The Infinite Dial

What are The Ten Best Markets For Radio Listeners? The markets that offer the best combination of quality and variety on free, over-the-air radio? The markets that lead listeners and radio people to say, "I know people complain about the radio around the country but we're pretty lucky here"?

That's something we've been discussing at length here at Edison Media Research. And on Monday, we're going to unveil our top 10 markets, announcing one a day (with a few days off for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend).

In an era with so many other audio choices, many industryites may have stopped thinking about "good" and "bad" radio markets. With hundreds of satellite radio channels and thousands of stations streaming on the Internet, the issue of whether there's a Triple-A station available in town might seem quaint. But until the day that wireless broadband brings The Infinite Dial to every car, most listeners are still much more impacted by what's available locally on AM and FM than we think. (And if you doubt this, we'd like to introduce you to several new Edison employees who moved to the New York area and asked, "So where's the Country station?" For most, the availability of Country on the Web doesn't make up for being able to punch it up in the car when you want it.)

So some radio markets are still very much better than others. And if you love radio and music, radio is very much part of the quality-of-life in a market.

Here's what we were looking for when we came up with our list.

* A broad choice of format options for a broad choice of tastes without having to subscribe to satellite radio, own an HD Radio, or stream an out-of-the-market station. A market didn't necessarily have to have every niche--but we were looking to have the basics covered. (Even with Oldies and Alternative back in the market, New York's lack of Country was still a major strike against it.) We were also looking for a decent quantity of stations; there aren't many truly "under-radioed" major-markets left, but they would be at a disadvantage here, even if the existing players were good.

* A unique station or two of the sort that could be in no other market. And radio that conveys a sense of place overall.

* A decent format battle or two, of the sort where competition really does benefit the listener.

* Great local personalities, although the presence of strong national morning shows wasn't a negative; (if you moved from a market that had Steve Harvey, you'd probably want to find him again).

Sometimes the best places to live for availability of radio is between the markets. Here in Somerville, N.J., we're lucky to be able to pick up much of New York, Philadelphia, Allentown, Pa., Monmouth/Ocean, N.J., and Trenton, N.J., as well as our locals. But our search here is for markets--judged on their own radio (except in a few cases where those out-of-market signals effectively become part of the market).

Over the next 10 days, we'll unveil each of our choices in the pages of The Infinite Dial. As they have in the hallways of Edison Media Research, our choices are meant to provoke a spirited dialogue among radio people and a lot of comments from you.

If you read this and feel strongly that your market should have been included, we'd love to hear why. If you read this and feel strongly that our kids should no longer play with your kids, then you're taking it a little too seriously. If, after reading this, there's industry consensus on far more than 10 great markets for radio nationwide, we can be proud of ourselves as an industry.

See market No. 10, Louisville, here:

See market No. 9, Salt Lake City, here:

See market No. 8, Austin, here:

See market No. 7, Washington D.C., here:

See market No. 6, Los Angeles here:

See market No. 5, New Orleans, here:

See market No. 4, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, here:

See market No. 3, San Francisco, here:

See market No. 2, Philadelphia, here:

See market No. 1, Chicago, here: