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

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. 

GM's Removing HD Radio from Car Soundsystems Not Good for HD, or Radio

My Sangean HDR-16, shown playing local rock station KISW-FM's HD2 channel that no longer exists: Their Metal Militia channel, which was taken off the air over 2 years ago. I probably took this pic in 2018 or 2019.

HD Radio was, and is a great idea, that has suffered through lack of promotion, and indifference by the Radio industry. Now it appears that HD Radio is taking another big hit -- it may not be available in some GM vehicles in the near future. If this pulling the plug on HD Radio is followed by other automakers, it won't bode well for Radio.

Broadcasters, especially AM Radio station owners, took a hit when some automakers decided to install auto, dashboard soundsystems without AM radio capability. And that caused a bill to be written in US Congress to mandate AM radio in cars. 

That bipartisan bill is still in never-ending limbo in Congress.

Well, now it looks like Radio is taking another hit from the auto industry: GM has announced it will stop installing HD Radio capable radios in its dashboard soundsystems. It is not presently known if any other US carmaker is thinking of doing the same thing.

Here is an InsideRadio article on it.:

https://www.insideradio.com/free/gm-s-hd-radio-retreat-highlights-growing-dashboard-challenge-for-radio/article_8a249ed3-3b56-417b-a30e-0c63898d17b6.html

Being that one third (or more) of all Radio listening is in the vehicle, this is worrisome news for Radio companies and Radio fans. Not all Radio people are gung-ho about HD Radio technology, but it does sound good, both on AM and FM, and on FM you get the extra channels (that is -- if the station has HD2's and HD3's).

The issue isn't really just HD. It's worrisome for Radio in general, because who knows when FM and AM radio will be removed from car soundsystems? After all, the modern car is turning gradually into an AI bot. I'm not exaggerating by much -- there have been reports online about new vehicles having surveillance capabilities, where they will monitor the drivers, including tracking your eye movements. 

You can read about that here.:

https://autos.yahoo.com/policy-and-environment/articles/every-car-could-become-surveillance-164837608.html

That turning of cars into spyware-on-wheels was written into the 2021 Infrastructure Act, passed by US Congress that year. It just hasn't been implemented yet.

And don't forget that some automakers have reportedly shared driving data and other data with who knows? 

And GM apparently has already pulled the plug on Apple CarPlay and the Android Auto app, forcing GM owners to use a GM app that comes with the dash system.

You can read about that here.:

https://www.cars.com/articles/gm-to-remove-apple-carplay-android-auto-from-future-vehicles-517813/

Many in the media believe that this is just the beginning of the era of your car being yet another AI bot-driven, data mining operation and pay-to-play content provider. In other words, the auto industry, knowing that the dash system is up front and center in cars and trucks, is slowly switching all in-vehicle entertainment to a subscription model.

They -- like everyone else, it seems -- want you to subscribe to get content.

I tell ya. I get sick of reading those increasingly annoying words "content" and "subscription model". They're so last decade. Unfortunately, those words and phrases are becoming an all-encompassing reality.

What's more disturbing, however, is moves by some in government to mandate that your vehicle spies on you, to where it possibly could even pull you over to the side of the road and switch off your vehicle -- if the AI bot determines you're not driving "safely" enough. Now, some of these reports may contain a certain amount of paranoia. But just look at the world around you -- and see how much that everyone of us is under surveillance, be it our phone use, devices with cameras and microphones, and even 'smart cars' tracking our data.

I don't have a new vehicle, personally. But would I want a car or truck that spies on me, and then sells my data to other people? Not on your life.

I'm not personally surprised that these surveillance and peeping-tom like moves are taking place in many industries. Spyware is power. That's why the hackers and malware creators came up with spyware back in the 90's and 00's. Now legitimate businesses and industries are going in that direction. Your phone probably can spy on you. Your smart TV can probably spy on you. Many apps you use can probably spy on you. So now your car will be able to spy on you also.

As one 'expert' I saw interviewed on a YouTube channel stated about a month and a half ago, we are entering a world where the dominant economic model is 'surveillance capitalism'.

BACK TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND: HD RADIO

HD Radio was a terrific idea. I still think it has a lot of potential. It wasn't released effectively, the technology was under patent, and a lot of broadcasters don't want to pay the subscription fees to go HD. But most of the big FMs in my city, Seattle, have HD1's (the main channel in HD mode). And it sounds good.

HD's peak seemed to be the 2010's. When I got my first HD Radio in 2017 there were two HD AM's and nearly every commercial and large non-commercial FM had HD, as well as an HD2 or HD3. By 2018 the number started to dwindle (that's the year Radio Disney yanked all their HD2's from stations all over the US). And after the Pandemic hit, the number dwindled even further (local station KISW pulled the plug on their Metal Militia HD2 channal, and local country station KKWF pulled the plug on their Delta Blues HD2, and the local NPR station pulled their BBC HD2 or 3).

