Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last updated 19 September 2026
New York
The largest radio market in the country, the most expensive to buy at rate card, and the one where the gap between a negotiated schedule and a quoted one is widest. Berk Marketing buys New York for advertisers and represents no station in it.
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Short answer. New York is the one market where all-news radio reaches enough people to carry a campaign on its own: 1010 WINS on 92.3 is the second most listened to station in the market, and with 880 and the talk signals, news, talk and sports together hold close to a fifth of all listening. That audience is engrossed, affluent and reachable with fewer spots than a music schedule needs, which makes it the natural first call for a considered purchase. The practical entry point is about five thousand dollars a week. The trap is scale: a station here can quote a rate that would buy a week in a smaller market for a single drive-time spot, so who does the negotiating matters more in New York than anywhere else.
Station by station
These pages cover what each one costs to buy, who is actually listening, and how the schedule should be built for that format.
The market in numbers
Lite FM leads, but 1010 WINS on 92.3 sits right behind it, and the top of the table is split between two groups: Audacy with the news and sports brands, iHeart with most of the music.
| Station | Dial | Branding | Format | Owner | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLTW-FM | 106.7 FM | Lite FM | AC | iHeartMedia | 7.9 |
| WINS-FM | 92.3 FM | 1010 WINS on 92.3 | News | Audacy | 7.4 |
| WCBS-FM | 101.1 FM | CBS-FM | Classic Hits | Audacy | 5.7 |
| WHTZ-FM | 100.3 FM | Z100 | CHR | iHeartMedia | 5.2 |
| WAXQ-FM | 104.3 FM | Q104.3 | Classic Rock | iHeartMedia | 4.8 |
| WBLS-FM | 107.5 FM | WBLS | Adult R&B | MediaCo | 4.5 |
| WABC-AM | 770 AM | Talkradio 77 WABC | Conservative Talk | Red Apple Media | 4.1 |
| WNEW-FM | 102.7 FM | New 102.7 | Hot AC | Audacy | 4.1 |
| WKTU-FM | 103.5 FM | 103.5 KTU | Hot AC | iHeartMedia | 4.0 |
| WFAN-FM | 101.9 FM | Sports Radio 101.9 WFAN | Sports | Audacy | 3.5 |
Top ten commercial stations by share. Lite FM leads the market at 7.9. The news, talk and sports signals (1010 WINS on 92.3, Talkradio 77 WABC, Sports Radio 101.9 WFAN, 710 WOR, Bloomberg 1130) combine to 18.6, and the Spanish-language stations to 7.9. Source: Nielsen PPM as published on our radio stations by market page, which is updated with each book.
How New York listens
All-news works here at a scale it reaches nowhere else. In most markets the news station is a niche buy. In New York 1010 WINS is a top two station, which means an advertiser can reach a large, engrossed, high-income audience with a news schedule and does not have to spread money across music stations to get reach. That is the single biggest structural advantage of buying New York.
The market is three states and the price reflects it. The metro takes in Long Island, northern New Jersey, the Hudson Valley and part of Connecticut, and every station is priced for all of it. An advertiser who serves one borough is paying for a lot of listeners who will never call. Creative that names the service area, and dayparts that match when that customer listens, are how you make the metro price work for a local business.
Spanish-language radio is a separate top ten audience. Mega 97.9 and 93.1 Amor are both inside the top twelve on their own, and the Spanish-language stations together match the largest English-language music station. That audience needs Spanish creative and Spanish call handling, and rewards both.
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 New York that means 1010 WINS first, then 880, WOR and WABC depending on the audience, and WFAN in season.
The listener is half attending, so the message needs repeating, which means weight on one station rather than money spread across four. Lite FM, Z100 and Q104.3 each reach a very large habitual audience that has to be bought for frequency, not sampled.
Why format decides frequency, in full, is on the local radio advertising page.
Money
Audacy holds the news and sports franchises (1010 WINS, 880, WFAN and CBS-FM) and iHeartMedia holds the music leaders (Lite FM, Z100, Q104.3, KTU and Power 105.1), with Red Apple Media on WABC and MediaCo on WBLS. Both big groups sell packages across their clusters, and both would rather you bought the package. We buy the station, negotiate each group against the other, and take remnant inventory where it exists, which in New York is where the largest savings on the site are found.
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 New York 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 New York 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 New York 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, 1010 WINS, because nowhere else does an all-news station reach this many people, and a news audience needs fewer spots. For a male audience, WFAN or 880 in season. For a broad consumer offer, one of the big iHeart music stations bought for frequency. For Spanish speakers, Mega 97.9 or 93.1 Amor. 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, but New York rate card prices are the highest in the country, so that minimum buys fewer spots at full rate than it would elsewhere. Remnant inventory changes that arithmetic more here than in any other market. How the rate is set and negotiated is covered on the radio advertising costs page.
Not on the major signals, which cover the whole metro. Some stations skew to New Jersey or Long Island, and a schedule can lean on them, but the honest answer is that you buy the market and use the creative and the dayparts to speak to your part of it.
At rate card, often. Negotiated and with remnant inventory in the mix, a five thousand dollar week can build real frequency on the right station. The businesses that do well here are the ones with an offer worth responding to and the capacity to handle the call volume a market this size produces.
No. We represent advertisers only and hold no station inventory, so there is no New York signal we are obliged to recommend.
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Berk Marketing represents advertisers, not radio stations or media companies.
