Oregon Media Insiders

Commercial radio stations have smaller shares because there are many more competitive commercial signals (through move-ins, upgrades, and just better programming) in each market.

Math 101 - Shares are simply percentages of 100%. Even if non-commercial stations took 4-5% points more than they did when the commercials were locally owned, the commercial stations would still be splitting 90-95% of the radio audience. There are just more radio stations demanding slices of the pie.

Yes, radio consolidation was harmed local programming. But the lower shares for some commercial stations are offset equally by higher shares for other.

So unless the mathmathical laws of the universe have changed, "virtually all commercial radio stations" don't have smaller shares.