Radio stations in English

The English dial is spread across several countries without one of them owning it: the United States is the largest at about 38% of the 5,984 stations here, with United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Canada behind it. That is the shape a language takes when it travelled rather than when it stayed.

The bars below break out the eight largest sources and stop there, which leaves 1,511 stations, about 25% of this shelf, broadcasting from countries the chart does not name. That is a cap in the snapshot rather than an absence in the data, and it is said here rather than left for the reader to work out from a sum that does not add up.

The median here is 128 kbps while only 57% of the shelf reaches 128 kbps, which means a small group of high rate streams and a long tail below them. On a shelf that crosses several countries, that usually reflects one country hosting well and the others not.

MP3 leads the shelf at 62% of the entries that state a format, with AAC and AAC+ behind it. Format mixes vary by country far more than by language, so a shelf like this one is showing you several national hosting markets at once.