What do KCAL-FM (Inland Empire, California), 99X (Atlanta) and Howard Stern all have in common? LAYOFFS

I first heard about KCAL-FM, Redlands, California, in 2000 when my favorite local rock band, New American Shame, was getting frequent airplay there.

New American Shame were a hard hitting rock band, which sounded like a cross between AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, and Buckcherry, with a little GNR thrown in. They were all local Seattle, and 'South End' (i.e. South King County) musicians, and veterans of the Seattle and suburban Seattle rock scene. New American Shame had one hit, Under It All, and another smaller radio hit after that, American Shame.

New American Shame stopped playing gigs in 2002 or so (with three gigs in the 2010's), but they had a good run. They turned out one local album, an updated national album with 4 extra tracks, a terrific B-side (Stand On The Pedal), and at least one track that made it to one of the Crow movie soundtracks, Rusted Wings (on 2000's The Crow: Salvation).

And KCAL-FM, a hard rocking Active Rock station out of the 'Inland Empire' -- the large, sprawling suburban region east of LA in sunny Southern California -- played New American Shame a lot more than most other US Rock stations. New American Shame's two hits were getting a lot of airplay, and they were routinely in KCAL's Top 20 of their playlist.

I know, because that the time I had access to the charts for most of the Rock stations in the US, because such charts were printed in the Radio industry publications that were on the big desk where I used to work.

KCAL Rocked, and they Rocked hard.

Now they have gotten rid of the Active Rock format, and they got rid of all of their Airstaff.

KCAL-FM are going 'Classic Rock'. Jockless 'Classic Rock', which means they won't have any DJ's, or airstaff at all.

KCAL-FM are owned by a small radio company, Anaheim Broadcasting, and they have a couple sister stations in the Inland Empire and San Bernardino market. The layoffs of all the airstaff was a surprise, as the station was doing well in the ratings, getting a 2.9 in June, 2026.

But Radio in general is seeing sliding revenue, as online advertising takes over, and a lot of Radio companies are cutting back. My last several blog articles have covered these cutbacks, and shutdowns. Radio is an industry in contraction, and the layoffs at KCAL are just another symptom of an industry in decline.

I hate it, because I worked in Radio for 20 years, and it was the best time of my life in many ways. All the music, and being in an industry I wanted to be in when I was a kid. I was actually able to live the dream, in many respects. 

Now that dream is dying for a LOT of people in Radio.

KCAL-FM may or may not make money running AI liners or voicetracks and worn out 'Classic Rock'. But they are not alone in having to deal with declining revenues and an eroding listener base.

Another station has just seen all of its airstaff laid off: 99X FM in Atlanta, WNNX-FM, a station that was recently relaunched, playing Alternative Rock, with real DJ's. All the DJ's just got their pink slips over this past week.

The scuttlebutt on the Radio forums is that Cumulus simply couldn't make money off 99X, they couldn't get enough advertising revenue under the Alternative Rock format.

Then again, Cumulus, WNNX-FM's owners, have been laying off a lot of airstaff and radio programming staff nationwide lately. The online Radio industry magazine Ramp247 says that Cumulus has laid off at least 23 people from their FM stations nationwide, due to Cumulus financial issues.

Here is the article.:

https://ramp247.com/programming/cumulus-undergoing-more-downsizing/

SiriusXM is the Satellite Radio company where shock talker Howard Stern has been broadcasting since January, 2006. Before that, he had 26 million US terrestrial Radio listeners.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST -- HOWARD STERN LAYS OFF MANY OF HIS STAFF

Howard Stern, one of the few remaining 'shock talk' hosts from the 1990's and 2000's, is still well known in Radio circles, even after he moved his popular show from terrestrial radio to Sirius/XM (back then it was just Sirius) in 2006.

During the heyday of his popularity, when he was on a large network of FM rock stations across the US, he had about 26 million listeners. After moving to Sirius Satellite radio in 2006, his numbers understandably dropped, but for a Satellite show, he was the big guy.

He wasn't known for a short time as the 'King Of All Media' for nothing. He was popular. He even had a movie he made in the late 1990's, Private Parts, that had bands like Type O Negative on the soundtrack. The movie actually played in the theaters. 

That's how big Howard Stern was.

Then in the 2010's his Satellite radio show started losing listeners. Last September, when he was rumored to be leaving the air, it was also rumored that his listenership numbers were in the hundreds of thousands, with one estimate being 100K listeners or so. I wrote an article about Howard's decline in September 2025 -- you can read it here.:

https://interrocknation.blogspot.com/2025/09/howard-stern-shock-jock-that-wont-go.html

That said, even after signing his new contract, Howard's show has apparently not been slamming Sirius's version of the 'ratings', and Howard has recently fired about 75% of his staff, and on top of that, he is now only doing two new shows a week (on Monday and Tuesday), and he will drop that down to just one new show a week after Labor Day.

You can read about the layoffs here, on this Yahoo! News article.:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/howard-stern-show-got-rid-210433333.html

Here is a Barrett Media article on the one show a week.:

https://barrettmedia.com/2026/07/14/howard-stern-one-new-show/

What is the real reason Howard is firing so many of his people? No one really knows. But he had over 50 people running his show, and many in the Radio forums are asking 'How many people do you need for just one radio show a week?'

Perhaps Howard is just cutting costs. But the writing seems to be on the wall -- it seems that Howard doesn't really want to do Radio anymore. He used to be on the airwaves every weekday morning. Now, his Satellite show is two new shows weekly, and the rest of the week it's all retreads of old material.

A lot of Stern listeners are wondering if it's worthwhile to tune in a satellite radio show that only has one new show a week, with the rest of the shows broadcast being retreads.

