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. 

BANNED: The Controversy Surrounding Public Radio in the US

The 40-Year Anniversary Logo of KSKO-FM, McGrath, Alaska, a rural Public Radio station that will see drastic budget cuts thanks to the defunding of the US's Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

As many Radio hobbyists, Radio Industry employees, and others who follow the Radio business are aware, Public Radio in the US has come under fire -- by the present Administration, as well as conservatives in the US Congress. 

In fact, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a governmental entity set up by Congress in 1967 to fund Public Radio and TV stations in the US, has been defunded.

The reasoning for the Defunding of CPB, of course, appears to be purely political. Detractors insist that CPB, and Public Radio in general, is 'biased' in news reporting, and shouldn't be funded by the US government.

As someone who listened to NPR 24/7 when my ill mother was staying with me for over a year, I can't say I heard a ton of bias on NPR, and I tend to be a slightly right-leaning centrist, politically. In fact, most of the programs weren't political or News oriented at all.

There are also a few in Radio who say that the "government shouldn't be funding stations that compete with commercial radio stations." That argument is almost laughable. The audiences for NPR and Public Radio are different from the commercial radio audience that wants to hear the latest country, AC, or pop/hip-hop hits. Also, in many areas, the Public Radio station may be the only non-music station in the market -- so the 'government-sponsored competition' argument doesn't really hold water. 

And if you have a conservative talk station, trust me -- NPR isn't taking your audience away. It's a completely different audience from yours. 

NPR has its issues, sure. There have been articles about them, including one written by a veteran journalist who worked at NPR for well over a decade. 

But Public Radio is a LOT more than NPR. Public Radio is every state's own network (if they have one), and it is every Public Radio station in every small burg in the rural US which may be well served with Country and Religious radio stations, but underserved by News Radio stations. In many of these areas, the Public Radio station is the only Radio news that the people have access to. 

This CPB Defunding action has put hundreds, if not thousands, of small public radio stations in rural areas of the US, including remote areas of Alaska -- and rural areas of states like Montana, Oregon, Minnesota, and other sparsely populated areas -- in jeopardy. Many small public radio stations in rural areas, along with smaller college stations, depend on the CPB funding for a significant amount of their operations.

Because of the CPB cuts, many smaller stations will go off the air. The people who run and operate KSKO-FM, McGrath, Alaska -- their logo is up top in this article -- think they may end up going off the air eventually because of the CPB budget cuts.

Here is a Guardian article on another small, rural Alaska public radio station, KSDP, located in Sand Point, Alaska -- a small town in the Aleutian Islands, not too far from the Alaska Peninsula, maybe 800 miles or more west of Anchorage.:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/20/alaska-radio-ksdp-trump-cut

MANY IN RADIO DO NOT CARE ABOUT RADIO

Now, you would think that Radio people would be concerned about this, wouldn't you? After all, the funding cuts are not just an attack on Public Radio -- they are an attack on Radio itself. Take, for example, the small rural Oregon city, Burns. Burns is a town of around 3000 people, located in the High Desert region in Eastern Oregon -- it's all sagebrush and cattle country.

The only radio station in Burns that has any news coverage is the Oregon Public Radio station there. The other 10 stations audible in Burns are Country (one of them a rimshot FM from John Day, 50 miles away), AC, and half of the Burns-area FM's are religious FM translators. OBP, which runs KOBN-FM, Burns' Public Radio outlet and its only news station, is going to see some budget cuts because of the CPB defunding.

CPB cuts will also affect JPR -- Jefferson Public Radio -- which has a network of stations in mostly rural, low population Southern Oregon and Northern California, with many of those stations serving isolated areas with no news or public information radio station outside of the Public Radio outlet.

Burns, Oregon, a small cow-town in the High Desert in Eastern Oregon. It's a small city that survives on the traffic from US 20, a few large ranches, a few nearby farms, and it used to have a lumber mill. There is also a nearby Paiute Indian Reservation. Burns is small, but it's the only town and commercial center within 100 square miles of sagebrush, greasewood, and cattle ranching country.

When I was a kid, we passed through there, driving US Highway 20. Several hundred miles to each side of Burns was miles and miles of nothing but broad vistas of dry dirt and sagebrush, with red lightning occurring sometimes during the late afternoons. Burns has only one radio station that has extensive news coverage -- KOBN-FM, 90.1 on the FM dial. That station is part of the Oregon Public Radio network. CPB cuts could adversely affect small town OPB outlets like KOBN. 

