like Iowa, unradioed counties are fairly common, especially counties under 10,000 pop.


Keokuk County doesn't have a radio station licensed to one of its communities, but the CP for KMYQ just north of the line in North English, has a site restriction that puts the full power A in Keokuk Co. And it has a FOX TV affiliate xmtr site w/ 1200' tower on the far eastern edge of the county.

Van Buren has no radio yet, but there are a couple of apps for non-comms on 102.1 at Keosauqua.

One more, Iowa County, in the shadow of the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City metro has 15,000 pop. and no radio station licensed to a town w/in its borders. Wait a minute, it's got above mentioned KMYQ. (I should know better...I dropped in the allocation for it way back in '01...) But KMYQ doesn't count as its owners (not me) immediately went silent with STA shortly after the license was granted. But it has the xmtr for KRNA Iowa City, since 1979.

Iowa County is an interesting case in that by the time I got around to dropping in a channel for it, the closest I could get was North English on its far southern border. Everything else above 92 was blocked.

Alpine County, California. Least populous county in the state. 1,175 people in 743 square miles. Very rugged terrain (they call it "The Alps of California"), but depending on where you are, you can probably hear signals from Reno/Tahoe/Carson City. If you get some elevation, maybe Sacramento and the odd San Francisco FM. That's daytime. At night, tons of AM with very little electrical interference.

Calhoun County, Illinois. The county is part of the St. Louis metropolitan area, but is a peninsula surrounded by the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. There is one bridge, and three ferry services. The population is only 5000 due to its limited accessibility . It is also one of the most scenic places in the region.

Lafayette County, Wisconsin is one that comes to my mind. The county seat of Darlington had a small translator station licensed to it for a few years, but last I heard it was off the air.

The "Battle for Darlington" so to speak for radio coverage/ad dollars is split between stations in Iowa County to the north (WDMP AM & FM, Dodgeville, WI), Green County to the East (WEKZ AM & FM, Monroe, WI) and a group of stations in Grant County to the west, (WGLR AM & FM Lancaster, WI, WPVL AM & FM, Platteville, WI). I recall a few years ago a number of instances where all three stations I mentioned were doing play-by-play of Darlington High School Football at the same time!

Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:

I sense that most participants in these topics about "counties without a station" are not exactly into the nuts-and-bolts of how much business is there available... if a station existed. But Darlington is an interesting example of things that make you scratch your head and say: "Huh?"

When talking about a rural market, the first thing I want to know is: Census numbers and Retail Sales$. In a small town, to do radio you need some people who could listen (or that we can make the merchants THINK are listening) and second, we need MERCHANTS.

Dodgeville has about twice the population of Darlington. Iowa County has about 17 times the retail sales of Lafayette County. (I wonder if the census bureau got something mixed up there.) I took a look at Platteville and the numbers get crazy there!



Now, If if want to move to Wisconsin, and I wanted to own a small town radio station there.... I would show up to look Darlington over with very skeptical eyes! Overstated: Nobody sells anything there. Who needs advertising.

USELESS SIDENOTE: We went touristing through that area seven years ago. I can't remember whether it was Dodgeville or Platteville where we got off the highway, toured a church or convent or something, and out where the 'Main Drag' came off the main highway, there was something I didn't spot coming in, and on the way out I wasn't going to have the driver turn around and go back. It was one of those "What's wrong with this picture?" moments. There was a building. On the left leaving town. Just before the main highway. Masonic Lodge sign out front. The building was a metal Butler building.

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You make a great point about community size and ad sales, and how a station may be a challenge in an already over-served market. If Darlington were to get a station, would there be enough ad dollars, or a format that isn't claimed yet/is viable to run in the area? IIRC, there was chatter a few years back of Mineral Point, Wisconsin (about 20 minutes north of Darlington) getting a construction permit for a full-power FM station. That would mean even more saturation for the market in question.

The stations I mentioned all target the Darlington area and parts of Lafayette County differently. I know the Monroe stations (especially WEKZ-AM) have a lot of Lafayette County-focused shows. The money makers, like High School Football are on their FM station. The Platteville/Lancaster stations also cover Lafayette County happenings, but don't focus specifically on one town as their signals are more regionally focused.

To your useless sidenote...could that town you mentioned be Dickeyville, Wisconsin? Your description makes me think it was. Funny, how Dickeyville also has an FM station licensed to it but Darlington doesn't.

You make a great point about community size and ad dollars and how that can be a factor into whether a community gets a radio station. If Darlington were to get an FM station, would there be enough ways for the station to make money, or would there be an unclaimed format/a format that is viable to run in the area?

I do remember there being chatter a few years back of Mineral Point, Wisconsin (about 15-20 minutes north of Darlington) getting a Construction Permit for a full-power FM station. If that were still the case, the market would be even more over-saturated.