If you go to a few of the Stern-fan forums, the consensus seems to be that Stern's star has faded, he's no longer interesting to listen to as he used to be, and he seems to be looking at the exit door.

It's sad, in a way, because Stern WAS 'shock talk radio', a format which was big in the Roaring 90's and Rip-roaring 2000's. He definitely is a talented talk host. Stern was one of the handful of Radio talk hosts of any type who became household names. One would think he could still do exciting Radio as he did in 2005.

But that was another era -- 20-30 years ago. In the case of the 90's, that was another century.

Everyone apparently has moved on.

EXPECT MORE RADIO LAYOFFS, SHUTDOWNS, IN THE FUTURE

I expect that in the future there will be many more layoffs in Radio, and more stations, including FM stations, shutting down. I will continue to post articles on it as it happens. Why? Because I still love Radio, and I still think it's an important medium. I also think that when stations lay off all their people it's a big deal -- I was laid off from the industry in 2006/2007 (New Year's), so I know how it feels.

I used to listen to KGRG-1, 1330 AM, every day while working out, doing bench presses in my spare room. It was fun hearing Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam's Breath, Alice In Chains, and other classic alternative tracks on my Superadio while trying to increase my bench presses.

KGRG-1 went off the air over a year ago, after having AM transmitter problems. Even after fixing the transmitter, the college decided to pull the plug on the AM.

The FM, KGRG 89.9, went off the air because of some separate issues, and the college has been trying to sell the station, to no avail. FM radio doesn't have the magic pull it used to in the 1970's and 1980's.

We're in a different world.

Some commenters online think that non-commercial FM (i.e., 'College Radio') will weather the storm. They think that college radio will survive.

Oh really? Just 20 miles south of me a college station, KGRG, not only pulled the plug on its AM station on 1330 kHz, which covered South King County with Grunge and Classic Alternative (and they had a stream), they recently pulled the plug on their FM station on 89.9 MHz as well. The FM could be heard in the South County region, as well as Tacoma.

Green River College now have the FM station up for sale. There, so far, have been no takers. The college apparently wants out of the Radio business. Colleges nationwide have seen revenues drop, due to smaller enrollments (GenZ is smaller than the Millennials that preceded them), and other factors. So when they see a college Radio station's budget, and look at the future of Radio, they sometimes put Radio on the chopping block. That's apparently what GRCC, the college that owned KGRG, determined.

Radio in general is fading, folks, and that includes college radio. It sucks, but it's just the reality.

The cover for the first New American Shame CD, which was later released with a newer cover and 4 extra songs.

From NEW AMERICAN SHAME to DROP THE STAR

I'll end this article with a couple New American Shame music vids. Why not? They were kickass. I saw them play at least five different times -- once at Bumbershoot, two times at a now-defunct rock club in Algona called Planet Hot Rod, once at the now-defunct rock pub Sit N Spin, and once at the now-defunct Renton rock pub Pounders. New American Shame fans were rabid. Going to a New American Shame show was like experiencing rock family. 

Here's a CD version of Under It All, their biggest hit.:

Here is a live track posted to YouTube by New American Shame's singer, Johnny Reidt. It's the official New American Shame to their second radio hit American Shame.:

This is the track that was on one of the Crow soundtracks, Rusted Wings.:

This is one of the opening tracks on their album, a track called Broken Bones.:

And last but not least, this is a track done by Johnny's new band, Drop The Star. It was written for a friend of his who had to spend an extended amount of time away from home and family. It's called Welcome Home. It's damned good. It would probably be a massive radio hit except Radio doesn't support new rock like it used to. 

Enjoy.:

And with that, my friends, stay safe, and

Peace.

C.C. August 10th, 2026

KXNT 840 AM Las Vegas going off the air in September -- transmitter land being sold

 

KXNT Las Vegas, a 50 KW powerhouse, news-talk station on 840 kHz, is going off the air starting September 1st of this year. KXNT 840 has a fairly powerful signal that covers most of the Southern end of Nevada during the day, and much of the Western US at night. They run news and conservative news-talk programs, and have been on the air in the growing Las Vegas metro area (2.4 million people, roughly) since 1986 (when they were KVEG).

Their signals also reach the growing sections of Southern Utah, where the cities of St. George and Cedar City are located.

Here is a Wiki about KXNT.:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KXNT_(AM)

I first heard KXNT in the 2010's early one morning while tuning my Realistic TRF-656 AM radio, and they were playing the morning newscast for Las Vegas.

Since then, I usually hear them once or twice a week. Overnights they play the popular Coast To Coast AM program, hosted by George Noory.

KXNT has been doing well in the ratings, for a conservative leaning news station in a city that is not known for being particularly conservative, or particularly news-talk friendly. KXNT got a 2.3 rating share in the most recent rating period, which is pretty good for News-Talk. The NPR station in Las Vegas, KNPR-FM, on the other hand, only got a 1.4. 

Most metros in the US with an NPR station generally see the NPR station get high ratings. Not so in fun and freewheeling, LA influenced Las Vegas.

So why is KXNT going off the air? It's because the owners of the real estate where KXNT's transmitter and towers are located are selling the property, and the lease is up. Audacy, the radio company that owns KXNT, is also going through a bankruptcy, and the talk in radio circles is that the auditors involved in the bankruptcy proceedings probably have written the radio station off.

Some of the shows will move to another, non-rated news talker,  "K-Dawn FM", an FM translator at 101.5 on the dial, and another FM station's HD3 (KXBB-FM-HD3, 93.1 MHz).

The HD3 gets a 0.8 rating in the Las Vegas Nielsen listing, about one third of the audience that KXNT receives.

