In the United States, radio listenership is gauged by Nielsen and others for both commercial radio and public radio. Nielsen and similar services provide estimates by regional market and by standard daypart, but do not compile nationwide information by host. Because there are significant gaps in Nielsen's coverage in rural areas, and because there are only a few markets where the company's proprietary data can be compared against competing ratings tabulators, there is a great deal of estimation and interpolation when attempting to compile a list of the most-listened-to radio programmes in the United States. In 2009, Arbitron, the American radio industry's largest audience-measurement company at the time (since subsumed into its television counterpart Nielsen), said that "the job of determining number of listeners for (any particular programme or host) is too complicated, expensive and difficult for them to bother with." In contrast, because most UK radio broadcasts are distributed consistently and nationwide, the complications of measuring audiences that are present in American radio are not present for British radio.
Talkers Magazine, an American trade publication focusing on talk radio, formerly compiled a list of the most-listened-to commercial long-form talk shows in the United States, based primarily on Nielsen data.
In addition to Talkers' independent analyses, radio companies of all formats include estimates of the audience in news releases. The nature of news releases allows radio companies to inflate their listener totals by obscuring the difference between listeners at any given time, cumulative listenership over a time frame, and potential audience.
Worldwide broadcasts The Voice of America reached 326 million weekly listeners on all platforms and languages as of 2022. BBC World Service has an estimated 188 million weekly listeners, broadcasting in 32 languages as of 2009. A State of Trance with Armin van Buuren has an estimated 40 million listeners across 84 countries. American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest has an estimated 20 million listeners worldwide. Intelligence for Your Life with John Tesh has an estimated 40 million weekly listeners across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.About John. Tesh.com. Retrieved September 10, 2021. "...40 million gross impressions per week."
Popular radio shows in the United States The total listenership for terrestrial radio in the United States as of January 2025 was 256 million,The state of radio today: a focus on African-American & Hispanic audiences . Nielsen Audio (April 2024). Retrieved May 6, 2025. up from 230 million in 2024. Of the 121 million listeners in markets served by portable people meters in 2021, an average of 7.5 million are listening to a radio at any given time, up slightly from 2020.Listening to AM/FM Radio in September is Near the Highest Point in a Year. Nielsen Audio press release. Retrieved October 13, 2021 68 percent of homes have at least one radio, with the average home having 1.5 radios as of 2020, both figures being steep declines from 2008.Infinite Dial: Mean Number Of Radios In Home Drops In Half Since 2008. RadioInsight.com (March 3, 2020). Retrieved March 11, 2020. An estimated 12% of listenership to FCC-licensed AM and FM radio stations comes from means other than the actual AM or FM signal itself, usually an Internet radio stream.
Sirius XM Radio has a base of 34.3 million subscribers . American Top 40 attracts over 20 million listeners per week. The late Rush Limbaugh's show was the number-one commercial talk show from 1991 until Limbaugh's death in February 2021. NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered are the two most popular news programmes.The late Tom Kent self-estimated his listenership in 2014 at over 23 million weekly listeners over all of his network's programmes, which span the classic hits, adult hits and hot adult contemporary formats.HISTORY – Tom Kent Radio Network . "2014: (...) TKRN reaches 400 station affiliate mark with over 23 million weekly listeners! " NPR has an overall listenership of 57 million listeners weekly across all shows and platforms as of 2020, with a growing proportion of that figure coming from off-air platforms.
Until the development of portable people meters, Arbitron (Nielsen's predecessor in the radio measurement business) did not have the capability to measure individual airings of a programme the way Nielsen Ratings can for television, and as such, it only measures in three-month moving averages each month. Portable people meters are currently only available in the largest markets Arbitron serves. Thus, it is impossible under current survey techniques to determine the listenership of an individual event such as the Super Bowl; even in cases (such as in PPM markets) where such measurement is feasible, the radio industry's business model relies on selling advertising parceled by daypart rather than individual show or event. In 2022 and 2023, Nielsen released a "far from complete" report suggesting that National Football League games are among the most-listened-to events on radio. Major League Baseball radio broadcasts, particularly the playoffs, also rank among the most dominant broadcasts in their dayparts and home markets (usually in the evenings), with much of that coming from in-home listening.
For most of its existence, Talkers Magazine compiled Arbitron's data, along with other sources, to estimate the minimum weekly audiences of various commercial long-form talk radio shows; its list was updated monthly until the magazine unceremoniously dropped the feature in 2016, then resumed publication in 2017. The 2017 reintroduction also incorporates off-air distribution methods (particularly those that are Internet-based) but not satellite radio, as Talkers could not access data for that medium; as a result, the estimates for most shows increased dramatically when compared to the 2015 methodology. NPR and APM compile Arbitron's data for its public radio shows and releases analysis through press releases.
Included is a list of the 20 most-listened-to radio shows in the United States according to weekly cumulative listenership, followed by a selection of shows of various formats that are most-listened-to within their category. (Unless otherwise noted, the Talkers "non-scientific" estimate is the source.)
