APRIL 19: All News 

Profile America — Tuesday, April 19th. The first all-news radio format in America was heard on this date in 1965, as WINS-AM in New York City switched from rock ‘n’ roll to rip and read. The station faded out the last song, the Shangri-La’s “Out in the Streets,” and became “all news, all the time.” The experimental format has been successfully replicated in cities around the country, with 43 domestic stations currently devoted to all news, still including WINS. The most listened-to such station is a competitor in New York City. Seven-hundred seventy-six more stations are found in the news-talk format. In America today, there are 15,428 radio stations, employing around 90,000 people, with annual industry revenues of nearly $21 billion. Profile America is completing 25 years as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Sources:

Joseph Nathan Kane, Kane’s Famous First Facts, Fifth Edition, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY 1997, #6303.

Station history, accessed 8/23/2021

All news stations, accessed 8/23/2021

News-Talk, accessed 8/23/2021

Number of stations, accessed 8/23/2021 [3 MB]

Radio employment, County Business Patterns, NAICS 51511

Radio revenues, Economic Census, NAICS 51511