2025 in radio

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The following is a list of events affecting radio broadcasting in 2025. Events listed include radio program debuts, finales, cancellations, station launches, closures, and format changes, as well as information about controversies and deaths of radio personalities.

January

Date Event Source
6 Finnish DJ Yotto broadcasts his first hour-long show, "Yotto's Odd World", on Europe's One World Radio. [1]
10 Mexican radio station XEQI-AM surrenders its licence to broadcast. [2]
30 Spanish variety radio station WYKO, based in Puerto Rico, canceled its licence to broadcast. [3]

February

Date Event Source
14 In the Philippines, DWFO launched its Contemporary MOR station as 87.5 Republika Ni Juan.
18 Westwood One signs a rights deal with the United States Soccer Federation to be the official radio network of the men's national team and women's national team. [4]

March

Date Event Source
1 In retaliation for escalating tensions between U.S. president Donald Trump and Canada, Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment stations of all formats devote all of their playlists for the day to Canadian content. [5]
3 Cumulus Media begins the process of closing down underperforming terrestrial radio stations, consisting mainly of FM rimshot signals and AM stations without translators. [6]
13 WIRY Plattsburgh, New York closes after 75 years of operation, blaming its own inability to hire salespeople, music royalty increases and changes in music listening patterns that diverted listeners away from local, independently owned full-service stations such as WIRY. [7]
14 U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reduce the functions of several agencies including the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which owns the international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) and its sister networks (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio y Televisión Martí, and Radio Free Asia), to the minimum required by law. The next day, all employees could not access VOA headquarters, and many VOA foreign language broadcasts replaced news and other regularly scheduled programming with music. Several international broadcasters which uses the shortwave radio transmitter facilities of VOA are also affected. [8][9][10]
26 BBC radio series HARDtalk is broadcast for the last time, to be replaced by a similar programme titled The Interview.[11] while its last radio episode was aired two days later on 28 March.[12]

April

Date Event Source
8 Canada's Maritime Broadcasting System rebrands all 5 of its radio stations it had acquired from Bell Media. CKTO-FM in Truro, Nova Scotia, CKBC-FM in Bathurst, New Brunswick and CIKX-FM in Grand Falls, New Brunswick became The Wave with the "Wave" branding expanding into New Brunswick. CJCJ-FM in Woodstock, New Brunswick also became The Wave and flipped to classic hits. CKTY-FM in Truro, Nova Scotia returned to its heritage Cat Country identity.
14 Canadian company Vista Radio closes its acquisition on 21 radio stations from Bell Media.[13]
20 US network Westwood One purges seven of the 24/7 satellite networks that it inherited from Satellite Music Network, Jones Radio Network and Transtar. The seven networks include Good Time Oldies, a gold-based classic hits network, two classic rock networks, two adult hits networks and its contemporary hit radio network. Most of the stations carrying those networks would be forced to flip to other formats. [14]
22 Ted Cruz becomes the first currently serving United States Senator to host a nationally syndicated radio show as Premiere Networks launches Cruz's podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz, which he co-hosts with current Premiere host Ben Ferguson, into weekend syndication. To avoid conflict of interest and campaign finance issues, Cruz will not be paid for hosting the program. [15]
N/a Several Australian news outlets reported that Sydney-based radio station CADA airs Weekdays with Thy, of which the latter was not a real person, but was AI-generated. [16][17]

May

Date Event Source
29 DWPM Radyo 630, a Philippine AM radio station controlled jointly by Philippine Collective Media Corporation and ABS-CBN, rebranded to DZMM; reviving the callsign 5 years after its shutdown in 2020. [18][19]
- Mareco Broadcasting Network's Crossover Radio Online permanently ceases operations due to unknown issues.

