Suitable term for "has the highest-rating"/"most-popular" (media outlet)?

Question

If you want to say:

He works for a radio station that is the most popular in his country

Popular here does not necessarily mean "well-liked", but rather that it has the highest listenership numbers.

How can you convey this message succinctly, without using the word popular?

You can rephrase the sentence and remove the relative clause entirely. "He works for the most listened to radio station in his country". (I copy Wikipedia style. — Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini, Apr 19, 2017 at 13:19

Tupelo Thistlehead · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-19 13:18:46Z

-1

He works for the highest-rated radio station in his country.

answered Apr 19, 2017 at 13:18

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That can also be interpreted as the radio station that has the highest user-ratings (reviews).
– zerohedge
Apr 19, 2017 at 13:41
@zerohedge Well, I suppose it can, but if you google the quoted phrase "highest rated radio station" together with the word "Arbitron" you will find more than 4,000 hits using the phrase as I meant it. I could find no use of the phrase with the meaning you suggest. One might also substitute, "most listened to", I suppose, but in the context of radio and TV, the word, "ratings" is well understood to mean quantity of ears and eyes.
– Tupelo Thistlehead
Apr 20, 2017 at 18:58
Another data point: The search, "highest rated" site:talkers.com, which confines the query to a trade journal on talk radio yields about a 1000 hits.
– Tupelo Thistlehead
Apr 20, 2017 at 19:09

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