So, what is the future of HD Radio? If GM indeed pulls the plug on HD Radio in GM cars and trucks, that's not the end of the world. They may be the biggest US automaker, but they do not sell most of the new cars in the US. Here we have many different carmakers selling vehicles -- Toyota, Subaru, Honda, Hyundai, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Tesla -- there are many brands of vehicles for sale in the US.

GM has about 17% of the US new car market. So this new move affects only 17% or so of new cars in the US. 

But GM's dropping HD is probably the shot across the bow. Soon after that it may be AM radio (which has already been dropped by some carmakers), FM radio, and other soundsystem features that get the chopping block. There may come a time you won't be able to Bluetooth your phone into the car system. And GM may only be the first company to implement these sorts of changes in dashboard soundsystem access.

Think about it: if you Bluetooth your phone into the car soundsystem, no one is getting paid for the use of that service. That could be seen as leaving money on the table for a company that put a fancy looking soundsystem and screen on your dashboard.

This is mentioned in the Cars.com story I have linked earlier in this article. Under the heading "What's This Really About?" the writer mentions that automakers can make more money off of forcing you to use their own proprietary music and entertainment playing systems, and they also can make money off of the user data.

Remember, we are entering an age where everything is "content", everything has a subscription price attached to it, it all may spy on you, and -- as the 'expert' on YouTube said -- we're in an era of 'surveillance capitalism'.

All this said, this move is bad for HD Radio, and it's bad for Radio in general. Radio is in the midst of a struggle to survive in a world where "legacy" media's revenues, listener numbers, viewer numbers -- and in the case of newspapers, readership numbers -- are all dropping. It's tough to be in Radio these days. 

So any chipping away of Radio from the place where one third of listening takes place -- i.e. the car -- is bad for Radio. Such a move shows how little importance Radio is seen to have these days, when everything audio is increasingly online and streaming-based. And streaming, my friends, that is where the money is anymore.

As for my own use of HD Radio, I don't listen to it much anymore, ever since the Metal Militia channel was yanked from KISW's HD2. Local Classical FM station KING has a Christmas Classical Music HD3, and I sometimes listen to that -- it's a wide mix of choral, symphonic, and chamber music, all Christmas hymns, some of them dating back to the baroque era. 

But HD Radio seems to have been this awesome idea whose time has come and gone. 

I remember when it was being rolled out, in the mid 2000's. I was still working in the Radio industry, and the people running the company I worked for were excited about the idea of digital radio delivery, and the idea of stations having multiple channels -- HD2's and HD3's. It would make for more variety and service to the Radio listener -- and, naturally, more channels for the programmers (at the format factory I worked at) to program.

But it never took off, really. The radios were expensive, you couldn't really hear the HD that well inside the box stores where the radios were sold, and apparently some radio stations never could figure out a way to monetize HD Radio very well.

And it seemed that the stations didn't really promote the HD2's and HD3's very well, either. KISW never really pushed their Metal Militia channel on their website, for example. And the Metal Militia channel was great -- it was an awesome mix of heavy metal from Gojira to Mudvayne to GNR to System Of A Down toSlipknot to Disturbed to Arch Enemy to a lot of other metal bands in different metal genres.

Then the plug was pulled.

It seems to be yet another instance of American Radio holding out a technology that has a lot of promise, and then dropping the ball.

Such is the case of the industry I worked in for 20 years.

And with that, my friends, 

Peace.

C.C., May 16th, 2026.

Addendum, May 28th, 2026:

I added a short paragraph about cars being turned into spyware-on-wheels -- I had not included the fact that the law mandating the spyware in cars was part of the 2021 Infrastructure Act, passed by Congress that year.

American Radio Giant IHeartMedia lays off more Radio workers in latest round

In Radio, there's an old adage that 'everyone gets fired sooner or later'. 

For years it was a running joke at radio. I used to hear 'I was fired' stories a lot during my 20 year stint in the industry.

When I lost my first radio job -- I was an intern at a local classic rocker in October-December of 1987 -- the Program Director said "Hey, don't worry. Radio people won't think you're bad news because you got fired. I got fired from my first radio job, too!"

It just happens in Radio. 

Lately, it's been happening more and more.

The problem is that with the financial woes hitting my former career field lately, layoffs and 'Reductions-in-Force' are getting more and more frequent. And this time it's apparently hitting a lot of middle management and sales people -- including some programmers -- at American radio media giant IHeart.

IHeartMedia has announced a series of layoffs that hit various operations all over the US. Even a programmer in Seattle (at Sports radio station KJR-FM) is being laid off.

Here's a couple articles from online media newspaper Barrett Media.:

https://barrettmedia.com/2026/04/08/iheartmedia-begins-round-of-layoffs-affecting-management-sales-staffs/

https://barrettmedia.com/2026/04/15/marc-james-departs-kjr-as-iheartmedia-continues-ongoing-layoffs/

Other people at IHeart stations are being let go, including some air talent. It's like February 2020 all over again -- seeing social media posts by morning DJ's and the like who are saying good bye to their loyal and faithful listeners.

