The full noncommercial database contains about 3,750 U.S. non-commercial radio stations, and about 2,200 when duplicates are purged. Because of simulcast stations, there are about 3,200 records in the file. Please note that this documentation is used for smaller selections from the list. If you have any difficulties installing it, call us at 800-759-4561 or 763-522-6256 for tech support. 

We strongly suggest you make a back-up copy on CD before trying to import the file. If you're using Excel, you may skip the rest of this paragraph. PLEASE REVIEW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR database IF YOU NEED TO IMPORT THIS FILE. For most applications you'll begin by downloading our file to your hard drive. Be sure to note which folder (or directory) you download our file to. Then open your database program. If you have a menu, it probably has a choice marked something like: "CREATE A NEW FILE" or "OPEN A NEW FILE," or "RETRIEVE A FILE." If so, select this option. At some point, there may be an option asking for the SOURCE of the new file, or allowing you to IMPORT data. You may need to enter the number and type of fields in each record (47.) We've made a notation in brackets [ ] to show you how many characters to allow per field. Depending on your database, you may need to structure ZIP field as a character field so the database doesn't delete any zeros at the beginning of an entry.

Name         Type   Length  Decimals  Description  New fields are in red at the bottom.

COMPANY      Character  23       0 Radio station's Call Letters
ADDRESS      Character  40       0
CITY         Character  21       0
STATE        Character  2        0
ZIP          Character  10       0 Combines ZIP and PLUS 4 into a single field
FORMAT       Character  21       0 Station's format i.e. Country, News/Talk, etc. Full list is below. 
NOTES        Character  80       0 Includes info on duplicates. More details below.
SIZE         Numeric    6        1 Arbitron MSA markets used for 1-302. More details below
MARKET       Character  42       0 NEW: The actual name the top 349 markets, i.e. Chicago 
POWER        Numeric    8        0 Power output
FREQ         Character  17       0 Frequency
PHONE        Character  25       0 New area codes now corrected bi-monthly
FAX          Character  13       0 N= non-dedicated fax line
AUTO         Character  17       0 Full-time satellite or automated
RANK         Numeric    2        0 Intentionally left blank for easy merging with our commercial file
CDATE        Date       8        0 The date certain info was changed
CHANGE       Character  13       0 Type of change.  F=format C=call letters P=Power 
SHARE        Numeric    4        1 Intentionally left blank for easy merging with our commercial file
NUMBER       Numeric    5        0 Never-changing serial number used as a key field
DPBC         Character  2        0 Delivery Point for bar-coding
EMAIL        Character  42       0 A general e-mail address
GM           Character  25       0 Station Manager's name
EMAILGM      Character  42       0 The E-mail address of the Station Manager*
PD           Character  25       0 Program Director's name
EMAILPD      Character  42       0 The E-mail address of the Program Director*
SM           Character  25       0 Fundraiser's name
EMAILSM      Character  42       0 The E-mail address of the Fundraiser*
CE           Character  25       0 Chief Engineer's name
EMAILCE      Character  42       0 The E-mail address of the Chief Engineer*
ND           Character  25       0 News Director's name
EMAILND      Character  42       0 The E-mail address of the News Director*
MD           Character  25       0 The name of the Music Director*
EMAILMD      Character  42       0 The E-mail address of the Music Director*
OWNER        Character  42       0 The company or college that owns, controls, or is about to purchase the station. 
WEBSITE      Character  42       0 
COUNTY       Character  42       0 The county the station's address is in
LONGITUDE    Numeric    6        2 Degrees/Minutes for the mailing address
LATITUDE     Numeric    7        2 Degrees/Minutes for the mailing address
DISTRICT     Character  2        0 Congressional District
TIME         Numeric    2        0 Time Zone in hours behind Greenwich time
OPS          Character  25       0 Operations Director's name*
EMAILOPS     Character  42       0 NEW: The Email address of the Operations Director*
PRD          Character  25       0 NEW: Production Director's name*
EMAILPRD     Character  42       0 NEW: The Email address of the Production Director*
PRM          Character  25       0 NEW: The name of the Promotion Director*
EMAILPRM     Character  42       0 NEW: The Email address of the Promotion Director*
HD           Character   1       0 NEW: An "X" in this field means the station is broadcasting in HD.