You can look at the most recent Las Vegas radio ratings here to see how KXNT stacks up.:

https://ratings.radio-online.com/content/arb257

It's a sad day for radio when a station like KXNT is slated to go off the air. It's also a sign of the modern day Radio business model, where revenues aren't booming, and corporate decisions can kill otherwise popular radio shows and stations.

A lot of the companies that own a significant number of US Radio stations are concentrating on their 'digital strategy', which means they are hoping that their streaming will succeed in taking over from Over-The-Air radio. The problem with this idea is that streaming radio simply isn't keeping up with Spotify, Pandora, Apple, and YouTube. Even Amazon has a music service. Young people have already given up on Radio streaming for the most part. 

The biggest Radio based streaming service, IHeartRadio, only has 8% of the younger listeners, compared to over 50% for Spotify and over 30% for Pandora and a few other services for listeners in the under 35 age demographic. YouTube alone has over 50% of young listeners.

The Radio companies, which over the past 35 years seemed to have made bad decision after bad decision, including constant consolidation, buyouts, and the like -- and bad programming decisions, like laying off popular airstaff and having commercial breaks with up to 15 commercials in a row -- seem to be in between a rock and a hard place. 

The big radio corporations ruined Radio, and now they're stuck with what they did to ruin it. I'm certain that in 2050 there will be at least a few "Radio" streaming channels out there on the internet, but the present day ones we know probably won't be included. They may be still on the internet, but that doesn't mean they will get a lot of visits.

Anyone remember MySpace? MP3.com? Excite? AOL? Or even the high popularity of Yahoo's eGroups? Just because you have an internet presence doesn't mean you'll have a lot of visitors, or longevity. 

This video is about AOL, once a massive Internet social media site which had over 26 million users in 2000. They still exist, but aren't anywhere near as massive as they were in the late 1990's, when everyone seemed to be on AOL or CompuServe.

There is a lesson here for any industry that wants to bank heavily on Internet-only business.

Not all internet sites and portals have longevity.

The competition is nearly INFINITE.

PS: Inside this video, about 11 minutes in, you can see the splash screen for AskJeeves, a once popular site for asking questions and getting search-generated answers. It was like a progenitor of the present day method of getting AI-generated search results.

Here is the Wiki article on CompuServe, another massive internet portal that was exceedingly popular in the 1990's. Even conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh was on CompuServe and talked about them frequently on his show. They were finally shut down in 2009.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe

The Radio companies are banking on the internet to save them.

I have my doubts about that.

Remember what happened to Radio Disney. They got rid of all their radio stations, and then went to HD2's and promoted their Radio Disney stream. When that strategy didn't work, they went all streaming. That lasted about a year and a half. Now Radio Disney's stream is a 404.

Streaming Radio isn't everything it's cracked up to be.

After all, if a company can't do better with a media that is already proven to have been popular and commercially viable -- with devices (Radios) in every car and house -- what's to say they'll do any better with their ability to succeed online?

I mean, 10-15 commercials in a row? What are they thinking?

How the future of Radio plays out, of course, remains to be seen. But in KXNT's case, they'll be on the air until September 1st, after which the plug will be pulled on yet another station that served the public with news and talk, and covered much of the Western US at night.

So I have maybe one month to hear Las Vegas on my radios at night. The other AM station I hear out of Las Vegas, 670 KMZQ, often isn't very readable at my location. And there is a Latino music station on 870 (KLSQ) that I've only heard once in my life, and that was in the 2010's when the ionosphere was a lot better for MW/AM.

I've never been to Las Vegas. Probably will never visit the place. The only way I have 'visited' Las Vegas is by radio, at night.

I've been to Reno when I was a kid, but not the rest of Nevada. Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing metros in the country. Now they will be short at least one News-Talk, AM radio station. I suppose the millions of visitors who go there to gamble and see expensive stage shows, and engage in other activity ('what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas') probably won't notice. But I will.

And with that, here's hoping you all are having a good Summer (in the Northern hemisphere), and a good Winter elsewhere. 

Peace.

C.C. July 31st, 2026.

Several More CANADIAN Radio Stations Shutting Down

1130 CKWX Vancouver, BC, Canada -- a station which was on the air in Vancouver for 103 years, had its plug pulled on July 7th, 2026.

Six Canadian radio stations, including three AM stations which I've heard nightly for ages, have been shut down by Canada's Rogers Sports & Media company. The announcement to shut the stations down happened earlier today, July 7th, 2026.

The stations, which are mostly news and sports, include 660 CFFR Calgary (which I've heard since they came on the airwaves in 1982); 1130 CKWX Vancouver (which I used to hear as a kid, on my old Penncrest AM-FM-SW radio); 650 CISL Vancouver, which was all sports; 960 CFAC Calgary, which was also all sports; as well as an AM station in Kitchener, Ontario and an FM News station in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The closures will lay off 230 people, including 80 people who work at the radio stations.

You can read about the station closures here.:

https://broadcastdialogue.com/rogers-sports-media-cuts-230-jobs-shutters-six-radio-stations/

The statements made by Rogers' spokesmen included the usual blather about changing media conditions and the like -- the spokesman said there were 'declining radio audiences' and 'declining revenues'. They also mentioned that they still have news on TV stations in many Canadian cities, as well as online streams.

The logo for CFFR, 'City News 660', up until 2021, when some operations were combined with Vancouver's CKWX. 

CKWX was one of the first Canadian stations I ever heard. And CFFR, which was a blockbuster signal out of Calgary, I used to hear shortly after it came on the airwaves in 1982, when I had just re-discovered the AM radio DX hobby.

I also used to hear CFAC 960 nightly, with local talk about Calgary hockey team the Flames, as well as their CFL team. I often heard two sports stations on 960 -- CFAC and KLAD Klamath Falls, Oregon. Now it appears KLAD will be the sports talker on 960 at night.