+ Programme Format Network Broadcast Time Weekly listeners (in millions) The Ramsey Show Financial talk iHeartMedia Midday 18 Marketplace Financial news APM p.m. drive 14.8Note that the network conflates the Marketplace Morning Report (which airs during Morning Edition in most markets) with the stand-alone program Marketplace and does not make individual ratings for each show available. All Things Considered News broadcast NPR p.m. drive 14.7 The Sean Hannity Show Conservative talk Premiere p.m. drive 14.5The Top Talk Audiences from Talkers magazine, last updated March 2021 Morning Edition News broadcast NPR a.m. drive 13.1 The Mark Levin Show Conservative talk Westwood One West Coast p.m. drive 12 Coast to Coast AM Paranormal talk Premiere Overnights 11 The Glenn Beck Program Conservative talk Premiere East Coast a.m. drive 10The Dan Bongino ShowConservative talkWestwood OneMidday8.75 The Mike Gallagher Show Conservative talk Salem East Coast a.m. drive 8.5 Delilah Adult contemporary music Premiere Evenings 8.3Ravitz, Jessica (February 14, 2012). Talking off-air with Delilah, the 'Queen of Sappy Love Songs' |date=2012-02-14. CNN. Retrieved April 9, 2014. At the time, the estimate was at 8.8 million, a number that has fallen precipitously since portable people meters have become widespread. See: The Dana Show Conservative talk Radio America Midday 8 BBC World Service News broadcast APM Continuous (24/7) 7.8 The Hugh Hewitt Show Conservative talk Salem East Coast a.m. driveOriginally aired in West Coast PM drive until 2016. 7.5 The Thom Hartmann Program Progressive talk Pacifica / WYD Media Midday 7 The Brian Kilmeade Show Conservative talk Fox News Talk Early midday 6 Fresh Air News broadcast NPR Midday 6 Michael Berry Conservative talk iHeartMedia 5 The Joe Pags Show Conservative talk Compass East Coast p.m. drive 5 Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Panel game show NPR Weekends 4
Note on broadcast time: because of the effects of time on North American broadcasting, nationally syndicated shows that air live will end up on different dayparts in different time zones. The above list makes note of this. Note that although shows such as Beck's and Levin's are listed under "West Coast" drive times, that their shows are based on the East Coast (and thus air in early midday and early evening time slots there).
The pay service Sirius XM Radio was monitored directly by Arbitron from 2007 to early 2008. The final numbers available, from early 2008 (prior to when XM and Sirius merged), had The Howard Stern Show being the most listened-to show on either platform, with Stern's Howard 100 channel netting a "cume" of 1.2 million listeners and Howard 101 (the secondary and replay channel) netting an additional 500,000 listeners.Hinckley, David. Howard Stern rules satellite radio. New York Daily News. 7 May 2008. Among formats common to both platforms (all of which have since merged into singular channels), the contemporary hit radio channels, with a combined 1.6 million listeners, ranked highest, with classic rock, hot country music, 1970s and 1980s music channels each netting approximately 1 million listeners combined. Sirius had 8.3 million total subscribers in early 2008 (the Arbitron ratings were measured against a 7-million subscriber base compared to 10 million for XM) and now has more than 30 million. Eastlan Ratings, a service that competes with Arbitron in several markets, includes satellite radio channels in its local ratings; Howard 100 has registered above several lower-end local stations in the markets Eastlan serves, the only satellite station to do so.
Virtually all of the most-listened-to radio programs in the United States are in English. Other than English, Spanish had established national networks. Other languages (Chinese, Polish, Korean, various languages of India, and French) are broadcast only on a local level.
Past top programs in the United States Beginning with the 1930–31 radio season, three ratings services measured radio listener totals. The Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting did so from 1934 to 1935. From 1935 to 1936 and 1948–49, the bulk of radio's "golden age," C.E. Hooper monitored the numbers, which were popularly called "Hooperatings." The A.C. Nielsen company, which continues to measure television ratings today, took over American radio's ratings beginning with the 1949–50 radio season and ending in 1955–56. During this era, nearly all of radio's most popular programs were broadcast on one of three networks: NBC Red, NBC Blue, or CBS' Columbia network.
The top-rated radio programs on American radio from each season:Dunning, John, The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, Oxford University Press, 1998 1930–31, 1931–32: Amos 'n' Andy (Pepsodent, NBC-WJZ) 1932–33, 1933–34: The Chase and Sanborn Hour (Eddie Cantor, NBC-WEAF) 1934–35: Fleischmann's Yeast Hour (Rudy Vallee, NBC-WEAF) 1935–36: Major Bowes Amateur Hour (Chase and Sanborn, NBC-WEAF) 1936–37: Texaco Town (Eddie Cantor, CBS) 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40: The Chase and Sanborn Hour (Edgar Bergen, NBC Red) 1940–41: The Jell-O Program (Jack Benny, NBC Red) 1941–42: The Chase and Sanborn Hour (Edgar Bergen, NBC Red) 1942–43: The Pepsodent Show (Bob Hope, NBC) 1943–44: Fibber McGee and Molly (Johnson Wax, NBC) 1944–45: The Pepsodent Show (Bob Hope, NBC) 1945–46, 1946–47: Fibber McGee and Molly (Johnson Wax, NBC) 1947–48: The Fred Allen Show (Ford Motor Company, NBC) 1948–49: Fibber McGee and Molly (Johnson Wax, NBC) 1949–50: The Lucky Strike Program (Jack Benny, CBS) 1950–51: Lux Radio Theatre (dramas with a rotating cast, NBC)