2025 in radio

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.

Notable events

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 it's 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), 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]

April

Date	Event	Source
8	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	Vista Radio closes its acquisition on 21 radio stations from Bell Media.
20	Westwood One purges seven of its 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.	[11]
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.	[12]

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.	[13][14]

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.	[15]

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.	[16]

Future events

October

Date	Event	Source
11	Dr. Demento will retire 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.	[17]
30	Singaporean media company So Drama! Entertainment will cease 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 is still decide on whether they'll return its license frequencies back to the Singaporean government.	[18]

November

Date	Event	Source
28	The Grand Ole Opry is scheduled to reach 100 years on the air; it will be the first American radio program to reach that milestone.	[19]

Fall TBA

• The Howard Stern Show is scheduled to reach the end of its current contract with SiriusXM. If the contract expires without a renewal, SiriusXM would continue to hold rights to the show's archives for the next seven years. Host Howard Stern has been on the satellite radio platform since leaving terrestrial radio in 2006.^[20]

Deaths

• January 2 – Bernie Constantin, Swiss songwriter and radio show host, 77^[21]
• January 3 – Willem van Kooten, Dutch businessman and DJ (Joost den Draaijer), 83^[22]
• January 12 – Arnold Frolows, Australian music director and radio personality, 74 (liver cancer)^[23]
• January 13 – Buck White, American mandolinist and Grand Ole Opry member, 94^[24]
• January 16 – Bob Uecker, American baseball announcer (Milwaukee Brewers Radio Network from 1971 to 2024), 90^[25]
• January 22 – Pete Medhurst, American football announcer (Navy Midshipmen football), 55^[26]
• January 29 – Max Schautzer, Austrian-born German television and radio presenter, 84^[27]
• January 30 – Leif "Loket" Olsson, Swedish television and radio host and singer, 82^[28]
• February 2 – John Crosse, British radio and TV announcer, 83^[29]
• February 11 – Philip Brady, Australian radio broadcaster (3AK, 3AW), 85^[30]
• February 16 – Reymund Tinaza, Philippine radio broadcaster and correspondent (Abante Radyo, Bombo Radyo Philippines), 42^[31]
• February 24 – Al Trautwig, American sportscaster (New York Apollo radio broadcasts), 68^[32]
• March 11 – Bob Rivers, American radio host and parody musician, 68^[33]
• March 13 – John Feinstein, American sportswriter (NPR, CBS Sports Radio), 69^[34]
• March 20 – Bob Davis, American sportscaster (Kansas Jayhawks), 80^[35]
• March 22:
  • Bill Mercer, American sportscaster (Dallas Cowboys, CBS Radio, Mutual Broadcasting, among many others), 99^[36]
  • Andy Peebles, British radio DJ and presenter (BBC Radio 1), 76^[37]
• March 30 – Jim Quinn, American shock jock and conservative talk radio host, 82^[38]
• April 14 – Jed "the Fish" Gould, American new wave/alternative disc jockey, 69^[39]
• April 15 – Winston "Wink" Martindale, American disc jockey and emcee (The Elvis Presley Story, 2021 version of The History of Rock & Roll), 91^[40]
• April 17 – Colin Berry, British radio disc jockey, presenter and newsreader (BBC Radio 2), 79^[41]
• April 20 – Mike Patrick, American sportscaster (WVSC, Jacksonville Dolphins basketball), 80^[42]
• April 23 – Steve McMichael, American Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman and sports radio host (WMVP), 67^[43]
• May 11 – Ted Randall, American shortwave radio broadcaster (WTWW, WRMI Legends), engineer and announcer, 73^[44][45]
• May 22 – Michael Rogas, Philippine radio broadcaster and correspondent (Presidential Broadcast Service / Radyo Pilipinas, DZXL), 44^[46]
• June 18 – Lou Christie, American singer (specials for 60s Gold on Sirius XM), 82^[47]
• June 19 – Gailard Sartain, American actor and comedy host (The Un-Filmy Can Festival for KAKC), 81^[48]
• July 1 – Jimmy Swaggart, American televangelist and owner/founder of the SonLife Broadcasting Network, 90^[49]
• July 2 – Sven Lindahl, Swedish musician, radio and TV presenter, 88^[50]
• July 4 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian ice hockey player and radio host (WAAF-FM), 61^[51]
• July 14 – John MacArthur, American evangelist (Grace to You), 86^[52]
• August 1 – Jeannie Seely, American country singer (a record 5,397 appearances as a Grand Ole Opry member), 85^[53]
• August 4 – James Whale, British radio show host, 74^[54]
• August 5 – Leonard Lopate, American radio host (WNYC, WBAI, WHDD-FM), 84^[55]
• August 13 – Art Wander, American broadcaster best known for his work in the sports radio and beautiful music formats, 98^[56]
• August 21 – James Dobson, American author, psychologist and radio commentator (created Adventures in Odyssey and Focus on the Family Radio Theatre), 89^[57]
• August 28 – Gary Burbank, American radio comedian (WLW, voiced Earl Pitts Uhmerikun for a series of nationally syndicated commentaries), 84^[58]

See also

• 2025 in British radio