It's almost as if the powers that be think that people in small cities like Burns don't count.

So you would think that when you go onto a Radio forum, or any of a number of "Radio" based social media subreddits and Facebook groups, that the vast majority of posters on those sites and threads would be angry at the cuts to Public Radio funding, right?

After all, they KNOW that such cuts may cause Radio stations in some regions to disappear, which is bad for Radio. You would think that Radio people would dislike that idea, right?

Not necessarily. With a considerable number of radio people, t's actually the opposite. It turns out that A LOT of Radio people do NOT support Public Radio, if the relative orgy of joy, from many sectors, over the shutting down of CPB is any indication. 

Some may allow speech to be stifled if you speak out in favor of Public Radio. Show too much support for CPB and Public Radio online, and you could get temporarily banned on radio forums.

More on that later.

SHUTTING DOWN CPB + A NEW, TRILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT BILL = SAVINGS.

YEAH. RIGHT.

The fact is that we have a government in the US right now that doesn't want to spend a couple hundred million dollars on Public Radio, but at the same time has passed a large spending bill that could jack up the national deficit by a Trillion.

The consequences of this defunding of CPB is that small Public Radio stations like Alaska's KSKO, a small FM out of McGrath, in rural western Alaska, may end up going off the air because without the CPB funding the station will run out of money. Undoubtedly the small Public Radio FM in Burns, Oregon (KOBN) will have funding troubles as well. Burns' small community of townspeople, small business owners, Native Americans, and ranchers will be hard pressed to come up with the funds to keep KOBN on the air.

And many in Radio think that's fine. They don't care about Radio listeners in rural areas and Indian Reservations, or Native Americans in rural Alaska.

This is an example of one reason that Radio is in decline. Radio people are shooting their own industry -- and their own hobby -- in the foot. Too many Radio people do not believe in Radio anymore.

BAN ME? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH

Now onto another media in decline: Radio forums. I was recently 'Banned', for a week, from a Radio forum -- one that I used to go to regularly -- basically because I was showing a lot of support for Public Radio, and it looks like someone I may have been arguing with didn't like it, and they may have reported me to the moderators for something I did NOT do -- 'personal attacks'. There also may have been a complaint that the discussion was too 'political'. 

I never attack people personally when discussing stuff on the internet. I may attack the position, but I never attack the person. First off -- attacking the person is pointless. Secondly, I'm just not wired that way. Meanwhile, another guy on the thread -- who did actually attack me -- did not get banned. That didn't make sense.

As for the discussion being 'political' -- News Flash: when the Government Defunds Public Radio merely because of government and party politics, that's Political. You can't discuss it without it getting Political.

It's an example of the sort of 'moderation' that just drives people away from a website.

And being that traffic to that site (and others) has declined over the 12 years I was an active member there, driving people away is just not a great idea. I've seen declines in other radio and hobby forum activity as well. It seems that forums in general are in decline.

Some of this decline in radio forum (and other hobby forum) traffic is undoubtedly due to social media taking the attention of Radio people. But when a moderator 'Bans' you for 'Personal Attacks' that you didn't make, that ultimately becomes a problem.

Not for me -- but for the radio forum. Because other users can see how things turned out. If you are a site owner, and your moderation is not even-handed, you're just telling long-term participants to go elsewhere. And that is not a good thing if forums in general are declining in activity.

Forum site operators: When you treat your regular posters poorly, they're going to go elsewhere. I don't mean to sound like a dick about it, but it's just fact.

Reddit and FB have tons of alternative options. The internet is a vast place with infinite competition.

Bye Bye.

SOME GOOD RADIO FORUMS I GO TO

I want to make clear that the vast majority of the Radio forums and sites I have mentioned on this blog since 2015 are very good ones.

These forums and sites are ones like RadioReference, HFUnderground, and the Antique Radio Forum are very good sites, with a lot of good people, and they seem to be very fairly run. I recommend those sites to any Radio fan or DXer. There are subreddits like the ShortwavePlus subreddit that are also very good. 

A few older sites, like the BCBLogger  / Shortwave Logbook site, and the old AM-DX site, got shut down because the owners either lost interest or didn't want to spend the money on the sites anymore. Any time a forum or radio site disappears, the DX Radio hobby is less for it..... One less place to go to share DX loggings with other DXers.