This bloodbath in Canadian Radio isn't a new thing. A few years back there were 6 AM stations shut down by the Bell media company, and there were several AM'ers and FM stations sold by another company in the same post-Pandemic time period.

Klamath Falls, Oregon's KLAD is thankfully still on the air. I often have heard them underneath CFAC and some splash from local Sports-talker KJR-AM 950.

WHY DID THE CRTC ALLOW ALL THESE STATIONS TO BE SHUT DOWN?

This shutting down of stations across Canada leads to the obvious question: Why does the CRTC, Canada's broadcasting regulation agency, allow these stations to be shut down, and not even put up for sale first?

The CRTC has a history of insisting that ethnic radio stations in Canada devote a certain number of hours to each minority language -- far-reaching regulations that are unheard of in the US. That's how concerned the CRTC used to be about Radio serving the public.

Yet the CRTC simply rubberstamped the closure of 6 radio stations, many of which still obviously had listeners in their markets -- especially the Sports stations.

So it's a good question. 

Where is the CRTC' concerns about 'serving the public'. Out to lunch?

They may be taking a cue from the department in Canadian government that shut down all the Weather Band radio stations across Canada just two months ago --  a useful service that was widely used by Canadians, especially those in rural areas.

Canada apparently no longer believes in Radio as a means of providing audio services -- even SAFETY services, like the Weather stations provided -- to its public.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR RADIO IN GENERAL

The closure of these stations, especially the Sports talk stations, indicate that Radio in general is in trouble. As I posted recently, FM stations are increasing their 'spot loads' (up to 15 commercials in a row sometimes), and AM'ers are going off the air each year. Most stations that shut down are in small markets where there isn't enough local business support to keep them on the air. 

In the Northwest US there have been several such AM station closures over the past few years, especially since the Pandemic: KUTI 1460 Yakima WA, KNPT 1370 Newport OR,  KDUN 1030 Reedsport OR, KRLC 1350 Lewiston ID, KGRG-1 1330 Auburn WA, and a few others. So far, there haven't been any FM station closures in the NW US, aside from HD-2's being turned off.

But the writing is on the wall, for both AM and FM. As I mentioned in my previous blog article on Radio Dying, when I hear between 9 and 15 commercials per break on highly rated FM stations, that's an indication that FM is having some trouble.

EVEN THE SPORTS STATIONS MAY BE IN TROUBLE

Sports stations generally can make money because they have a lock on male listeners. Sports stations don't need to have good ratings to bill well. This is well known in Radio circles, and Radio pros and experts online will say this repeatedly -- Sports stations don't need ratings. If an advertiser wants to reach men, Sports stations are almost guaranteed to deliver.

At the same time, Rogers Media determined that two Sports stations weren't making enough money -- as they pulled the plug on both CISL 650 and CFAC 960.

Whether those two stations were actually making money at all or not, only Rogers knows.

Not too long after the Pandemic ended, a prominent Sports station in Edmonton, Alberta had its plug pulled. 1260 CFRN, which apparently had good ratings, was deemed unprofitable for some reason and was switched off with a few other AM stations in Western Canada.

Now I always hear local McMinnville, Oregon station KLYC on 1260 at night. KLYC went through a tough patch about 5-6 years ago, when they were off the air temporarily for repairs. But they were put back on the air, and apparently still have a good enough local following to stay on the air.

As I said in my last article on Radio, it's time for Radio hobbyists and fans to appreciate what is still on the airwaves, because it looks like Radio's days are numbered.

That means listen, and record stations, if you can. I still have some recordings of Oregon's KDZR 1640 when it was still Radio Disney. I still have some recordings of the Voice of Greece when it was still on the air.

Sometimes KDZR would come in as late as 8-9 in the morning, even in Spring or Fall. That's how good the ionospheric conditions were during the last Solar Cycle, and it was fun hearing Radio Disney's music coming in from so far away.

It doesn't feel great to hear those sound files when I play them on my computer, as the recordings bring back memories of 2015 when Radio Disney and Voice of Greece were still on the air, but it's better than nothing.

I can play them, and remember.

I still record some catches I receive on my Grundig G2. I don't know of many radios that have record capabilities, but there are a few out there. Some DXer's record on their SDR's, and some also use their phones or other recording devices.

Anyway, enjoy the Radio stations on the airwaves while you can. The closures have been going on for a few years, and they will probably continue.

Get 'em while you can.

Until next time, folks,

Peace.

C.C., July 7th, 2026.

ADDENDUM, July 9th, 2026: 

I added a section about the CRTC. I had already published this article before the question came to mind -- why did the CRTC, which micro-manages ethnic stations to insist that all of the Canadian public have broadcasting services, allow these stations to be shut down without insisting that they be put up for sale ahead of time?

Nowhere in the articles I've read about this does it appear that the stations were put up for sale. The CRTC, and Canadian government, apparently doesn't care.

RADIO IS DYING -- It is being KILLED

I recently found a few pics of my cats I had in the 1990's and 2000's. This pic I took in 2004. I had just cleared a bunch of brush that had overgrown part of my yard. Scooter is the cat in front. She was my little pal. She is followed by Boots, who was a really personable cat. Snoopy is the cat in the back. Better days, really.

I decided against having yet another Radio company icon at the top of the article. Instead, it's buried below.

Throughout my tenure here as a blog article writer, I have tried to stay as positive as possible about the Radio hobby (MW DXing, SW, etc.) and the Radio Industry in general.

It's been difficult at times, because the Industry has been in slow decline since the mid to late 2000's. But despite my skeptical and cynical nature, I always have tried to remain positive, and have tried to reflect that here in this blog.

