2023 RADIO METRO MAP | Nielsen Market Map

Nielsen Audio Top 50 Market Counties

Any organization applying for an LPFM radio license is obligated to provide the FCC with a list of its controlling members. In the case of nonprofit organizations, this obligation includes submitting a comprehensive roster of board members, inclusive of their residential addresses and voting percentages. It’s crucial to emphasize that, for local consideration, the organizational headquarters must either be within 10 miles of the proposed transmitter site or 75 percent of the board members must reside within that radius. This requirement is applicable up to 20 miles outside of Nielsen’s top 50 Radio Markets. You can find a detailed list of counties within the top 50 markets on the Nexus Broadcast website.

The areas and communities discussed here represent the most recent 2023 Nielsen Audio Top-50 urban markets.

If the LPFM transmitting antenna is located within any of these regions, the following FCC regulations apply:

• §73.853(b) requires that LPFM organizations in the Top-50 urban markets must have the headquarters or campus of the organization or at least 75% of the organization’s board members physically reside within 10 miles of the transmitting antenna location.
• §73.872(b)(1) states that in order to claim the Established Community Presence point, an applicant must, for a period of two years prior to the application and at all times thereafter, have the headquarters or campus of the organization or at least 75% of the organization’s board members physically reside within 10 miles of the transmitting antenna location.
• §73.872(b)(3) states that in order to claim the Main Studio point, that the applicant pledges to maintain a publicly accessible main studio with local program origination capability, is reachable by telephone, is staffed at least 20 hours per week between 7AM~10PM and is located within 10 miles of the transmitting antenna.
  For counties and areas not designated as Top-50 urban markets, the 10 mile limit is extended to 20 miles.

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