Top Billing Stations of 2023

[TheBigA]

BIA has reported the top billing radio stations of 2023:

Spoken Word, Led By Washington’s WTOP, Dominates BIA’s Top Billing Stations.

BIA is out with its list of the top-billing radio stations of 2023, and a familiar set of call letters tops the tally. Hubbard Radio’s all-news powerhouse WTOP-FM Washington, D.C.

www.insideradio.com

Inside Radio drilled down further to focus on Top 10 AM brands

With $225 Million In Combined Revenue, Top Billers Show Staying Power Of Strong AM Radio Brands.

As broadcasters fight to keep AM radio in vehicle dashboards, BIA shines on a light on the strength of the legacy band with a breakout chart of the top AM

www.insideradio.com

It should be pointed out that some of those AM stations have FM simulcasts or translators.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The top 3 are not surprising WTOP in first place, KIIS Los Angeles in second place and WINS Radio in 3rd place.

 

[101tm]

The shocker to me is KTRH. It's an AM talk station carrying mostly syndicated programming (in other words, nothing special). For a format that's so heavily 55+ (most talk radio listeners I know are more like 65+ now), it amazes me they can bill that well even with the additional time to air spots due to the spoken word format. I'm even shocked they were #14 in 2022.

 

[Larry]

I am surprised WINS (Nrw York all news) is not on the list, especially as Audacy selected WINS over WCBS to have a FM simulcast. And note there are other stations on this list with an FM simulcast so the list isn’t “AM only” stations.

 

[DavidEduardo]

I am surprised WINS (Nrw York all news) is not on the list, especially as Audacy selected WINS over WCBS to have a FM simulcast. And note there are other stations on this list with an FM simulcast so the list isn’t “AM only” stations.

Baseball. Huge expense, even larger revenue.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The shocker to me is KTRH. It's an AM talk station carrying mostly syndicated programming (in other words, nothing special). For a format that's so heavily 55+ (most talk radio listeners I know are more like 65+ now), it amazes me they can bill that well even with the additional time to air spots due to the spoken word format. I'm even shocked they were #14 in 2022.

Yes one would expect KCBS Radio San Francisco or KNX Los Angeles to at least beat KTRH Houston in revenue. KCBS especially is on the bottom of the top 10 list for AM Only List in revenue and yet they are usually within the top 5 spots in the San Francisco Radio market with KQED-FM.

Now I heard of stuff that Dallas is now Radio Market 4 and San Francisco went down one spot to Radio Market 5.

 

[Gregg.]

It should be pointed out that some of those AM stations have FM simulcasts or translators.

Which makes the list rather pointless. Six of these stations are part of an AM-FM simulcast. Only four are AM-only stations. (KOA does have two translators but no full-power FM simulcast.)

The real list should be

1. WCBS -- All News -- New York -- Audacy -- $29,700,000

2. KTRH -- Talk -- Houston -- iHeart -- $24,625,000

3. KFI -- Talk -- Los Angeles -- iHeart -- $23,800,000

4. KOA -- News/Talk/Sports -- Denver -- iHeart -- $21,575,000

Last year, when BIA didn't make the mistake of putting stations with an FM simulcast on this list, KLAC Los Angeles, WSCR Chicago, WGN Chicago, WWJ Detroit and WLW Cincinnati were included.


.

 

[TheBigA]

I am surprised WINS (Nrw York all news) is not on the list

Because their simulcast is counted together as AM/FM. Similar to WFAN.

BIA now attributes all revenue for the station that invented the all-news format to the FM signal.

 

[101tm]

Yes one would expect KCBS Radio San Francisco or KNX Los Angeles to at least beat KTRH Houston in revenue. KCBS especially is on the bottom of the top 10 list for AM Only List in revenue and yet they are usually within the top 5 spots in the San Francisco Radio market with KQED-FM.

Now I heard of stuff that Dallas is now Radio Market 4 and San Francisco went down one spot to Radio Market 5.

It makes me wonder - if KTRH is billing so well with mostly the standard Premiere syndicated fare, are they doing anything outside of that to generate so much revenue? I know talk formats run more spots (retirement planning, gold, estate planning, etc) and have brokered programming on the weekend but is that seriously enough to bring in that much money for a format that almost exclusively has quite older listeners? Makes me wonder if iHeart talk stations with similar lineups in other markets are much bigger cash cows than I’ve thought.