It's more difficult to do as each year, and each month, passes.

Recently, the largest Radio company in the United States, IHeartMedia, just laid off more programmers and airstaff. It's one of those 'end of the quarter' firings that have become all too common in Radio.

IHeart has laid off an undetermined number of people -- many of them long-term veterans of the stations where they were on the air. The stations where they worked were in large and medium sized markets. The reports say that the layoffs will be 'massive', and include 'dozens' of airstaff and programming personnel.

You can read about it here.:

Sweeping Cuts Ongoing at iHeartMedia - Radio World

Here is another article on the layoffs, mentioning 'dozens of cities' being affected.

iHeartMedia Layoffs Hit Programming Hard in Cost-Cutting Push - Radio Ink

In the Radio World article, a former air personality, 'ChloeOnTheAir', talks about being laid off. She says that the station where she worked was getting good ratings, as was her show.

But she was laid off anyway.

As someone who lost my last Radio job in late 2006, during a large layoff, I can sympathise with Chloe and all the others who lost jobs.

My guess is that most of them will never work in Radio again. It is a shrinking industry.

Now, IHeart gets a LOT of pushback in Radio circles for these sorts of layoffs. They laid off roughly 10 percent of their workforce in early 2020, and there have been other layoffs since then. Other Radio companies have also had their layoffs.

But this latest round shows that Radio is dying, and -- in my opinion, as someone who worked in the industry for a couple months shy of 20 years -- Radio is being killed off by bad corporate decisions. This round of layoffs, of popular and veteran air personalities in several cities, is one of those bad decisions. Morning drive and Afternoon drive are highly rated for a reason -- they tend to have the popular air personalities. When you sack the popular air personalities, you're bound to lose listeners.

If all people want to hear is music, they don't need radio -- they've got Spotify, they've got Pandora.

The use of super long commercial sets is another factor driving people away from Radio.  

The industry, of course, is veering away from Over-The-Air broadcasting and is aiming for digital. Awesome. Once Radio is all online, the number of 'stations' and channels will diminish. There is infinite content saturation and competition online. Certainly, the heads of the Radio companies must know this. If they don't, they're not thinking.

But the rot that seems to have set in deep inside the Radio industry looks like it's amplifying the decline. Some of the symptoms -- super long commercial breaks, sacking of air personalities, short playlists -- all of which practically guarantee that no one listen longer to a station than just 15 minutes -- they all point to an industry that has lost its way.

FM RADIO IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

I don't listen to FM radio much. I haven't listened to FM since the early 2010's, when I tuned into the pop stations, because the pop music back then was so good. After 2015 or so -- when Radio Disney went off the air -- pop music began to change, and it wasn't upbeat and fun anymore. At the same time, streaming services like Spotify and Pandora started taking over, and Radio found it increasingly difficult to compete with online streaming. I remember hearing people talk about Pandora and Spotify a lot during the late 2010's -- a lot more than they talked about Radio.

In the late 2010's, after the pop music changed for the worse, I tended to listen to FM HD2's, like KISW's Metal Militia channel -- until the best ones -- the Metal Militia channel, and a Delta Blues channel on another local FM -- had their plugs pulled in 2018 or 2019.

Once those HD2's had their plugs pulled, I stopped listening to FM for a few years.

I listened to a lot of Sports talk radio on the AM band. My favorite shows were on CBS Sports Radio. That network started its decline about the time they turned into 'Infinity Sports Network', and then last year that network was yanked off the air. They were replaced by Westwood One Sports, which most radio listeners I've interacted with online seem to think is simply not as good as CBS Sports Radio was.

CHARGING RADIO STATIONS TO PLAY YOUR NETWORK PROGRAMMING

And WW1 Sports -- and WW1 in general -- apparently is going to charge stations to play their programming. This is a rumor that has been discussed on a couple Radio forums, mainly on Reddit, by people who work in Radio. How the charging for airing WW1 plays out, if the rumor turns out to be true, is a good guess.

CBS Sports Radio never apparently charged for their programming. Instead, stations would give CBS Sports a certain number of commercial breaks in exchange for playing CBS Sports Radio. In Radio speak, that's called 'Barter'. "You play our programming, and we won't charge you, just give us X number of spots per hour." That kind of thing.

Well, apparently WW1 is not getting enough money in barter spots. So they are going to charge stations for running the programs. Or at least that is the scuttlebutt in the industry.

What does this say for Radio in general? It says that the power of the Radio commercial as a sales tool is lower than it used to be -- or, at least that is the apparent thought in the advertising industry.

Anyway, as I said, I haven't listened to FM much since around 2014-2015. But I recently got a great FM radio, the Qodosen DX-286. So I've tuned around the FM band, hoping to hear some DX, which is rare enough here in Western WA state. So far, I've heard no FM DX whatsoever, although I've logged a few weak translators from fringe areas in the region.

But one thing I've also done is listen to local FM stations -- to see how they sound, and to see what music they are playing.

And one thing I noticed is THEY RUN A LOT OF COMMERCIALS.

'COUNT THE SPOTS'

In the Radio business, commercials are called 'spots', and the commercial breaks are called 'spot sets'. Lately, while listening to several local, popular FM stations, I've been counting the commercials as they play..... counting the 'spots' in the 'spot set'.

The first time I literally counted the commercials as they played, and wrote them down in my DX logbook, I was flabbergasted. 

I was listening to the local, popular Rock station, and they had just played a song from 2001 that I liked, called 'Blurry', by Puddle Of Mudd. Then they went into the commercial break.

I counted 13 commercials and liners in a row.

More recently, I tuned into the local, highly rated Classic Hits station. There were 11 commercials in a row. Then I tuned into one of the two local Modern Country stations, and there were 9 commercials in a row. Then I tuned into the Rock station again and heard 9 commercials in a row. 