However, forums need to pay attention to how they run their sites, if what I just experienced is any indication. There are plenty of alternatives if someone jacks you around -- you just go elsewhere. Which is what I have done.

WEEK LONG BAN? NOPE.

Like I said, the 'ban' I received was for a week. Or so that website thinks. But they are in error.

I've banned that site from my computer forever.

The Fourth Of July this year was better than the Fourth Of July last year -- when I took this picture. A neighbor shot off some safe-and-sane fireworks for his young son, and we had fund talking and I enjoyed seeing the small street display. Some other neighbors further down the street were also shooting off fountains and safe and sane fireworks on the pavement as well. Every single firework is banned in my city, no matter how safe it truly is. It's what happens when the 'Karens' of the world seem to be running it. But sometimes, just sometimes, common sense prevails for a few hours, so small kids can have good memories, of times spent with Dad, that they'll keep with them forever.

IN OTHER LIFE....

I've been trying to enjoy the better weather here in Seattleland, and I'm missing my cats. All of them died, at the beginning of June. Racofrats got sick and died within 2 days, and my outdoor kitty, Tigger, disappeared and I never found him. He always stayed right on the porch. Something happened, and I don't know what. Tigger was 18 years old.

I still have been SWLing, DXing, etc. Mostly checking out the HF ham radio bands, and sometimes the SWBC bands. I haven't been MW DXing at all the past several months. The ionospheric conditions have been more or less mediocre since December or January (see my previous blog article "Solar Cycle 25 Is A Dud" for an explanation of why that probably is), but there have been some bright spots here and there where European and Latin American ham stations are audible on either 20 Meters SSB or 20 Meters CW. 

The bands up above 20 Meters have been invariably DEAD. 40 Meters still has a variety of activity, depending on the evening.

THE MYSTERIOUS 'A' BEACON

One of the more interesting new signals on 40 Meters is a new, apparently unlicensed experimental CW beacon on 7259 kHz, which I call the 'A' Beacon. It's a continuous 'A' sent in marginally executed Morse Code, and it starts coming in when darkness hits, and sometimes gets very strong during the night -- sometimes slamming my Yaesu FRG-7 at S4 (out of 5) signal strengths.

It fades out as last as mid to late morning. I've talked to a couple guys on the ShortwavePlus subreddit, and so far we aren't sure where this mysterious 'A' Beacon could be located.

A couple DXers out of California (on HFUnderground) have been reporting the 'A' Beacon since early June, and their signal reports seem to be really good -- so the 'A' Beacon was probably set up, somewhere in the Western US, at the beginning of June, and it probably has a decent dipole antenna at least.

So, if you are anywhere in the Western US and Canada -- or even elsewhere -- set the controls of your SW spaceship for 7259, put on the headphones, and listen. During the early morning hours sometimes a Broadcast station out of China on 7260 interferes with the 'A' Beacon -- that's when you get creative -- use a narrower bandwidth (my new Tecsun PL-330 will go down to 500 Hz bandwidth), or tune to USB and tune upwards towards the CW beacon's 'lower sideband'. 

UPDATE: August, 2025: At least one poster at the HFU forum says the 'A' beacon may be a ham radio operator who put up the beacon to drive away some other hams from the 7259 frequency -- apparently there is a dispute of some sort. The 'A' beacon does seem to come and go a bit sporadically.

Unlicensed Morse Code Beacons are a fun aspect to the Shortwave hobby. There is one CW Beacon I tune into regularly, to see if it's there -- the Desert Whooper on 4096 kHz. I tune into it using LSB and the 'Whoops' sound really cool that way. The Desert Whooper usually is in the static, but when the ionosphere is cooperating it can hit my radios with S2 or S2+ signals.

Here is a listing of these unlicensed, low power CW Beacons on the HFUnderground site.:

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,9478.0.html

And here is a link to ShortwavePlus, a really good SW subreddit (on Reddit, of course). I hang out there a lot.:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortwavePlus/

ANOTHER ODDITY: MORSE CODE NUMBERS ON 13202 kHz

Not only are there strange, unlicensed Morse Code 'beacons' on the SW bands, there also are other oddities, mysterious signals sent for minutes at a time, in Morse Code, and usually these are long series of numbers, or alphanumeric characters.

Some of these CW/Morse Code numbers stations have been IDed as Russian and other military stations. Others? No one really knows for sure.

Now the Morse Code used in these signals isn't super fast. I can read Morse Code between 5 and 7 words per minute, which is very slow. But it's fast enough to ID a station or to at least ID the nature of the station. 

