https://radioinsight.com/headlines/202148/radio-disney-to-cease-operations/

The Walt Disney Company will cease operations (https://deadline.com/2020/12/radio-disney-shutting-down-early-2021-jonas-brothers-miley-cyrus-1234649835/) of its “Radio Disney” (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-12-03/walt-disney-shutters-influential-radio-disney-after-two-decades) and “Radio Disney Country” brands in early 2021 (https://thedisinsider.com/2020/12/03/radio-disney-is-coming-to-an-end-in-2021/).

The youth and tween targeted brand debuted (https://loudwire.com/rip-radio-disney/) in November 1996 with the company utilizing mostly owned AM radio signals to grow in size. As streaming became more prevalent, the company began selling off most of its signals in 2014, but made now-expired partnerships to place the brand on HD Radio subchannels in many markets on stations owned by Beasley and CBS Radio. It would launch “Radio Disney Country” as a secondary streaming brand in the Fall of 2015, but would flip its remaining AM license, 1110 KDIS Pasadena/Los Angeles to it as KRDC in 2017.

Broadcasting & Cable (https://www.nexttv.com/news/radio-disney-shutting-down-in-first-quarter) reports that the end (https://www.thewrap.com/radio-disney-abc-news-layoffs/) of the brands will impact 36 employees. 1110 KRDC will be sold as part of the shutdown.

Radio Disney and Radio Disney Country will cease operations (https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/12/radio-disney-shutting-down/) in the first quarter of 2021 (https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/radio-disney-shut-down-operations-early-2021-1234845630/). The announcement was made today by Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Branded Television, who today addressed the 36 full- and part-time employees who will be impacted by the closure early next year.

Radio Disney in Latin America is a separate operation and is not impacted by the announcement today.

The difficult decision to close these two radio networks coincided with Disney’s recently announced structural changes (https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/radio/9493731/radio-disney-shutting-down-restructuring) that call for Disney Branded Television to sharpen its focus on increasing production of kids’ and family content for Disney+ and Disney Channels. Division leaders also took into account the fast evolving media environment that provides more personalized music choices than ever to a generation of young consumers, and the ongoing public health crisis that continues to affect in-person music events.

When Radio Disney began life as the first ever radio station targeted at kids ages 7-14 it would prove to be a huge mega hit because what made Radio Disney unique from other radio stations was they would play the same songs the regular stations played but in edited kid friendly versions and the chance to win awesome prizes and compete in drawings for sweepstakes prizes such as meet and greets with Disney celebrities Disney Parks vacations and even movie and concert tickets. Believe me I even won one Radio Disney contest when I became a winner of a Radio Disney t-shirt autographed by rap star Bow Wow which I still have. I think why Radio Disney lost listeners is because with the popularity of the Kidz Bop Series other music stations such as Pandora and Amazon Music have their own children's music sections which have virtually the exact same artists and cds as Radio Disney has but I have a feeling that since Disney+ continues to grow and expand Radio Disney will move to Disney+ and they will also feature Marvel Radio where you can listen to songs from Marvel movies and Star Wars Radio where you can listen to every score of the Star Wars movies. So while Radio Disney won't die this is a whole new world for Radio Disney to expand their horizons to fans
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