BIA Advisory: Hubbard's WTOP Was Top Billing Station in 2021

In a streak lasting since 2014, Hubbard Radio, LLC’s WTOP-FM in Washington, DC was once again the top billing radio station in 2021. BIA estimates that WTOP-FM pulled $70 million in revenues in 2021, up 12.9% from $62 million in 2020. This surpasses the overall growth rate of 10.3% that BIA forecasts for over-the-air radio from 2020 to 2021, as the industry started to pull out of the pandemic slump. WTOP-FM is also the only station on this list to surpass its pre-pandemic revenue figure of $69.8 million in 2019.

Hubbard Radio, LLC garnered 30.5% of the over-the-air revenue in the Washington, DC market in 2021… 29.1% of which went to WTOP-FM. Number two ranked KIIS-FM in Los Angeles accounted for 9.1% of the over-the-air revenue in Los Angeles with $43 million (down from pre-pandemic revenues of $59.9 million in 2019). And Number 3 ranked WLTW in New York accounted for 8.7% of the market’s over-the-air radio revenue with $34.6 million (down from $44.0 million in 2019). Both KIIS-FM and WLTW are owned by iHeartMedia, Inc.

Audacy’s WBBM(AM) in Chicago moved up to the #4 spot (it was #5 last year), and showed the most year-over-year growth of any station in the top ten, growing 14.5% from $29.7 million in 2020 to $34.0 million in 2021. The station is still down from $39.0 million in 2019. Last year’s Number 4 station, WSB(AM) in Atlanta, Georgia, owned by Cox Media Group, Inc. fell off the list and landed at Number 12.

A few more stats from our chart of the top ten billing radio stations in 2021:

• Seven of the top ten are FM stations and three are AM.
• Hubbard and Beasley Media Group, LLC each landed one station in the top ten, while iHeartMedia and Audacy each had four stations.
• Four stations program a News format, one is Sports, and one is Sports/Talk, while the remaining four have music programming.
• Five of the top ten are in New York, while two are in Los Angeles and there’s one each in Washington, Chicago, and Boston.

📻Top Billing Radio Owners in 2021

Looking at the billing of radio station owners, iHeartMedia Inc. sits in the top spot in 2021, with 865 AM/FM stations in 150 markets bringing in $2.2 billion. This is up from $1.97 billion with 865 stations in 2020, but down from $2.56 billion (only 858 stations) in pre-pandemic 2019.

Number two Radio Owner is Audacy, with 231 AM/FM stations in 47 markets bringing in $1.345 billion. This is up from $1.2 billion (also 231 stations) in 2020, but down from nearly $1.6 billion in pre-pandemic 2019 (235 stations).

A distant third, revenue-wise, is Cumulus Media Holdings Inc. with 407 AM/FM stations in 85 markets bringing in $481 million. This is up from $470 million in 2020 (415 stations), but down from $531 million in 2019 (425 stations).

Hubbard Radio LLC, which owns the number one station WTOP-FM, is in 4th place with 54 stations in 10 markets bringing in $252 million. Hubbard is the largest privately owned radio group owner in 2021.