And Wednesday evening, July 23rd (July 24th, 0347 UTC), I was tuning my trusty Tecsun PL-330 up the bands and I stumbled upon a weak, but readable, Morse Code station on 13202 kHz, sending a long series of numbers, with a couple letters (mainly T and E) thrown in here and there. I copied a few strings of numbers: .5582498866....T U 7195...777... There were some periods of fading where I couldn't read the numbers. Finally, around.353 UTC / 8:53 p.m. Local time, the station ended with a "T E T".

Then there was nothing but static. It was just a random, chance reception of a Shortwave mystery.

It's just another case of 'you never know what you'll hear' on Shortwave.

And with that, my friends, stay cool, and 

Peace.

C.C., draft finished Friday night, July 26th, 2025.

Posted Monday night, August 25th, 2025.

I sat on this post for over three weeks, because of the section about my debacle with the radio forum I no longer go to anymore. I wanted to take time and cool off, and then edit it down. I also had to find and remove some links on a few of my blog articles.

The debacle was an education, for me, in what can go wrong with an internet website. There are numerous alternatives out there, all competing for screen and device time. Just like in the Radio industry in general. All that competition for your audience.

No website or forum has a monopoly. The internet is the definition of infinite competition.

Either way, not my problem.

Peace out to all,

C.C., 8-25-2025

 

AM Radio Bloodbath Now Hits FM, too: Two large US Radio companies shut down 20 AM & FM stations nationwide

The logo for 'Jack FM', WLXX 101.5, Lexington, Kentucky -- a station shut down during recent budget cuts at one of America's largest radio companies. Lexington is a fairly large city, with about 300K in the metro region. Jack-FM's usually do fairly well in the ratings, as they play a wide range of Classic Hits from the 1980's to the 2000's and early 2010's. But the Jack format didn't save this FM station from being shut down. Radio station shut-downs are now hitting FM as well as AM.

My industry is dying. Radio is dying. The Great Recession kicked it in the guts, the internet economy slammed it in the head, the Pandemic economy cut it off at the legs, and now the industry is starting to fold.

When I hit the internet with my first cup of coffee or tea every day, I usually check the Radio site called _________________. It's a forum of Radio industry insiders, experts, former Radio workers, and Radio hobbyists, and often it's a good source of news on what is happening in the industry.

Earlier this evening I was slammed by a news report on ___ that two of the largest Radio companies in the United States -- Cumulus and Townsquare Media -- are shutting down 20 AM, and FM, radio stations. There are staff cuts, too, but they're not just cutting staff. They're literally shutting down radio stations as well.

Here is a link to the news article posted on ___.:

[Link Removed -- bad site. see the Appendix. -- C.C.]

The stations' programming ranges from Country, to News-Talk (an FM as well as AM's), to Sports-Talk (with both Infinity Sports Network and Fox Spots taking a hit), to "Jack" style 80's-00's Classic Hits, to Classic Country (an FM at that), to 'Lite Rock' (an AM with an FM translator), to an FM Classic Hits station (in Missouri). That's just a sampling from the article linked above, and its source says that there are more station shutdowns to come.

MANY THOUGHT FM RADIO WAS IMMUNE

Up until recently, the revenue issues associated with Radio's new, shaky business model (FM, AM, HD, + online) have only hit the AM band, and staffing. I've reported on these AM stations going off the air over the past several years, since the Pandemic ended. 

The stations that went off the air in this region, since 2019, are fairly numerous -- KNPT Newport OR, KUTI Yakima WA, KMED/KYVL Medford OR, KKPZ Portland OR, KDWN Las Vegas NV, CKMX Calgary AB, CFTE Vancouver BC, CKST Vancouver BC, CHED 630 Edmonton, CKGO 730 Vancouver (the last two were replaced by sister stations that were moved to their frequency) are just a few of the stations in the Western US and Canada that have shut down operations permanently. There have been other stations in the Eastern US and Canada that went off the air, too -- CHML Hamilton ON a classic example.

The most recent shakeup on the West Coast of the US was KGO 810 San Francisco being changed to play KSFO 560's conservative talk programming -- and KSFO 560 was then shut down. It is no longer on the air. 810 now identifies as KSFO. 

Some of these stations that were switched off permanently may still have a small online presence. But most are gone, gone, gone. As you can tell, the stations I just listed above were all AM stations.