A few days later, on June 29th, I tuned into the local Classic Rocker and heard 19 commercials and liners (where there is an announcement saying 'don't go away, music will be back in a few') in a row. Earlier today I tuned into an AC / classic hits station and heard 8 commercials in a row, and then I tuned into the Classic Hits station and heard 15 commercials and liners in a row (that commercial break was 7-8 minutes long).

By any measure, this is overkill. The quality of the commercials isn't bad. They're usually well-produced. But do these Radio companies think that the average listener is going to stick around while they play 8-15 commercials in a commercial break?

They're driving away listeners.

There may be valid, business reasons that these stations and Radio companies are playing so many spots on their stations. Radio stations need money to stay on the air and pay whatever staff they still have working at their stations and networks. Electricity isn't free, and neither is the rent, the equipment, the maintenance. Perhaps running more commercials per break is the only way they can pay the bills.

But 15 commercials and liners in a row is just overkill, and I can't help but think that it's driving away listeners to Spotify and Pandora and similar streaming services. Of course, some of these services, like IHeartRadio, are associated with Radio companies. But at the same time, it's disturbing to tune into a highly rated FM station and hear so many commercials, knowing that there are people tuning out -- and possibly tuning out FM forever.

The national numbers on Radio listening, while seemingly good, really aren't encouraging. 80 to 90 percent of Americans of all age demographics listen to Radio at least once a week. A smaller percentage -- depending on age group -- listen daily.

Eighty to 90 percent listening to Radio may seem like a lot of people, and maybe it is. But 'once a week' is definitely not a great statistic, especially when the Time Spent Listening to radio used to be much, much higher.

Are the increased spot loads driving listeners away from Radio? You be the judge.

I think the commercial loads are killing Radio. Combine that with layoffs of popular Radio air personalities, and other negative trends in the industry, like short, dependable playlists (both times I heard the long commercial break on the Classic Hits station, it was followed up by "What I Like About You", by the Romantics, it was almost like clockwork), the future doesn't look very bright.

DIMINISHING SHORTWAVE STATIONS, AND ABSENT HAMS

Now let's talk about Shortwave.

With the ionosphere weakening over the past 30 years, and this latest Solar Cycle starting to fizzle, it's turned into a game of 'Count The Carriers'. In other words, when I tune the 49 Meter Band at night, many times I have to have the BFO/SSB on my radio to hear the carrier signals, where just 10 years ago -- and even 3-4 years ago -- I'd hear audio programming.

This is because at night there are only THREE Shortwave stations that I can hear regularly on any given evening on the 49 Meter Band -- WWCR 5935 kHz and WTWW on 5920 kHz, and WRMI on 5850 (it used to be located higher in the 49 Meter band). Sometimes Nikkei 1 and 2 crop up, usually with grainy signals (but cool music). Amazonia on 6180 kHz just cut their hours. Radio Educacion on 6180 is usually just a carrier. CFRX on 6070 is usually a carrier with a trace of audio. Marti on 6030 has been MIA since the plug was pulled after the Trump Administration took office. 

Sometimes I hear WRMI with good signals on 49 Meters (on 5850 kHz), but often it's already off the air by the time I tune the SW bands (if it's past 2-3 a.m. here in the Pacific time zone. If it's earlier, they do come in well, sometimes with Radio Slovakia and Polish Radio programming).

I love hearing Radio Slovakia and Polish Radio -- and some of the other programming -- on WRMI, but the 49 Meter band used to be loaded with signals. Now, many nights, there's just three of them. That's how depressing it's become.

And the SW ham bands are just as bad. No one's on the air compared to 15 years ago, or even a couple years ago. I remember when the 20 Meter Band was filled with CW and SSB, Solar Maximum or Solar Minimum, it was still a popular ham band.

Now? It's spare or empty most of the time. Now, I know that in the Southern US and Eastern Seaboard there still is a lot to hear on 20 Meters, because of more distance from the Auroral Zone and because those regions are closer to highly populated areas. But here in the PNW, 20 Meters -- the most popular SW ham band -- is dead most of the time, or partially dead. It's the same with 15 Meters, and the other bands. Even 80 Meters and 40 Meters are spare during most evenings.

Before the mid 2010's, it never used to be that spare of signals.

The hams aren't on the air, except during contests.

Recently, the ARRL had their annual event called 'Field Day', where hams operate from parks, RV's and the like. I switched on my old Realistic DX-160 to hear lots of CW signals on the 20 Meter band, and the SSB section was pretty active, too. It was unbelievable. My old DX-160 had lots of Morse Code signals and sideband, too.

It was just like the old days, when I'd switch on my DX-160 and the 20 Meter Band was packed with signals nearly any Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Then, once Field Day was over -- nothing.

Some hams say 'well, most guys are on FT8. If you count FT8, ham radio is healthy and doing great!' FT8 is a digital radio mode that sounds like dying aliens or a sick ice cream truck. It's used by a lot of hams because your computer does all the work while you watch video or cruise the internet.

Well, I've actually counted the signals on FT8 channels. The audible ones are usually 3-7 signals at any given transmission window. They're easy enough to count -- you count the different tones, or, if you have an old-school analog receiver, tune the bandspread through the FT8 frequencies and count the zero'd signals that way.

There really aren't that many FT8 signals audible -- and even if you add in the number of FT8 signals that aren't actually audible (maybe 10 or 15 of them during a typical transmission block?) there aren't that many of them, at least compared to the vast number of CW and SSB signals that used to be clearly audible 12 years ago, or 22 years ago.

