From my experience yes they are rare. So rare, I've never heard of a radio station that uses U87s. I've only ever worked on one radio show and we had an SM7b. Y

From my experience yes they are rare. So rare, I've never heard of a radio station that uses U87s. I've only ever worked on one radio show and we had an SM7b. You can watch a lot of radio stations live video streams these days and you will probably not find a single U87. It will be all RE20s and SM7Bs. It isn't as if a radio station has a single mic. So the calculation is ($3000-$400) x number of mics purchases per year. Radio stations use their mics for hours and hours everyday, they get a lot of wear and tear. Additionally, the SM7B is a dynamic mic and is probably more forgiving in noisy environments than a U87. I know Joe Rogan is a podcast not radio but he makes millions of dollars off of his show and he uses SM7Bs. I will also say, the NPR person interviewed seems to have a negative view of the RE20 and SM7b compared to the U87. Despite the low cost, SM7Bs are actually popular studio vocal mics. One was famously used to record Michael Jackson's vocals on Thriller (actually it was an SM7 but I believe the SM7B reissue is almost identical). When recording voice, there normally isn't a "silver bullet" mic that is the best for all voices.