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Religious Radio Across America

What’s religious radio like in your state?

By , , , and
Table of Contents
  1. Religious Radio Across America
  2. Americans’ experiences with religious audio programming
  3. Political commentary on religious radio, and what listeners think about it
  4. How Catholic radio differs from other Christian radio
  5. Music on religious radio
  6. Where religious radio stations are located, and who owns them
  7. What’s religious radio like in your state?
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Methodology
Pew Knight Initiative

The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Knight Foundation is a social investor committed to supporting informed and engaged communities. Learn more >

About this research

This Pew Research Center report from the Pew-Knight Initiative is about the AM and FM radio stations across the United States that primarily broadcast religious or faith-based content. It looks at the characteristics of these stations and the programming they play, along with who listens to religious programming and why.

The Pew-Knight Initiative is a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Find related reports online at https://www.pewresearch.org/pew-knight/.

Why did we do this?

Pew Research Center does high-quality research to help the public, the media and decision-makers understand important topics. Understanding more about the sources Americans turn to for information – including religious radio stations – is a key part of the Center’s long-standing research agenda on news habits and media. Religious radio stations can be heard in most parts of the U.S. and make up a considerable portion of the country’s media landscape.  

Learn more about Pew Research Center and our news habits and media research.

How did we do this?

For this study, we used three main data sources to get a broad look at where religious radio stations are, what their programming tends to sound like and reasons their listeners tune in:

  • Data about all FCC-licensed terrestrial AM and FM radio stations in the U.S. from Radio-Locator, an industry database with information about where stations are located, the geographical areas they cover and the primary type of programming they air. We also examined the websites of religious stations to learn how they describe their mission and religious affiliation.
  • Around 440,000 hours of audio collected from the internet broadcasts of more than 2,000 religious stations during the month of July 2025.
  • A survey of 5,023 U.S. adults conducted June 9-15, 2025, that asked members of the Center’s American Trends Panel about the religious audio programming they listen to and why.

Here are the survey questions used for this report, the detailed responses and the study’s methodology.

Radio stations in the South are more likely to be religious
% of all radio stations that are religious, by state.
Chart
Note: Booster and translator stations are excluded from totals.
Source: FCC-licensed terrestrial AM/FM radio stations from Radio-Locator (accessed March 2025).
“Religious Radio Across America”
PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE

State-level characteristics of religious radio stations

State% of all stations that are religiousNumber of religious stationsNumber of religious stations per 100K residents% of religious stations that are Catholic% of religious stations with independent ownership% of religious stations that play mostly music*% of religious stations that play mostly talk programming*
AK23.3%547.37.0%27.8%11.5%15.4%
AL30.2%1132.21.1%38.9%55.4%28.6%
AR23.6%792.51.6%27.0%18.2%45.5%
AZ19.3%580.89.5%24.4%20.8%41.7%
CA20.4%2210.612.5%31.2%27.3%46.8%
CO19.2%691.16.3%9.1%64.7%14.7%
CT11.9%130.425.0%44.4%33.3%33.3%
DC15.0%30.433.3%0.0%
DE16.7%60.60.0%16.7%60.0%0.0%
FL30.6%2271.08.5%39.2%43.0%26.0%
GA31.1%1611.43.6%34.0%41.5%20.0%
HI16.5%201.47.7%40.0%0.0%66.7%
IA22.5%722.220.8%35.7%21.9%56.3%
ID23.3%442.22.9%30.8%34.6%42.3%
IL22.7%1170.919.6%19.1%31.0%47.9%
IN27.1%1081.510.7%26.4%48.2%25.0%
KS30.8%923.116.9%25.3%29.1%56.4%
KY26.0%1022.27.8%35.0%33.3%22.2%
LA31.3%1002.27.8%35.1%24.4%53.7%
MA15.7%370.523.1%30.0%18.8%43.8%
MD20.4%300.54.3%28.6%58.8%23.5%
ME20.3%302.119.2%26.7%36.8%42.1%
MI26.0%1351.312.3%21.1%55.9%29.0%
MN16.5%671.118.0%20.3%16.1%16.1%
MO27.1%1161.814.1%28.1%40.8%51.3%
MS29.0%852.91.5%23.5%33.3%61.5%
MT26.1%685.93.4%29.4%7.0%30.2%
NC35.9%1821.64.8%34.7%52.2%17.8%
ND25.7%354.421.4%34.3%14.3%42.9%
NE32.2%763.824.6%33.8%22.2%46.3%
NH15.8%181.36.3%33.3%0.0%50.0%
NJ28.4%440.518.8%30.0%31.3%56.3%
NM18.5%512.45.3%27.7%25.0%58.3%
NV17.1%240.710.5%30.0%10.0%40.0%
NY20.8%1290.67.8%16.7%19.7%25.4%
OH27.3%1361.117.6%29.6%34.4%39.3%
OK27.4%812.01.7%24.1%53.3%37.8%
OR23.1%872.05.4%32.9%25.0%52.5%
PA23.7%1371.08.3%15.9%35.4%20.7%
RI13.3%60.520.0%0.0%0.0%50.0%
SC31.8%911.64.8%30.7%60.0%6.0%
SD20.3%313.319.0%29.0%5.9%35.3%
TN28.6%1341.83.9%33.9%30.3%43.9%
TX34.1%4331.46.1%27.3%19.2%54.4%
UT16.1%240.74.3%13.0%14.3%50.0%
VA27.6%1081.24.6%21.7%50.9%23.6%
VT14.7%142.28.3%28.6%0.0%30.0%
WA26.5%1021.315.4%27.7%27.9%41.9%
WI18.7%771.318.2%28.6%20.8%35.8%
WV18.9%422.45.6%26.2%47.6%28.6%
WY19.3%396.65.9%25.6%18.2%27.3%

* Threshold for “mostly music” and “mostly talk programming” is 70% of that programming type. Stations that don’t meet that threshold are categorized as playing a mix of talk and music (not shown). Shares of stations playing mostly music and mostly talk are based on those that broadcast online and were able to be included in content analysis. The stations located in the District of Columbia did not have available web streams and thus are excluded.
Note: Booster and translator stations are excluded from totals. Categorization of station religious tradition is based on the content of station websites.
Source: Radio-Locator (accessed March 2025) and Pew Research Center analysis of 439,711 hours of programming on FCC-licensed terrestrial AM/FM religious radio stations, recorded July 2025.
“Religious Radio Across America”
PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE

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Table of Contents

  1. Religious Radio Across America
  2. Americans’ experiences with religious audio programming
  3. Political commentary on religious radio, and what listeners think about it
  4. How Catholic radio differs from other Christian radio
  5. Music on religious radio
  6. Where religious radio stations are located, and who owns them
  7. What’s religious radio like in your state?
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Methodology