Here's a news story about a veteran morning host in Connecticut who's being let go.:

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/allison-demers-layoff-ct-radio-whcn-22208013.php

It's all very sad, really. The vast majority of those laid off will never work in Radio again.

A lot of us who used to work in the industry look at this debacle with a mixture of sarcasm and chagrin. Many of us -- who no longer work in Radio -- know exactly how it feels to be laid off, and never work in Radio again. Every guy I was laid off with -- all seven of us, when they eliminated our entire department in December of 2006 -- never worked in Radio again. 

That's the chagrin part.

The sarcasm part? That's when you read of yet another round of layoffs at a radio company and you wonder if there is anybody left at that company to lay off.

IHeartMedia has a mixed reputation in Radio. Many credit the company for trying to move their operations online, where the future seems to lie. The IHeartRadio online platform has been a success. 

But many Radio fans also dislike the company for the consolidation, homogenization, and sometimes heartless appearing actions, like when the company got rid of 10% of its radio staff in early 2020 -- including many DJ's and airstaff who loved their jobs, and found themselves laid off, with little chance of working in Radio ever again.

Some of the social media posts by laid off DJ's were heartrending. They were working at a dream job, relating to people, connecting with their communities, and -- as far as many of them knew -- they were still getting ratings.

Then the axe came down.

To many who used to work in Radio, these rounds of layoffs that seem to occur every year -- not just at IHeart, but at the other big American Radio companies too -- are just another indicator of the downward slide that the industry is taking. 

Less people on the airwaves, more automation, less local content, and the medium seems less and less personable.

Although the Radio industry is hitting some hard times, there still are a lot of cool and diverse radio stations on the night time airwaves. KBBR 1340, out of North Bend, Oregon is one of them. KBBR plays an interesting mix of oldies and classic hits. North Band, and its sister city, Coos Bay, are on the Southern Oregon Coast, where the weather is in the mid 60's F year around.

IHeart has famously adopted an anti-AI stance, with commercial announcements and some PR releases announcing that the company is anti-AI, and that the voices and songs you hear on their stations are 100 percent human.

Now the jokes about this latest round of layoffs is 'where are the humans? They're all being laid off!' and the like.

However, there is a revenue problem that is behind a lot of these layoffs.

One other large American radio company, Cumulus, is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. During the proceedings, Cumulus reported that its broadcast radio revenues declined 15.9% in 2025. Network revenue (including WestwoodOne) was down 22.5%; Advertising revenue from Radio was down 12.9%. The company as a whole lost $200 Million last year.

Here's a report on Cumulus's revenue declines from RadioInk.:

https://radioink.com/2026/04/10/cumulus-reports-200m-loss-for-2025-as-chapter-11-continues/

The drops in broadcast radio, spot advertising, and network revenues are indicators that Radio's revenues, industry wide, aren't in terrific shape. Many who work in the business side of Radio believe that what Cumulus is facing isn't a rarity. After all, CBS Radio News is being eliminated because of revenue losses.

Online there are plenty of folks who claim that these nosedives in revenue are because Radio isn't 'live and local' anymore, or because the music stations have short playlists, or because big Radio companies like IHeart 'ruined radio'.

The fact is the internet has damaged radio. There is no getting around that. I have no idea what Radio is going to sound like in 2036, but my guess is that there will be even less human voices on the airwaves, more syndication and consolidation, and less AM and less FM stations on the airwaves. 

In fact, the number of Radio stations in the US continues to decline. RadioInk reports that even FM is in decline -- in the past four months 19 commercial FM stations in the US shut down (there were 32 AM stations shut down during the same three month period).

https://radioink.com/2026/04/10/radio-loses-ground-in-q1-2026-as-license-decline-continues/

These station shutdowns and the recent layoffs are just more symptoms of the issues the Radio industry is facing. And Radio is not alone in this. Newspapers, Magazines, Broadcast and Cable TV -- all these media that used to be taken for granted as important and vital media are starting to feel the pinch.

The world is changing, folks. It's all internet content.

The Internet is killing Radio.

I'll end this with the most positive note I can: If you're a Radio fan, keep tuning those radios, and enjoy the fact that there are still stations on the night time airwaves to listen to.

Quit bitching and griping about the fact that it's not 'live and local', or that the stations don't play every one of your favorite songs. The industry is having money problems, and the listeners and advertisers have increasingly drifted online. TikTok, Instagram, X, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, et. al. are the new "radio". 

Online podcasts are the new 'talk radio', just as streaming is the new 'music radio'.

It's just the reality. 

Right now I'm going to return to my fiction writing, and listen to my GE Superadio 1, which sits near my writing desk in my den, and it is playing a bunch of stations on 1400 kHz. It's a wild mix of sports, Classic Hits, and a bunch of other stations all mixed in.

Until next time, my friends,

Peace.

C.C. -- April 16th, 2026.