© 2010 Rapid TV News
Sue Tabbitt ©RapidTVNews | 01-08-2010
The number of US broadcast stations has risen by almost 4% since June 2008 to 30,855 stations, according to new figures from the FCC.
The FCC totals differentiate between educational and commercial classifications, and between VHF and UHF categories. The number of full-power VHF stations dropped by almost 33%, from 710 in 2008 to 479 in 2010, highlighting the challenges that stations, viewers and the FCC will face if broadcasters are forced to move back to VHF channels as a result of losing UHF spectrum to wireless broadband.
The FCC Media Bureau has a Web page with links to broadcast station totals dating back to September 2000: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/totals/.