In the 1980's I'd hear nearly every other channel in the 20 Meter band loaded with signals. The 20 Meter Ham band has about 40-50 different 5 or 10 kHz 'channels' that hams can use for sideband (every 5-10 kHz between 14150 and 14350, roughly). That means I used to hear anywhere between 40 or 50 hams or more, using the SSB section of the 20 Meter Band. And these were all audible signals.

There's no way that FT8 is making up that much difference.

It's just another barometer that Radio, and the Radio hobby, is in decline.

I'm not happy about it, but there's nothing I can do about it, either. I can write about it, and try to encourage people to get on the air if they are a ham, or keep tuning their radios if they are SWL's and DXers. But I can't make the ionosphere work better, and I can't unilaterally tell SW hams to get off their asses and get on the airwaves.

If they'd rather cruise the internet instead, there's nothing I can do about that.

And I obviously can't keep the corporate nature of the Radio industry from jacking up the commercial loads, or laying off people, or programming stale, short playlists, or otherwise sabotaging their industry. 

So what can be done, if you are a Radio DXer or hobbyist?

You can appreciate what you have, because some day in the future it will be gone.

What I'm doing is maximizing my antenna. I added about 90-100 feet of wire to my antenna, running most of it outside to my hawthorn tree. I may also get a new radio later in the year, that may out-perform the SW radios I already have. Tecsun makes a PLL radio with several stages of gain and filtering, and it also has a DSP chip for filtering, and I may get one in the Fall -- it's their PL-880 model, and from what I understand it's really good, and for such a good radio, it's reasonably priced. I could use the extra tuned circuits PLUS the benefit of DSP.

I've got the territory to extend my outdoor wire to around 150 feet or so (50 Meters), so I will probably do that before Fall. 

I may build a bigger loop antenna for MW DXing at night. I've already got the best MW DX radios you can get (GE Superadio 2 and 3; Sangean PR-D4W).

And I'll keep listening until the last stations are off the air.

Hopefully that's a decade or two away.

I'll end this article with my mantra -- 'Get 'em While You Can.'

IN OTHER LIFE....

Today it is the early morning of the Fourth Of July, an American national holiday. When I am done publishing this article, I'm going to go out on a bike ride, and then I shall put out my flags. I really don't feel like celebrating this holiday, being that the killjoys in local government have decided to make it illegal for someone to even light a sparkler in their back yard or out in their driveway, and I haven't exactly been feeling patriotic for reasons I don't care to go into here. 

But it's the Fourth nonetheless, so the holiday should indeed get a mention here.

I may also put out my Australian flag, well, just because.

Until next time, friends,

Peace.

C.C., July 4th, 2026.

ADDENDUM, July 5th. I added information on WRMI in the Shortwave section. It often comes in with readable signals on 5850 kHz, something I'd forgotten when I first wrote this article. So that info has been corrected. I also added that I enjoy much of the WRMI programming. I think they need credit when credit's due. I just with there were more stations on the 49 Meter band, and the other SW bands as well. Most SWL's feel the same way. 

'LEARN TO CODE', they said -- 142K Tech layoffs look like a broken promise

I clearly remember the Great Recession, which happened after the real estate crash of 2008-2009.  I had just been laid off in 2006-2007, and when the big Crash happened, I was in college, for the second time, and after 2010 I was working semi-regular in the legal industry through the rest of the Recession.

Many of my boss's clients during the 2010's were bankruptcy cases. We helped a lot of people get back on their feet again.

I also remember driving down the main street of my city during the early to mid-2010's and seeing half of the windows boarded up or covered by illustrations and posters. There were a lot of vacant buildings and empty storefronts, and that only started changing at the end of that decade.

Then, of course, there was a small economic boom before the Pandemic hit.

The lingering nature of the Great Recession in many parts of the US was not widely publicized, for some reason. But there were some articles by some US and UK newspapers concerning the delayed Recovery -- especially in the Rust Belt and in parts of the South, as well as Appalachia and the Rural Western US. Many media observers said that some career fields that were slammed by the Great Recession would never return -- especially coal industry jobs, and other legacy fields like manufacturing, lumbering, mining, and a lot of energy production.

What were all those laid off workers supposed to do?

"Learn to Code," they said.

Just deal with the fact your job is never coming back, go to school, and "Learn to Code."

After all, computer tech is growing, and those jobs will be limitless. Computers and the internet are the future. There will always be jobs in those fields.

Or so they said.

In other words, all those laid off energy, manufacturing, and service workers -- especially those in legacy fields -- were supposed to go to tech school or college and get 'retraining', and the buzz phrase in the 2010's -- just 10 years ago, really -- was 'Learn to Code', learn how to program computer apps, web services, websites, and computer systems.

Being laid off on New Year's Eve 2006, I found out the hard way just how difficult it can be to find employment in your field when your field of work is in decline. According to NAICS -- the job statistic part of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics -- my field was 'Sound Engineering'. And thanks to computer tech taking over in Radio and Recording, the numbers of 'Sound Engineers' in the US was in decline. 

The field of 'Sound Engineering' simply was NOT predicted to increase in numbers. It's one reason that when I went back to college, I had to choose the paralegal field because it most fit my aptitude and previous schooling, and because I didn't have the math capability to 'learn to code' or get into a tech field.

That said, when I kept hearing politicians and news media pundits tell laid off workers that they just needed to "Learn to Code", I was suspicious, because nothing seems guaranteed in this world, especially with job markets. I had learned that in Radio.

After all, when I went to college the first time around in the 1980's, Radio, TV, and Newspapers were supposed to be growing fields that would never suffer massive job losses. It only took around 25 years for those fields to turn into disappearing, 'legacy' fields where annual layoffs are a normal thing. Newspapers folded by the thousands in just one year in 2022. The number of journalists in the US right now is around 10% of what the number was in 1986, when I graduated from the University.

