Radio Has Entered the Holiday Season and Employees Are Wondering Who Will Still Have a Job in January

FROM THE PUBLISHER | STEVEN D. MILLS | ON THE DIAL

Thanksgiving is approaching, Christmas decorations are appearing in radio station hallways, and somewhere in America, a broadcaster is wondering whether the company Christmas party will be the last time everyone in the building is employed. That is a terrible thought to carry into the holiday season, but after another year of corporate restructuring, eliminated positions and familiar voices disappearing from the airwaves, it is a reality that deserves more than another carefully worded press release about operational efficiency.

I’ve spent enough years in broadcasting to know that radio has always been a business of change. Formats come and go. Morning shows get replaced. Ratings rise and fall. Companies buy companies, sell stations and reorganize their operations.

But something about the way this industry has learned to eliminate people while celebrating its financial strategies has become deeply troubling.

We’re talking about human beings, not numbers in a spreadsheet.

In 2026, major broadcasting companies have continued confronting the financial pressures that have reshaped radio for years.

iHeartMedia implemented significant personnel reductions earlier this year, affecting broadcasters and other employees across its operations. The company has also outlined substantial cost-saving initiatives as it works to improve its financial position.

Cumulus Media has experienced its own restructuring and workforce reductions, with employees in programming, sales and other departments affected.

These are documented developments, not predictions of another round of layoffs.

And that distinction matters.

There is no verified announcement of an industry-wide Thanksgiving or Christmas layoff wave.

But after watching colleagues lose jobs throughout the year, can anyone seriously blame radio employees for wondering what January might bring?

Here’s what bothers me most.

When a company eliminates a position, the announcement usually sounds remarkably clean.

A restructuring.

A realignment.

An operational adjustment.

A strategic reduction.

Good Lord, corporate America has developed an entire vocabulary designed to make unemployment sound like somebody moved the furniture.

But behind every eliminated position is a person who has to go home and explain what happened.

There’s a mortgage.

There’s a car payment.

There may be children expecting Christmas presents, a spouse worried about health insurance or an aging parent depending on that paycheck.

And sometimes the person being let go has given that company 15, 20 or 30 years of loyalty.

You cannot deposit corporate appreciation into a checking account.

I’ve known broadcasters who gave everything they had to their stations. They worked holidays, answered emergency calls, covered extra shifts and represented their communities when nobody from corporate headquarters was anywhere to be found.

They didn’t just work in radio.

They lived it.

And when those people disappear from the payroll, the industry loses something that cannot be replaced by automation, another syndicated program or a freshly updated website.

Let me be clear. I understand that broadcasting companies have financial responsibilities. Revenue must support expenses, debt must be managed and businesses sometimes face decisions nobody wants to make.

I’m not suggesting that every layoff is avoidable or that every executive making difficult decisions is heartless.

But I am suggesting that how you treat people when the numbers get uncomfortable says more about your leadership than any quarterly earnings presentation ever will.

If cuts become necessary, communicate honestly. Give employees as much notice and assistance as circumstances allow. Treat departing broadcasters with dignity. Don’t let people discover their careers are over through rumors, disconnected email accounts or a replacement already appearing on the company website.

And whenever possible, don’t turn somebody’s holiday season into a financial emergency simply because a spreadsheet looks better when the reduction lands before December 31.

There’s another casualty in all of this.

The listener.

Every time a local personality disappears, a community potentially loses a familiar voice. Every time a local position is consolidated, another opportunity for genuine hometown connection can disappear with it.

Radio built its reputation by being there.

During tornadoes.

During floods.

During school closings.

During community celebrations.

During the ordinary mornings when somebody simply needed a familiar voice to help start the day.

Technology can distribute programming across hundreds of stations. It cannot automatically reproduce the relationship a local broadcaster spent decades building.

And if radio keeps eliminating the people who make it personal, eventually listeners may decide the industry has eliminated its own reason to matter.

I hope the remaining weeks of 2026 bring stability rather than another parade of goodbye messages from talented broadcasters.

I hope companies find creative ways to preserve jobs, support their people and rebuild sustainable operations.

And I hope the executives making these decisions remember what it feels like to be the person sitting across the desk rather than the person holding the paperwork.

Because while the industry debates digital revenue, artificial intelligence, debt obligations and operating margins, thousands of people still get up every morning believing in the power of radio.

They deserve to know that their dedication means something.

To every broadcaster who has lost a job this year, your career is not defined by the company that decided it could no longer afford you.

And to those still working, wondering what the next email or mandatory meeting might bring, I hope this holiday season brings reassurance rather than uncertainty.

Radio has survived wars, recessions, television, the internet, satellite radio and streaming.

Surely it can find a way to remember the value of its own people.

Because the saddest Christmas song in broadcasting isn’t one about heartbreak or loneliness.

It’s the sound of a microphone being turned off because somebody in a corporate office decided the person behind it cost too much.

And that, my friends, is a holiday tradition this industry needs to end.

— Steven D. Mills
President and Publisher, On The Dial

On The Dial covers breaking radio industry news, including layoffs, programming changes, talent moves, and broadcast trends across the United States.

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