There is a possibility that the change date information will not conform to your database's method for managing dates.

Any new information will be included in future updates.

We welcome your suggestions to help us improve this list. Please tell us about any problems you have with the list and let us know what kinds of information you'd like to see included in the future.

For years, we have said we would never include names in our radio database. The turnover in the radio industry is too great to provide accurate names without charging $1000-1500 per customer. In the mean time, we've lost a lot of business to some competing databases that contain names. We've purchased two different competitors' lists, just to see how good the names were, and have found them to be highly inaccurate. We will do the best job we can on the budget we have, but we cannot warrant the accuracy of these names. We still suggest you title-address all of your mass mailings. We have sold to over 7,300 radio stations using title-addressing, so we know it works. Because the postal service allows individuals to file personal change-of-address forms, THE USE OF PERSONNEL NAMES IN A MASS MAILING WILL VOID OUR GUARANTEE OF 99% DELIVERABILITY.

Here's additional information on the data:

FORMAT CODES

AC - Adult contemporary stations
AC (HOT) - Adult contemporary with up tempo music
AC (SOFT) - Adult contemporary stations with "Lite" formats
AMERICANA - A mix of folk, bluegrass and some classic country.
AOR - Album-oriented rock or Active Rock
AOR (AA) - Adult alternative...aka Triple A
AOR (AP) (Album Progressive)
AOR (CR) - Classic rock
AOR (NR) - New rock or Modern rock
B/EZ - Beautiful music/Easy listening
BLUEGRASS
BLUES
B/U - Black/Urban or R&B
CHR - Contemporary Hit Radio, formerly known as Top 40
CHR (DANCE) - Rhythmic Hit Radio
CLAS - Classical
CTRY - Country
CTRY (CLSC) - Classic Country
CTRY (HOT) - Up tempo Country
ETH - Ethnic, other than Spanish
GOLD - Oldies
GOSPEL - Often a subcategory of Religious
JAZZ
MISC - Block formatting. Usually three or more formats every day.
MOR - Middle of the road. AKA full service
NA-C - New Age, also known as New Adult Contemporary. The dash insures this won't be
accidentally retrieved when searching for traditional AC stations.
NOST - Big Band/Nostalgia
NR - New Rock aka Modern Rock. A subcategory of AC or AOR
N/T - News/Talk
N/T (SPORTS) - Predominantly sports
N/T/SPORTS -     News/Talk and Sports
PRE-TEEN - Programming for children, and hopefully some of their parents.
R&B - Rhythm and Blues
REL - Religious
REL (CC) - Contemporary Christian Music
SPAN - Spanish   Subcategories: NORTENO, RANCHERA, REGIONAL, ROMANTICA, TEJANO, TROPICAL

Commentary: Format definition is not an exact science. Also, be aware that many program director's perceptions of their own format is open to debate. When searching for formats, your filter should be based on CONTAINS instead of EQUALS. If you searched for all records where format equals "N/T" you would miss all the combinations of News/Talk.  

Because Arbitron doesn't include non-commercial stations in its regular ratings, the "RANK" and "SHARE" fields are blank. The fields have been included in case you ever chose to merge this file with our commercial database. All non-commercial stations have a semi-colon (;) in the notes category. This allows you to merge the files and still have the capability of selecting non-commercial stations.

For the first 302 markets, Arbitron rankings are used. If a radio station located in one city shows up in the rating book of a larger city, its market size is listed with the larger city. The market size of a small percent of stations end with ".5." This indicates they are not Arbitron rated markets. If the size ends in ".1," it means its market size is tied with another market. Many market sizes are listed as "444" or "555."  "444" are smaller markets that were previously rated by non-Arbitron companies. "555" means the market was never rated and usually has fewer than 50,000 people in it. NOTE: Arbitron market sizes DO CHANGE. If you've saved a search or filter using specific size numbers, be sure to confirm that you're getting the same markets when you re-use the filter.

