Christian Radio Format is #1… Kind of… Basically… What does that mean?

StationRatings.com released their June 2023 breakdown of top formats and if you take the “Religion (Teaching, Variety)” format’s 2,021 programmed stations and Contemporary Christian’s 1,358 formatted stations, well that would be 3,379 Jesus-inspired radio stations in the United States. That is 1,193 more stations than the number two format, Country Music’s 2,186 radio stations – which many here might argue are also Jesus-inspired (back me up Lady A!).

Let’s play with these combined 3,379 (Religious/CCM) numbers a bit more:

• Average of 67.58 stations per state
• Accounts for 22% of total radio stations in the US (over 15,400 not including LPFMs)
• Combined formats are reaching 49,948,800 Americans each week (18+)
• That’s 15% of the entire US population (331,900,000)
• That’s 3 out of every 20 people in the US that listens to Christian radio weekly

So, what does that mean?

On one side of the coin, I am ecstatic – not only is Christ-centered programming the most listened content on the radio dial, but it is also the fastest growing with 57 new stations lit up this year so far (compared to a NET increase of five stations lit up across all other formats). On the other side of the coin, if we use radio listening as a bellwether for how many Christians are active in their walk in America, 15% seems low to me. Now of course not all Christians listen to Christ-centered content on the radio (Apparently there is this new medium the kiddos like a lot called podcasts), but for me, the ones I am pacing with or drafting off most certainly are.

Conclusions? I’ll let you make your own.

Data references I used: ● Format numbers/increases and decreases ● Total number of 18+ Americans ● Percentage of 18+ Listening to Radio ● Number of radio stations in US ● US Population

Matt Kellogg is VP of Sales & Business Development at SoundStack – the audio-as-a-service (AaaS) company for every kind of digital audio business.

matt@soundstack.com