The rapid change to Wisconsin’s radio ownership landscape has prompted big moves in how group owners rank in the state.
In just nine months of existence, Civic Media has grown to be the second-largest group owner of commercial radio stations in Wisconsin, when translators and pending transactions are included.
Since stations have widely varying population reach due to their locations and power levels, there’s no perfect way of counting. There’s also the question of whether to include FM translators. Though they cannot originate their own programming, they are included here because they do expand a station’s potential reach.
For purposes of brevity, the list is limited to organizations with ten or more radio signals in Wisconsin.
| FM full-power | FM translators | FM total | AM | Total | |
| WPR | 25 | 8 | 33 | 2 | 35 |
| Magnum* | 14 | 15 | 29 | 6 | 35 |
| Civic Media* | 4 | 14 | 18 | 13 | 31 |
| WRVM | 6 | 20 | 26 | 0 | 26 |
| Midwest Comm. | 13 | 6 | 19 | 5 | 24** |
| iHeartMedia | 12 | 3 | 15 | 6 | 21 |
| Mid-West Family | 9 | 7 | 16 | 5 | 21 |
| VCY | 7 | 7 | 14 | 1 | 15*** |
| EMF | 5 | 8 | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| NRG | 8 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 12 |
| Cumulus | 7 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 12 |
| Zoe | 6 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 12 |
| Big Radio | 3 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| Heartland | 6 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| Results | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 10 |
*includes pending transactions that will move some stations from Magnum to Civic
**Does not include three Midwest stations that are licensed to Superior but have studios and transmitters in Duluth. Midwest has four full-power FM stations, two FM translators, and three AM stations in the Duluth-Superior market.
***Does not include a VCY-owned Duluth AM station and FM translator that also serve Superior.
WPR stations are owned by either the Board of Regents or the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.