WTOP Remains Atop Revenue Mountain
• Stop us if you’ve heard these words before… Hubbard Radio’s WTOP-FM/Washington, DC remains the top-billing radio station in the United States again. That’s the word, according to BIA’s newly released Investing in Radio 2024, 1st Edition. If you’re keeping score at home, that makes 13 times in the last 14 years that WTOP-FM has been No.1 on the list.
Hubbard owns additional stations in the DC market, but WTOP-FM tops them all, with its $66.3 million in over-the-air revenue in 2023, accounting for nearly 29% of the total radio advertising revenue in the Washington DC market.
Audacy and iHeartMedia each have four stations in the top 10 — iHeartMedia’s KIIS-FM/Los Angeles retains its No. 2 ranking with $41.8 million, followed by Audacy all-News WINS-FM/New York* debuting at No. 3 with $40 million. iHeart AC WLTW/New York sits at No. 4 with $33.3 million, while Beasley’s lone entry, Sports-Talk WBZ-FM/Boston is at No. 5 with $32.7 million. iHeartMedia Top 40 WHTZ/New York comes in at No. 6 with $31.7 million, followed closely by Hot AC sister KBIG/Los Angeles with $31.4 million. Audacy rounds out the Top 10, with WFAN-FM/New York with $30.3 million, WBBM-AM/Chicago with $30 million, and WCBS-AM/New York with $29.7 million.
* BIA follows Nielsen reporting of Total Line Reporting (TLR), which allows stations like WINS FM and AM to combine their revenue and share into the FM. That means BIA doesn’t separate the share of revenue between AM and FM, as it’s all rolled into FM.