KOA, which is on the list, is mostly local programming and also has sports programming.

 

[TheBigA]

It makes me wonder - if KTRH is billing so well with mostly the standard Premiere syndicated fare,

You may be overstating the syndicated fare part. The whole morning, until 11 AM, is local. Three hours of local news followed by 3 hours of local talk. Then syndication for 6 hours. Then back to local talk for a couple hours. Syndicated at night. I think a lot of the revenue is in the morning. And yes, they have the regular contingent of brokered programs on the weekend.

ALL talk programming is old. WTOP is the top biller, but doesn't appear in the Top 10 of 25-54.

 

[101tm]

You may be overstating the syndicated fare part. The whole morning, until 11 AM, is local. Three hours of local news followed by 3 hours of local talk. Then syndication for 6 hours. Then back to local talk for a couple hours. Syndicated at night. I think a lot of the revenue is in the morning. And yes, they have the regular contingent of brokered programs on the weekend.

ALL talk programming is old. WTOP is the top biller, but doesn't appear in the Top 10 of 25-54.

My mistake, I was under the impression Michael Berry was syndicated (which he is) but maybe since he’s based in Houston he’s considered local thus gets more ad buys.

 

[TheBigA]

My mistake, I was under the impression Michael Berry was syndicated (which he is) but maybe since he’s based in Houston he’s considered local thus gets more ad buys.

It helps that he's a former local politician with lots of contacts. OTOH, iHeart has a bunch of syndicated stations such as KEIB in LA and Talk 1200 in Boston that will likely not appear on any Top 10 list.

 

[Mark Roberts]

KOA, which is on the list, is mostly local programming and also has sports programming.

Sports is what drives KOA. Everything else there is secondary. That matches the market.

I'm assuming these figures don't include KHOW or KDFD; they likely would only be minor contributors anyway.

 

[TexasTom]

What stood out for me on the Top 10 list was how revenue was down from the previous year for every station except WINS where the revenue was listed for both years. In the case of WINS, it wasn't directly comparable since until 2023 the AM and FM sides were broken out separately.

 

[DavidEduardo]

What stood out for me on the Top 10 list was how revenue was down from the previous year for every station except WINS where the revenue was listed for both years. In the case of WINS, it wasn't directly comparable since until 2023 the AM and FM sides were broken out separately.

The elephant in this room is the fact that, adjusted for inflation, radio revenue is off over 60% since two decades ago.

Example: the cluster I was based at back then was making an effort to have its first $100 million dollar year. Today, they are barely hitting a third of that.

 

[TexasTom]

The elephant in this room is the fact that, adjusted for inflation, radio revenue is off over 60% since two decades ago.

Example: the cluster I was based at back then was making an effort to have its first $100 million dollar year. Today, they are barely hitting a third of that.

That is downright painful. Does that reflect a decline in actual radio listenership, or does it reflect a CPM decline?

 

[boombox4]

The elephant in this room is the fact that, adjusted for inflation, radio revenue is off over 60% since two decades ago.

Example: the cluster I was based at back then was making an effort to have its first $100 million dollar year. Today, they are barely hitting a third of that.

Yep, inflation over 20 years is pretty high. $1 in 2004 would be worth $1.69 today, at least according to the BLS Inflation Calculator (A 2000 dollar would be worth $1.86 today). So if you throw 69% difference in the value of the dollar into the mix, I can see how the revenues are affected.

 

[CentralFL]

Surprising that WHTZ is lower than KIIS with the same format considering how much larger NYC is.

 

[TheBigA]

Surprising that WHTZ is lower than KIIS with the same format considering how much larger NYC is.

I think it's because LA is a larger advertising market than NY.

 

[semoochie]

I am surprised WINS (Nrw York all news) is not on the list, especially as Audacy selected WINS over WCBS to have a FM simulcast. And note there are other stations on this list with an FM simulcast so the list isn’t “AM only” stations.

It sounds like you clicked on the second link which only lists AM stations, translators not withstanding. Try the first link. WINS is on that one.