WTOP

WTOP sits in the tail of the United States' 1,481 entries. The tail is the part of a directory that goes missing first, and it is the part worth keeping: the head of every country's list is the same handful of national broadcasters, and everything that makes a dial local is behind them.

With one recorded open, WTOP sits in the part of the directory where the numbers stop discriminating. The station's position in the United States' list should be read as approximate for exactly that reason.

News is one of the United States' headline genres in this directory, and WTOP is one of 48 stations there leading with it. The country hub prints the same tag near the top of its own list, so this station sits inside the country's main sound rather than off to one side.

At 96 kbps, this sits below most of the United States' listing, whose median is 128 kbps. 49% of the country's stations reach 128 kbps or better, so the dial around it is mostly higher.

54 of the United States' entries are served from playerservices.streamtheworld.com, this one among them. A shared host means a shared fate. If this stream is silent, the fastest check is not this station's own site but whether its neighbours on the same platform are playing.