If several stations are at the same address with the same owners, but are not simulcast, we create a separate record for each station and we mark the second station (usually the AM) as a "DUPE" and the third station as "DUPE3," etc. This is entered in the notes category. In some cases, there are a large number of dupes at lone address. For example, in the zip code 38803 there are 93 dupes owned by American Family. You do not want to mail them 93 envelopes!  In some cases, there are a large number of dupes at lone address. For example, in the zip code 38803 there are 90 dupes owned by American Family. You do not want to mail them 90 envelopes! In zip code 95765 there are over 200 stations owned by Educational Media Foundation. 
We also keep various notes here, including previous call letters and syndication notes. Most of the codes and info (other than "DUPE") will be of no use to you, but if you are curious about a specific note, please let us know. We also keep a station's previous call letters here. The pound sign ( # ) in this field means the station is owned by a College or University. 

FAX AND EMAIL ADDRESSES

Please note that you should remove all duplicate FAX and E-mail addresses prior to using this file for those purposes. There are hundreds of stations that share the same FAX line or e-mail address with their sister stations. In some cases one FAX number or e-mail address is shared by 6 or 7 stations and you do not want to send them 7 copies of the same FAX or e-mail message.  If you are unsure how to remove them with your software, call us within 30 days of your purchase and we will create customized files for an extra $25. Unsolicited FAX advertising may be contrary to FCC law. Press releases are currently legal. Be sure to use blind carboning (BCC) when you send e-mail.  If you're not sure what this means, call us! 

We are not lawyers, but our understanding of the CAN-SPAM act is that all unsolicited e-mail ads must comply with the following:
1: You must provide a valid return e-mail address.
2. The subject line of your e-mail must make it clear that the e-mail is an ad.
3. Your mailing address must appear in the email. PO Boxes are acceptable.
4. You must provide an easy way for the person to be removed from your e-mail list.  We believe the following statement would suffice:

To 0pt out, simply reply to this e-mail to let us know.

HD RADIO
Many stations are now broadcasting high-definition digital content. If a station is broadcasting in HD, there will be an "X" in the new HD field. If they are merely simulcasting their existing analog signal, there will still be an "X" in the HD field to indicate this but their call letters will appear without the HD designation. If they have a secondary channel with different programming, that station is listed separately and noted as KQRS FM HD-2 (for example) or in the case of a third channel, KTLK FM HD-3 (for example). Currently the secondary and tertiary stations are running without live DJs or commercials. Many of these new channels are available on the internet, but few people are listening to these stations. Hopefully the new HD home and car receivers will catch on and this will greatly benefit our industry.

UPDATES

Here at RADIO MALL headquarters, this database is a living, breathing thing. Like a small baby, it needs to be changed and fed quite often. We make hundreds of changes every month just in the ADDRESS, CALL LETTER and FORMAT categories. The accuracy of this data deteriorates rapidly over time. If you mail to this list the week you get it, you should get less than 1% returns. If you mail to this same list (without updating it) 12 months from now, you'll probably be looking at 8% returns. The format accuracy will be even less and many of the call letters will be wrong. We've priced our updates so they will usually cost you less than the wasted postage, printing and address correction fees you will pay for using the wrong addresses. And you'll save hours of data entry time, too. We suggest you obtain an update before each large mailing (but never more than one a month.) If you plan on updating the info yourself, be sure every piece you mail contains an "CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED" endorsement. The fine folks at the postal service's mailing requirement's department will be glad to explain the different needs for First Class and bulk mailings. For example, if you mail by bulk mail without this endorsement, and the address is wrong, they will throw your piece in the garbage. We mail over 30,000 pieces every year using our own lists. We spend hundreds of dollars on address corrections, and it keeps our lists accurate. In summary, whether you purchase our updates, or do it yourself, it REALLY MUST BE DONE!

WE'RE CASS CERTIFIED!!! This list is now CASS CERTIFIED! If you need the CASS certification sheet, send us your FAX number and we'll get it to you. If you plan on bar-coding your mail, you'll still need special software to do so. You or your mailing house will also have to sort the mail according to the latest postal regulations. The reward is that you can now mail to this list at 25 cents postage if you jump through these hoops. We reluctantly recommend "My Professional Mail Manager" (800-325-3508). It doesn't do everything we'd like it to, but it's the least expensive solution out there (under $200), and makes the mail easier to sort. We're using a $2000 a year program (Mailer's+4 800-800-MAIL) which also updates area codes 6 times a year. There is no longer a dash at the beginning of the Z_4 (zip plus 4) field. Be sure to insert this in your mailing label templates.