June

Date Event Source
7 Philippine news/music network XFM began its broadcast on soft launch through 99.5 DWRT-FM, a radio station in Metro Manila owned by Real Radio Network. Y2H Broadcasting Network, XFM's parent, began occupying the operations of the said station through airtime lease agreement since May 1. [20]

July

Date Event Source
1 Overcomer Ministry, the radio evangelism network owned by the estate of R. G. "Brother" Stair (who died in 2021), begins cancelling its syndication contracts. Overcomer had previously bought large blocks of airtime on United States shortwave radio broadcasters, providing a key source of revenue for those stations (among them WRMI, WWCR, WTWW and WBCQ) and select AM stations (such as clear-channel WWVA). The program disappeared from most of its affiliates on this date, with select others continuing to air the program until its carriage contracts expire. [21]

September

Date Event Source
1 Susan Stamberg retires from NPR. A part of the public radio network since its launch in 1971 (she is regarded as one of its "founding mothers"), Stamberg hosted All Things Considered and the Sunday version of Weekend Edition. Stamberg would die one month later on October 16. [22][23]
4 Alan Levin, a fixture of radio in Rochester New York, and member of the Radio Hall of Fame, abruptly retires from radio after a format switch of WAIO from Hot Talk "Radio 95.1" to Active Rock "Rock 95.1" and an attempted demoting of Levin to weekends by station owner iHeartMedia. Levin hosted a weekday morning show for 40 years, starting on WCMF-FM Rochester in 1985 and later moving to WAIO after a contract stalemate with WCMF owner Entercom in 2008. [24]
15 Power FM (under Word Broadcasting Corporation) was rebranded as Juander Radyo (under RSV Broadcasting Network) in Cebu, Philippines and Ormoc, Philippines.
30 Philippine radio program Boys Night Out abruptly ended its broadcast on Magic 89.9 after 19 years. [25]

October

Date Event Source
11 Dr. Demento retires from broadcasting with the release of his final episode of The Dr. Demento Show, ending a 55-year run. Host Barry Hansen had been hosting the show as a subscription online offering for the previous 15 years, after 36 years in broadcast syndication. [26]
30 Singaporean media company So Drama! Entertainment ceases broadcast of its two stations 883Jia and Power 98 from FM terrestrial airwaves as both stations will transition into digital-only broadcast via live audio streaming on the company's new radio platform Kakee. It still decides on whether they'll return its license frequencies back to the Singaporean government. [27]
31 More than 30 years after being replaced by the Spanish-language FM radio station KBUE, the Long Beach, California-based hard rock and heavy metal FM radio station KNAC (Pure Rock) is resurrected as a replacement of the call letters to the High Desert-based radio station KHDR (Highway Rock). This version of KNAC replicates its original format, playing a variety of music from classic rock to hard rock and heavy metal, including heavy bands (Iron Maiden for example) that no other radio stations would regularly play. [28][29]
WAKW in Cincinnati, for the second consecutive year, is the first non-stunting station in North America to adopt the Christmas music radio format for the 2025 holiday season. [30]

November

Date Event Source
28 The Grand Ole Opry reaches 100 years on the air and thereby becomes the first American radio program to reach that milestone. [31]

December

Date Event Source
1 92.7 ORFM in San Fernando, Pampanga are officially launched by Oriental Mindoro based Rabino Broadcasting and Advertising Services. But it is silent on December 2.
10 Beasley Broadcast Group, an American broadcast station owner, becomes the target of a pump-and-dump attack as speculators and automated bots spread disinformation about the company in an effort to drive retail investors to buy the stock and drive up its price. [32]
15 Howard Stern announces a three-year extension with SiriusXM that renews The Howard Stern Show through the end of 2028. The extension comes after several months of prolonged negotiations that resolved two weeks before the end of Stern's previous contract; the terms of the contract will see Stern take on a reduced, more "flexible" production schedule. [33]
27 Tiësto's Club Life, the internationally syndicated weekly EDM show hosted by Dutch DJ Tiësto, ended its broadcast after 978 episodes. [34]
31 Cumulus Media-owned WNAM/Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin ends broadcasting after 78 years on the air. [35]

Deaths

See also

References

External links

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