Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last updated 19 September 2026
San Francisco
A market where one all-news station leads by a wide margin and a large slice of the audience cannot be bought at all. Berk Marketing buys the Bay Area for advertisers and represents no station in it.
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Short answer. San Francisco is the most news-led commercial market in the country outside New York: KCBS on 106.9 and 740 holds close to nine percent of listening, nearly double the next station, and it is the one signal here that can carry a considered-purchase campaign alone. Two things shrink everything else. Public radio takes a larger share of listening in the Bay Area than in any other big market, and none of it can be bought. And San Jose is measured as its own Nielsen market, so a Bay Area advertiser who needs the South Bay is buying two markets, not one. The practical entry point is about five thousand dollars a week.
Station by station
Individual station pages for this market are being added to the site. Until then the table below shows every commercial signal that can be bought here, and the full San Francisco roster lists the rest, including the non-commercial stations that cannot be bought at all.
The market in numbers
KCBS leads at close to nine percent. Below it, the adult contemporary and hot AC stations share the audience in three and four point slices, and the sports and Spanish-language signals sit further down.
| Station | Dial | Branding | Format | Owner | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KCBS-AM | 740 AM and 106.9 FM | All News 106.9 and 740 KCBS | News | Audacy | 8.9 |
| KOIT-FM | 96.5 FM | 96.5 KOIT | AC | Connoisseur | 5.0 |
| KISQ-FM | 98.1 FM | 98.1 The Breeze | Soft AC | iHeartMedia | 4.6 |
| KIOI-FM | 101.3 FM | Star 101.3 | Hot AC | iHeartMedia | 4.2 |
| KMVQ-FM | 99.7 FM | 99.7 Now | CHR | Connoisseur | 3.8 |
| KLLC-FM | 97.3 FM | Alice @ 97.3 | Hot AC | Audacy | 3.5 |
| KITS-FM | 105.3 FM | Live 105 | Alternative | Audacy | 3.0 |
| KRZZ-FM | 93.3 FM | 93.3 La Raza | Regional Mexican | Spanish Broadcasting System | 3.0 |
| KYLD-FM | 94.9 FM | Wild 94.9 | CHR | iHeartMedia | 2.8 |
| KOSF-FM | 103.7 FM | Classic Hits 103.7 | Classic Hits | iHeartMedia | 2.3 |
Top ten commercial stations by share. All News 106.9 and 740 KCBS leads the market at 8.9. The news, talk and sports signals (All News 106.9 and 740 KCBS, 95.7 The Game, KSRO) combine to 10.8, and the Spanish-language stations to 6.7. Source: Nielsen PPM as published on our radio stations by market page, which is updated with each book.
How the Bay Area listens
KCBS is the market. For any advertiser whose customer needs information before buying, the all-news station is where the audience is, and it is engrossed, affluent and reachable with fewer spots than any music schedule. It is also where every other advertiser with the same idea is, so the daypart and the creative have to be chosen with more care here than on a station with spare inventory.
What you cannot buy is as important as what you can. KQED and the other public signals hold a share that would put them near the top of the commercial table, and that audience simply is not for sale. An advertiser who assumes the whole market is reachable on commercial radio is overestimating reach. The honest plan starts from the commercial share, not the metro population.
The South Bay is a separate market. San Jose has its own Nielsen book and its own stations. A campaign that has to reach Silicon Valley as well as San Francisco and the East Bay is a two-market buy, and the schedule and the budget should be planned that way from the start rather than discovered in the post log.
The listener is following a story or a conversation, so fewer commercials a day do the job and a spot written to match that delivery carries more information. In the Bay Area that means KCBS first, and 95.7 The Game for a male audience in season.
The listener is half attending, so the message needs repeating, which means weight on one station rather than money spread across four. KOIT, The Breeze and Star 101.3 each reach a large habitual audience that is bought for frequency on one station.
Why format decides frequency, in full, is on the local radio advertising page.
Money
Audacy holds KCBS, The Game, Alice and Live 105; iHeart has The Breeze, Star 101.3 and Wild 94.9; Connoisseur has KOIT and 99.7 Now. Three groups, three sets of packages, and the news station in demand from every direction. We buy the station, negotiate each group against the others, and in a market this tight we are candid about when the inventory you want is not available at a price that makes sense.
The practical entry point for a terrestrial campaign here is about five thousand dollars a week, the same floor as every market we buy, and it needs to run long enough to build frequency rather than a week or two to see what happens. What sets the rate, what moves it and how remnant inventory changes the arithmetic is covered on the radio advertising costs page.
Berk Marketing represents advertisers and holds no San Francisco inventory. We go to the stations and the groups for availability and price, negotiate each against the others, write and produce the commercial in house, place the schedule and track what it returns by station. Where a station has unsold airtime, we buy it as remnant, typically 40 to 60% below the published rate card, and you are refunded or credited for any spot that does not run.
Fit
Worth knowing first
We work with advertisers who have not already been in contact with a radio station’s sales rep. We are not in the business of taking clients away from stations, and once an advertiser has been quoted directly, our ability to bring remnant pricing on that station is compromised.
The consequence lands on you rather than on us. If San Francisco is on your list and you have not spoken to anyone yet, that is exactly when this is worth a call.
We will run a competitive monitoring report at no charge and with no obligation. It shows which San Francisco stations your competitors are on, at what times of day, how many spots, and it includes the actual audio of their commercials.
In many cases nothing shows up at all, and that is worth knowing too.
Get the ReportQuestions
For a considered purchase, KCBS, and by a wide margin, because no other commercial station reaches an engrossed audience of that size here. For a male audience, 95.7 The Game in season. For a broad consumer offer, KOIT or one of the hot AC stations bought for frequency. We would not name one before hearing what you sell.
The practical minimum for a terrestrial campaign is about five thousand dollars a week, here as elsewhere. San Francisco rate card prices are among the highest in the country and the news station is in constant demand, so negotiation and timing matter more than usual. How the rate is set is covered on the radio advertising costs page.
Not reliably. San Jose is its own Nielsen market with its own stations. Some San Francisco signals are heard there, but a campaign that needs the South Bay should be planned as a second market with its own schedule.
Because it holds a share of Bay Area listening that would put it near the top of the commercial table, and none of it can be bought. Your reach on commercial radio is smaller than the metro population suggests, and the plan should start from the commercial share.
No. We represent advertisers only and hold no station inventory, so there is no Bay Area signal we are obliged to recommend.
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