But now this trend is shutting down some FM stations as well. FM radio, as a medium, is NOT immune to the difficult economics of Radio these days.

SPORTS TALK TAKES A SMALL HIT

Several of the shut-down stations in the article linked about are Sports talkers. For the past few years, Sports stations have been able to survive on low ratings, because -- the prevailing wisdom states -- Sports talk stations don't need ratings. They have a lock on men. Advertisers that want to reach men will use Sports talk stations, regardless of their ratings.

But it turns out that Sports stations aren't immune to being shut down due to Radio economics. The advertising revenue crunch is hitting Sports radio, too.

IT SUCKS TO SEE IT HAPPEN

It is probably obvious I'm a MW/AM radio fan. I like tuning into the distant stations at night, and I'll listen to the programming -- be it Classic Hits, Classic Country, Sports talk, public radio from OPB (Oregon Public Radio) or the CBC, some religious music and programming, some news-talk, a lot of South Asian music, ranchero, etc.

And for the past several years those of us who are AM radio fans have had to endure the negative comments about AM radio being 'ancient' and needing to go off their air.

But now FM radio is also feeling the pinch. A bunch of the 20 stations owned by Cumulus and Townsquare Media that are being shut down are on the FM band -- the one that the AM decriers always like to say is the only 'Radio' that counts.

NEWS FLASH: FM radio is not sacrosanct. Ever since WPLJ -- once a TOP STATION in America's Market #1, New York City, sold for millions less than it was worth in the 1990's and 2000's, the writing for FM has been on the wall. 

FM Radio is not beyond the reach of cost cutting.

It's sad, because from time to time I have been an avid FM listener, too. FM was where you could hear all sorts of great pop and rock music in the 80's through the 2000's. When I got a Sanyo FM-AM boombox on Christmas 1982, I was glued to it for years until that radio was stolen. I tuned the Rock stations and Pop stations and some R&B stations. And there is no denying that for decades, FM Radio has been a vital part of American music culture.

Now it is fading, along with AM.

My Sangean PR-D14, my last purchase from now-defunct Fry's Electronics. It is my kitchen radio, on 24/7. It will bring in DX, but usually I have it tuned to local talk, NPR, or the local Catholic Station on 1590. When I bought this radio in 2020, there were a lot more radio stations on the air. That number, on both FM and AM, is declining.

GET 'EM WHILE YOU CAN

One of my mantras that I repeat periodically on this blog site is 'Get 'Em While You Can!'

This applies to Shortwave and Medium Wave, two media that are obviously in decline, and it appears with the recent shutdowns, staff cuts, stock price declines, and other Radio economics, the decline of Radio in general is only going to accelerate.

If you have a radio, switch it on, listen around -- both FM and AM, and SW too.

The day will come those bands will be all static and hiss, with maybe a couple pirate stations here and there. You never know when your favorite program, or favorite station, is going off the air.

My guess is that at this rate, the AM band has 10 years left. FM maybe 15. SW maybe 5.

DEAR RADIO: 

DON'T EXPECT STREAMING TO SAVE YOUR STATION

At the same time, streaming will not 'save' Radio. There are still roughly 15,000 radio stations in the US. In no way will all 15K stations today be viable internet streaming channels tomorrow.

The competition is just too infinite, and online, visibility is everything.

RADIO DISNEY'S DEMISE WAS A HARBINGER OF THE FUTURE

Remember Radio Disney? They switched off their AM stations and sold them in 2015. At the time they switched off their AM stations, they admitted that 16% of their audience -- mostly teens and younger people -- were still listening to the AM's.

They sold off all their AM radio stations anyway.

They said their audience would automatically go online, to their stream.

Apparently, that didn't happen. Their predictions and prognostications about their new, preferred choice of broadcast medium were wrong.

Streaming was the new business model, they said. Streaming was the future, they said. AM and OTA radio is old school, they said.

For a couple years they were on HD2's (until late 2017) and then just on their own online stream.

Then they shut the entire operation down. The RD page is now a 404.

Streaming did not save them -- and their programming was good, backed by a plethora of Disney media and singing stars. Their DJ's and announcers were very good and engaging. Still, that business model failed.

When one of the largest media companies in the US has no more faith in Radio, in general, it says something. I think the shutdowns and layoffs since the Pandemic are the writing on the wall. 

I hate to make such statements, but one thing I've learned over the years is that you have to be a realist. My former industry -- a dream job, really -- and one of my favorite hobbies, is on borrowed time. That's the reality.