All of the stations I mentioned target Darlington and Lafayette County differently. The Monroe stations (especially WEKZ-AM) have a lot of Lafayette County focused shows. Their FM covers Darlington Sports. Dodgeville's stations cover Iowa/Lafayette County because its right in their backyard, while the Lancaster/Platteville stations cover the entire region with their signals so any Lafayette County news is included along with their focus on Grant/Iowa counties.

To your useless sidenote....Could you be thinking of Dickeyville, Wisconsin? Your description sure sounds like it. Funny, how Dickeyville has an FM station licensed to it, (A Dubuque, Iowa focused Country station), while Darlington doesn't.

Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:

It was one of those "What's wrong with this picture?" moments. There was a building. On the left leaving town. Just before the main highway. Masonic Lodge sign out front. The building was a metal Butler building.

Click to expand...

It would seem the irony was lost on them...

Those who live in steel buildings should not throw bricks at their own walls

Few if any members of the Masonic Lodge are bricklayers anymore..The brick folks went with the Knights Templar....and we know how broiled they ended up

X hands across the chest
"Are you in trouble?" and the correct response would be "................................."

(for those who have been in the lodge for a while, and active with youth, and if you were a member of such, should be able to answer the above )

Marlboro County, South Carolina used to have a station and the towers are still there, but it has been off the air several years.

There is a Nash station whose tower is within the county but aside from Nash's other problems, it is intended for the market nearby which has a city large enough for several stations.

Earlier someone indicated retail sales was evasive as that you buy a car in the next county but it appears as a sale in your county. This is not accurate. The retail sales are always in the community where the sale was made. Registering your vehicle always goes to the county you reside in but that is not retail sales but registration. If you buy groceries in the next county over the sale does not transfer to your county's retail sales. It is true that retail sales dollars are spent in places other than your community or county. For example 1/3rd of gross income is spent on retail sales. For ease if you make $45,000 a year, then $15,000 is retail sales. If you are like everyone else in your county and spend half your retail sales dollars in the county, then $7,500 leaves the county, called the Pull Factor. The higher the pull factor, the better.

Retail Sales can be a good indicator but it is the local retail dollars and the percentage that is spent locally that might be more of an indicator of advertising dollar potential. I have seen communities that had $50,000,000 in retail sales where the single radio station was doing $15,000 to $20,000 a month where almost 80% of retail dollars get spent locally and counties with $200,000,000 in retail sales where the station (an AM & FM combo) could only generate about $20-$25 thousand a month. In the more recent example, almost 2/3rds of the retail dollars went to the next county's bigger city. The station had little luck selling in the next county. Likewise, if lots of the local retail community is national chains, chances of getting local dollars is almost nil. In such instances, the more rural and smaller communities tend to rally behind the local station and local paper. Ten years ago, a small county of 4,000 and $20,000,000 in retail sales was grossing $90,000. Not much money but a mom and pop with two kids as part-timers meant Mom and Dad did okay and had 42 of 50 businesses on the air.

Another factor is the ability of the respective sales departments. There was an AM station in a Texas county of 30,000 people that was billing well over 1 million but in reality the station would have been about average at about $300,000 to $360,000 a year. If I recall the Texas station sold lots of coop dollars. Then there was the Moberly, MO. station back in the 70s and 80s that was such a cash cow due to great management and sales effort. I think they hit a million in annual sales in the early 1980s, becoming the highest billing station by market size.

Another factor is the number of listeners in the range of your station and the number of signals that reach the listening range. If you have 50,000 but 25 stations, you are likely worse off than 2 stations and 6,000 people. Obviously, fewer people and radio signals means your retail sales are mostly spent locally because the community is rather isolated.

Communities have personalities too. Some work together really well, welcome newcomers and simply work to keep the quality of life good in the community. Some towns are very divided, politically toxic, are suspicious of outsiders and consider their town going down hill. You need a positive and cooperative community to go with population and sales.

Then it is a factor of programming to rope in the highest number of potential listeners. Some single station counties have 1/3rd to 1/2 of all radio listeners tuning in their station. Other stations nearer major cities or poor at programming might only get maybe 5% of potential listeners. In essence, you might have 3,000 in a county of 10,000 people but only 2,000 in a county of 50,000. In fact, dollar for dollar, you might do better in the 10,000 population county than the 50,000 county simply because there are more Mom and Pop businesses in the smaller county.

Generally speaking, retailsales and population are excellent starting point to researching a radio market.

In Mississippi, Issaquena and Sharkey counties come to mind. I'm not sure if Wilkinson County has a radio station or not.

Isn't what's really important considering what areas or region can't pick up any radio stations? As long as the people in a county can pick up stations over the air, what real difference does it make whether or not the broadcast towers are on one side of a county line or another?

I would venture to guess that a large part of Nevada and Alaska are without any kind of radio.