And the number of journalists drops every year now. It's the same in Radio and TV.

LEARN TO CODE -- THEN WE'LL LAY YOU OFF

So -- how did this "Learn to Code" thing turn out?

Well, not so good after all, it seems.

Many of America's biggest tech firms are announcing massive layoffs that make those in Radio look pale. Some estimates of last year's tech layoffs amounted to 245,000 tech workers. 

This year, so far, 142,000 layoffs in Tech have been announced. That is 387,000 tech jobs either lost, or about to be lost, in just a year and a half.

You can read about this here, on Yahoo! News.:

https://tech.yahoo.com/general/article/tech-layoffs-2026-over-142000-jobs-cut-at-meta-linkedin-wix-webflow-and-more-144545455.html

Well known Tech companies like Meta (Facebook & Instagram), LinkedIn, Intuit, Amazon, Microsoft, Wix, CloudFlare, PayPal, Cisco, Coinbase, GM, Nike, Snapchat, GoPro, Vimeo, Disney, Oracle, T-Mobile, Epic Games, and Ubisoft have all announced layoffs scheduled for this year.

Although the US economy has been hit by a war-related boost in energy prices and some industries were hit by the tariffs that were enacted in the Spring of 2025, most of these Tech companies are saying that the adoption of AI is the reason for most of their layoffs.

AI WAS PREDICTED TO KILL JOBS -- in the 2010's, No One Listened

AI was forecast long ago to be a problem for the American worker. I remember reading articles in the newspapers back in 2012, 2013, and 2014 about how AI was going to make 50% of the workforce redundant within 50 years.

There were a lot of people back then saying that would not be true -- AI would just be another form of Tech, and Tech companies would always need people to program the AI.

In other words, "Learn to Code."

How's that working out, folks? Not too good.

Needless to say -- I really feel for all the people being laid off. 

Trust me: I know how that feels. 

AI IS KILLING SELF-PUBLISHING FOR A LOT OF AUTHORS

I've said here before that I am an independent author. I don't make much, if any, money from my eBooks, but I do have a strong connection to the independent author forums and author social media, and track what goes on in independent authoring and publishing.

And some independent, eBook authors online are complaining that AI-written books are literally killing their incomes. All the AI competition -- AI-written books, introduced by the hundreds every week, all with AI-produced covers, flooding the eBook marketplace, making eBooks written by REAL authors more and more invisible -- it's killing self-published authors books and revenues.

And this sort of trend is coming to EVERY CONTENT FIELD, and probably most career fields. 

AI has already made photographers, illustrators, journalists, writers, authors, voice talent, models, actors, editors, paralegals, telemarketers, secretaries, receptionists, musicians, video producers, clerical workers, and some educators redundant. And the job losses from AI are just starting.

Lawyers, teachers, analysts, researchers, agents of all types, librarians, professors, historians, middle level managers -- all these career fields and more may be next in line for the AI job loss chopping block.

And if you add in the increase of AI programmed robots in completely automated factories -- and similar robotics-related job losses -- there won't be much left for human employment.

And the AI losses right now are hitting the Tech field, the field that everyone said would always be immune to layoffs and job-killing AI.

So how do we fix this problem? Can we?

I really don't know. But it bothers me to see this happen. Like I said, I was laid off in 2006. My Radio job never came back. My old newspaper job I had in the 80's never came back. If I were to try to find new employment in the legal field tomorrow, I doubt there are jobs available. If I were depending on income from my eBook sales, I'm sure I'd be feeling the pinch from AI-produced competition.

We're in a new era, folks, and it doesn't look all that pretty. And sometimes this merry-go-round of get laid off / get retraining / get laid off again / get more retraining just looks more and more like a broken promise.

IN OTHER LIFE....

I just paid off the last of my late mother's debts. That's a big load of rocks off my shoulders. The weather's been a bit better. My neighbor, who is a mechanic, moved back in across the street with his wife and kids, so hopefully my Lincoln Continental can get fixed and back to 100% so I can drive around a bit once more. It runs. I just need it to run dependably.

I added about 90-100 feet (30 meters, roughly) to my shortwave antenna on the 19th of May, and 25th of May, by running a spool of wire outside to my hawthorn tree. At first I added about 50-60 feet, and then I added some more a few nights later. I know have about 7-8 dbu additional signal strength for my radios.

It's my way of preparing for the Solar Minimum, I guess. Right now there is a Morse Code, ham radio contest going on. I heard the Chatham Islands this morning -- a station called ZL7IO. The Chatham Islands are a part of New Zealand, and they're right next to the International Date Line. Pretty cool to hear, even if it was just Morse Code.

My XHDATA D808 radio is really good with Morse Code, actually. It's also great for MW and LW. It has Airband, which is useful for current, local weather reports from the Renton Airport. FM is good, but I'm not an FM DXer, so I can't say how DX-worthy the FM is on the D808. But the other bands really pull in the signals well.

I've still been riding my bike at nights, when it's cool and quiet out. And I'm still playing my bagpipes, trying to learn an old tune called Blue Bonnets Over The Border. I always wanted to learn it, but never thought I could. I've got it about 80-90% down.

Now it's back to writing my next eBook which won't sell because of AI. :-)

Enough doom and gloom. Here's some 2010's pop to brighten your day. Andy Grammer put out this hit in 2010, right after the Great Recession was kicking in big time. It's a great song. I first heard it on Radio Disney in 2011. Keep Your Head Up!

I miss the early 2010's. Yeah, the economy was still crap, but the pop music was so good, and it was so upbeat and fun.

Until next time, my friends,

Peace.

C.C. -- Sunday, May 31st, 2026.