Until next time, my friends,

Peace.

C.C. March 15th, 2025.

August 21, 2025: I edited out the name of a forum I used to go to, but because of their moderation policies, I am not promoting their website, or an associated website, in any way anymore.

One of the US's Biggest Radio Companies lays off 300 people, including Air Staff

Recently, one of the biggest Radio companies in the US has announced a series of layoffs, because of their bankruptcy. Audacy (formerly Entercom -- they have a few stations in my metro region) announced 300 layoffs, including popular, veteran DJ's and other airstaff, along with programmers and other vital positions at their radio stations across the country.

Here is a link to an article that discusses the layoffs.:

https://radioink.com/2025/03/06/audacy-lays-off-hundreds-in-major-post-bankruptcy-move/

Here's another link, continuing the listing of Audacy radio personnel laid off.:

[LINK REMOVED by C.C., August 2025.]

It's a sad day for Radio, really, as these layoffs at larger and smaller Radio companies keep happening. The prevailing mantra is that advertising revenues are in a slump and still declining, because Radio is a 'legacy' media (like TV, Cable, Newspapers, Magazines) and 'legacy' media aren't the place to go to advertise anymore.

There are other issues within the advertising world, of course. Advertising itself is changing, as many online stores do not need to advertise anywhere outside their own website, or they just use placement on a search engine instead. The dominance of the internet has changed not only audio media like Radio -- which depends on advertising -- but also the nature of advertising itself.

That all aside, a lot of people who were laid off at Audacy were popular airstaff, and -- as I've said before, several times on this blog -- they will probably never work in Radio again.

The industry is in decline, and although Radio could possibly do more to promote its medium to the public, the writing is on the wall: everyone is going online for all entertainment and information -- be it news, music, TV shows, books, etc.

THE VOICE OF AMERICA MAY BE SEEING CHANGES

Since the 2024 Presidential election in the US, and the change in administrations, the Voice of America may be seeing some changes as management of the radio service changes.

Some believe that the VOA is past the pull date, and needs to go all online. I've read many comments by people in the Radio business even saying this sort of thing.

It's amazing that people in an industry view their own industry with such distaste. VOA reaches out to poor people in Africa, for example -- a continent which is NOT covered by lots of cellphone service (as any look at cell service maps can show you), and where internet isn't readily available. Over 55% of Africans are impoverished, and live in rural areas away from the big cities where there is cell service, internet, and a lot of FM radio.

VOA was designed to take America's news, opinions, culture, and entertainment to such people.

Yet we may be seeing such services being curtailed or reduced later this year. It's almost as if carrying America's viewpoints to poor, rural people in other areas of the world doesn't count anymore. And surprisingly, a lot of people in the Radio business seem to agree with that idea. It's as if they don't really believe in the power of Radio anymore.

Right now, no one knows exactly how the future of VOA will go.

Rumors are that the BBC may be considering similar moves. The World Service will be online only in many regions.

In many of these regions, China is expanding its influence, both in the media, and economically. Apparently, the Chinese do not share the West's current view of the power of Radio as an information medium.

Timmy the Cat during better days... This pic was from 2015, when I first started this blog.

RIP my little friend.

IN OTHER LIFE....

Last weekend I began to feel soreness in my throat, and a head cold coming on. Throughout the week, I made sure I got extra sleep, and took garlic extract and Eleuthero extract, and it seems to have mostly killed the virus.

My cat Timmy, who I got in 2012, died on me last weekend. He had been ill from a virus or some other ailment, and having no working car, I couldn't take him to the vet. I was giving him kitten formula, and he seemed to be improving, but one afternoon I went to check on him and he was dead.

It really sucks to lose a little pal. Timmy used to be a bit stand-offish at first. I had heard that he originally was a barn kitten, so he always had this independent streak about him. But over the past year he began to meow a lot, wanting to be petted, and rubbing against me. 

But then I lost him. Sucks, but that's life.

My cat Racofrats, when a kitten. He is doing well.

I still have other articles to finish. I'll probably post the Solar Cycle article next, as I am thoroughly convinced that compared to previous ones, this one is a poor performer.

Then I will post others.

Stay tuned.

C.C., March 8th, 2024

Canadian media company fires Radio airstaff; FM station north of Toronto near shutdown

It's a sad time for Radio in my other mother country, Canada.

