Terrestrial radio, a vast wasteland of bland pop and Nirvana songs that’s been forgotten about as newer ways to listen to music have replaced it, right? NOPE. Last week, the FCC released a report on the number of legal broadcast stations. Hypebot reports that compared to a year ago, there are actually more radio stations than there were the prior year. As of January 8th, there were 15,358 licensed stations, according to the report. That’s 162 more stations than last year. And while there was a decline in the number of AM stations, the biggest growth was in “FM educational” stations.

FM educational stations consist of college radio, high school radio, and community and public radio. In other words, non-corporate radio that’s actually playing independent music. As great as satellite radio and syndicated radio shows are, there are a ton of places to listen to metal on your FM dial, and many of them are college radio stations. Of those 162 additional stations, 159 of them were FM educational, many of which are continuing to spotlight music. Of that music, it can be reasoned that much of it is more independent than Beyonce, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Miley Cyrus. So even with the growth of streaming music services, YouTube, and everything else that comes with it, radio is still a vital way of listening to music that’s actually on the rise.

It should be noted that our parent company The Syndicate deals pretty extensively with college and metal radio. If you’re interested in potentially having your band heard on college and/or metal radio, they’d love to hear from you.