At least a couple times last year I posted articles about Radio companies in Canada either taking stations off the air, or laying off airstaff. Three FM's near Ottawa almost went off the air -- a new buyer showed up at the last minute for at least two of them. CHML 900 in Hamilton was shut down abruptly, leaving its airstaff and listeners in the lurch.

CHML 900, the News and News-Talk station in Hamilton, Ontario -- Canada's #9 city -- was shut down abruptly one day last year, with the programming halted and replaced with a tone, and then all the staffers were laid off. Unfortunately, abrupt firing of staff is a long time Radio practice. One day I showed up to work to find that 7 or 8 people in my building were gone. They had been given their notice as soon as they entered the door to go to work. Now that Radio is experiencing revenue issues industry-wide, these sorts of layoffs are becoming more and more commonplace.

Like a recent Canadian station in Markham, York Region, Ontario, that is experiencing revenue problems and may go off the air -- CHML was 'live and local'. A lot of folks in Radio think 'live and local' is the answer to Radio's woes. The example of CHML and other stations show that 'live and local' doesn't seem to make a difference. Either  the ad money's there, or it isn't.

Bell Media got rid of several stations, and in 2023 several AM'ers across Canada were shut down completely. Some radio stations in Western Canada also combined operations with other stations last year, reducing airstaff in the process (news stations in CKWX Vancouver and CFFR Calgary did this). 

Also in Vancouver and Edmonton, news-talkers CHED 630 and CKNW 980 moved their signals to different frequencies, with the stations on those new frequencies basically going off the air, and the airstaff on those stations (880 CHQT and 730 CKGO) being let go.

Obviously, Radio is in flux in Canada, and it's not just hitting the AM band.

Now Corus Media, one of Canada's larger media companies, has laid off airstaff, including some airstaff at a station I hear at night, CFFR 660 Calgary. The company says it saw a 14% dive in ad revenue over 2024. They also saw an 11% cut in ad revenue for their TV stations.

https://broadcastdialogue.com/more-staffing-cuts-confirmed-across-global-news-corus-radio/

Another recent news item showed that an FM station in the highly populated York Region of Ontario, Canada -- CFMS 105.9 'The Region', located in Markham, a city just north of Toronto with over 300K people (the surrounding York Region metro area has over a million) -- is about to go off the air because of declining revenue. Markham itself is the 16th largest city in Canada.

https://www.barrietoday.com/local-news/radio-station-nearing-shutdown-pleads-for-municipal-support-10248009

CFMS is a news and multicultural variety station that also plays Adult Contemporary music. The fact that it is an FM station in a metro area of over a million (York Region) shows that even FM stations in populated areas can have financial issues. 

Declining ad revenues are a really big problem in Radio these days. When Newport, Oregon's news-talker KNPT 1310 went off the air in early 2024, their owner said that their ad revenues dropped by over 50% since the Pandemic hit, and revenues never went back upwards. That took several stations -- AM, FM, and streams -- off the air permanently, leaving coastal Lincoln County devoid of news-oriented radio stations except for an Oregon Public Radio FM station, KOGL, 89.3.

Now we are seeing further cutbacks in the radio industry as Radio companies -- both in the US and Canada -- are feeling the economic pinch. Legacy media -- be it Radio, TV, Cable TV, or newspapers and magazines -- are all being hit with drops in advertising revenues.

Even Public Radio is seeing budget problems as increases in costs are often greater than increases in funding. Here in the US, our conservative government is trying to cut Public Radio funding from the government completely -- leaving all funding to underwriting and donations. Many stations and Public Radio networks may survive Federal government cuts, but others may see stations go off the airwaves.

This could include AM as well as FM public radio stations.

One excuse for government officials to cut Public Radio funding is the same one used by people in the Radio business whenever you talk about AM radio and Shortwave radio: 'everybody's got internet... They've got their cell phone, that's where they get their news and information.'

Sounds terrific. But if a government official like FCC's Brendan Carr says basically the same thing concerning NPR and Public Radio in the US, all of a sudden people in the Radio business don't like hearing that mantra.

The problem is that few in Radio are truly defending Radio. Because Radio is in financial dire straits when compared to previous decades, it seems that the movers and shakers in the industry are at a loss when it comes to keeping the medium, the platform alive.

They often say "we're building our digital platform" as a solution. But any content creator can tell you that online is not a panacea for media. Once you're online, you're competing with millions of other content sites and creators.

Recently, a bipartisan bill introduced in the US Congress, to keep AM radio in vehicles, got pushback from RADIO PEOPLE. I frequent several Radio forums and subreddits, and it's amazing how many Radio industry people are fine with AM being allowed to be removed from car radios and soundsystems.

When Radio people are against a Radio platform, it's no wonder that attacks on the industry by government and corporate interests are succeeding.

Who is speaking out for Radio?

IN OTHER LIFE

As I stated in an earlier article/post here, I took a respite from writing my blog. The weather got cold, I had a property issue to deal with (basically pouring water on a 'fire' that other people were pouring gas on, while lighting matches -- it all had to do with a remote piece of property where we have a dispute with neighbors). My car is still not dependable, and I have an ailing cat, Timmy, who seems to have gotten a bug and is getting better. 

For a couple days he didn't show up at my front door, or kitchen window, as per usual. Finally, I looked around, and he had been hiding out -- sleeping in my living room, behind a chair on a cat bed. I had thought he'd gone outside, but he hadn't. He wasn't feeling well. Finally, I got him to eat some canned cat food with cod liver oil sprinkled on it -- he ate a little off a spoon, then would stop. Then a few hours later I got him to eat again. I placed a heating pad in the cat bed, too. Now he's up and around maybe once a day. After losing a cat just five months ago, it's heartening to see one of my cats get better for a change.

HEARING MALI ON SHORTWAVE!!

I've been DXing every night and/or morning, and although some MW stations have re-appeared from the ether that were missing since 2014, many have never reappeared on any of my radios. 

The re-appearing stations? KEJB Eureka, 1480, with oldies. Eureka is a city on the far northern coast of California. KEJB plays a cool mix of oldies. I hadn't heard them in at least 10 years and they began showing up again.

KDUN, Reedsport, Oregon 1030 is another reappearance. They used to be a nightly listen in 2012-2013, then they went off the air. When they came back on the air, I never heard them until a couple months ago. They play an interesting mix of Classic Hits.

Another reappearing station is KSWB, Seaside, Oregon -- also on the Coast. They were a nightly listen in 2012-2014 or so, then disappeared for 10 years. Now they are back. They aren't as strong as they were in 2013, but it's cool hearing them. Co-channel Classic Hits station KKNX Eugene OR hasn't returned yet, though. I used to hear both of them, playing their mixes of Classic Hits. When the Solar Minimum kicked in, they both disappeared.

Which leads to my opinion about the Solar Cycle: This cycle is a DUD. I should be hearing a lot more than I'm hearing on both MW and SW. Back in 2012 I used to hear KVNS, Brownsville, Texas on 1700, nearly every night, just using a Sony SRF-42 and a small loop. I haven't heard them in well over 10 years. 

I know that some out there think the Solar Cycle Peak is awesome. Sure, it's awesome when compared to a minimum. But it's a mediocre, crap Cycle we're in. Anyone who has logbooks going back several decades (as I do) can tell you that.

But you get what you get.

This isn't to say it's all been bad on SW and MW. Just three hours before posting this article I heard MALI on Shortwave! It was on 5995 kHz, after 0600 UTC (after 10 p.m. Pacific time).

I heard it on my new XHDATA D109WB radio, which I had my indoor 25 ft. / 8 meter wire clipped to. I have heard Mali maybe once or twice before, a year or more ago, on a different radio (probably my Panasonic RF-B45 and indoor wire). RTV Mali broadcasts 50KW from Bamako, the capital. The signal was not readable, but I could tell it wasn't English, some of the speech sounded similar to African accented French, and the music I could hear definitely sounded African.

RTV Mali also came in on my Tecsun PL-398, although the bass response on the XHDATA is greater, making it easier to follow the music. It came in on my Panasonic somewhere in between the XHDATA and Tecsun, with the main differences being the sound or fidelity.

I unclipped the indoor wire and my XHDATA was even bringing in the station off the whip. It wasn't readable, but it was still barely there. 

The XHDATA D109 is a great little radio. I got it just before the tariffs hit on February 4th. I will have an article worked up on it that I hope to publish in a month or so, after I have plenty of time to run it through its paces.

So, even though I still think this Solar Cycle is a dud, it's much better now than it was during the Solar minimum, and I will take whatever I can get. If Mali comes in now and then -- awesome.

Until next time, when I post some of the articles I've been working on,

Peace.

C.C. February 22nd, 2025

(Washington's Birthday)