National Broadcaster in Spain to close its AM network on Medium Wave at the end of 2025

On the 18th of November 2025, the Spanish national broadcaster RTVE issued a press release stating that they will be closing their AM network on Medium Wave at the end of 2025.

The stations concerned at Radio Nacional and Radio 5.

Some key points from the press release...

1) RNE's AM broadcasts will end before December 31st of this year , and the public will be informed through a special campaign , highlighting the various alternative ways citizens can already listen to Radio Nacional and Radio 5 programming. Furthermore, regardless of the rollout of digital radio via DAB+ and its resulting increased coverage, FM coverage will be reinforced in specific areas that may be particularly affected by the AM switch-off.

2) Continuous decline in AM listenership, and currently only about 1% of the Spanish population listens to it. In 2013, RNE's medium wave broadcasts had 176,000 listeners. In the latest survey, RNE's medium wave audience was only 69,000, 58,000 of them on the former Radio 1 and only 11,000 on Radio 5 broadcasts.

3) In Europe, 26 countries have already switched off their Medium Wave broadcasts. In those countries where they haven't been switched off, the audience is very small, and in some, such as Italy, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia, their national public broadcasters have even ceased broadcasting.

4) The manufacture and availability of new medium-wave radio receivers has drastically decreased worldwide, resulting in a significant shortage that is making access to these broadcasts increasingly difficult. Furthermore, fewer and fewer new vehicles in Europe are equipped with medium-wave reception.

5) RNE's Medium Wave network has very high electricity consumption, resulting in a significant carbon footprint. Its energy and economic costs are considerably higher than those of FM and, of course, DAB+.

6) DAB+ will have an automatic alert service for the population in Spain. During the blackout on April 28, RTVE was able to keep the public informed at all times thanks to the preparedness of its radio and television broadcasting networks. That day, radio demonstrated its vital importance in emergency situations and was for a long time the only means by which citizens could receive up-to-date information . Radio Nacional was the most listened-to station . 

Terrestrial radio and television broadcasting exhibits high resilience, and in particular, DAB+ radio broadcasts in Spain will incorporate the ASA (Automatic Safety Alert) system. This pioneering system alerts the public to emergencies and disasters and will activate automatically on compatible receivers.

The ASA allows automatic security alerts to be delivered to the population through spoken messages, with announcers transmitting all relevant information in emergency situations and with additional text and image information on the receiver screens, making the alerts clear, understandable and reliable.

Analysis... In terms of broadcasting in western Europe in the Medium Wave band, this is a major development. As alluded to above, many of the broadcasters in Europe have stopped transmitting on Medium Wave (AM) and only countries like the UK and Spain have major networks.

To the best of my knowledge, the close down of this network in Spain means that approximately 170 AM transmitters will be turned off.

A few years ago, I did a scan of the Medium Wave band at night from my location in Ireland and the Spanish RNE network accounted for about 20% of the 150 or stations that I heard.

Now that the Spanish national broadcaster is closing down it's AM network, surely it's only a matter of time before the commercial stations shut theirs.

Links...

1) RTVE Press Release (in Spanish)

talkSPORT in the UK to close 7 AM transmitters on the Medium Wave band

It was recently announced that OFCOM, the UK regulator has given permission to talkSPORT to close down 7 of its 18 AM transmitters on the Medium Wave band. It is claimed that the move will reduce its national AM radio coverage from 92% to 88.9% of the UK adult population. 

The reasons given by talkSPORT for these changes include declining listenership to its AM service as people turn to alternative platforms, considered against the ongoing viability of each transmitter site.

The transmitter sites talkSPORT will close are...

1053 kHz - Stockton (Durham/North Yorkshire)(1kw), Southwick/Brighton (West Sussex)(2kw), Rusthall (Tunbridge Wells)(4kw)

1071 kHz - Clipstone (Nottinghamshire)(1kw)

1089 kHz - Lisnagarvey (nr Belfast)(13kw)

1107 kHz - Duxhurst (Surrey)(1kw), Lydd (Kent)(2kw)

As can be seen from the list above, the stations are relatively low power for an AM transmitter with levels of about 1 to 4 kw. The highest power transmitter is the 13kW output from Lisnagarvey near Belfast.

The remaining 11 transmitters will continue to transmit on 1053, 1071, 1089 & 1107 kHz. Some of these run in the region of 80 to 130 kilowatts so it's likely that most listeners in the UK won't notice any difference when the seven listed transmitters above are turned off.

A timeline for the closures wasn't given but it seems likely that it will be done after an appropriate warning to listeners.

The trend of closing down AM transmitters continues as more and more people opt to listen to radio stations via FM and DAB or online by using Smartspeakers or phone apps.

Absolute Radio to turn off its medium wave transmitters - Jan 2023

On the 4th of January 2023, Absolute Radio announced that they were switching off their network of medium wave transmitters. It is expected to happen on the 23rd of January 2023.

Virgin Radio was launched as an AM only network back in 1993 and it was rebranded as Absolute Radio in 2008. 

While they have closed down a few AM relays in recent years, the January 2023 shutdown is a huge change. I counted no fewer than 20 transmitters on their medium wave network that will close. These are shown in the map above.

According to Ian O'Neill of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, AM radio accounts for just 2% of the listeners in the UK but makes up 35% of the radio transmission energy costs. With stats like those, it's no great surprise that the AM network will be shut down.

From my location here on the south coast of Ireland, the signal from Washford is a reasonable signal during the day. As the years go by, the number of medium wave stations within range is reducing bit by bit. 

The main high power medium transmitters are on 1215 KHz with lower power relays on other frequencies shown below.

1215 kHz (Red)
Station Transmitter kW  
Absolute Radio Brookmans Park 62.5
Absolute Radio Droitwich 52.5
Absolute Radio Westerglen 50
Absolute Radio Moorside Edge 50
Absolute Radio Washford 50
Absolute Radio Lisnagarvey 16
Absolute Radio Newcastle upon Tyne 2.2
Absolute Radio Postwick 1.2
Absolute Radio Fareham 1

1197 kHz (Blue)
Absolute Radio Brighton 1.1
Absolute Radio Nottingham 0.5
Absolute Radio Gloucester 0.3
Absolute Radio Bournemouth 0.25
Absolute Radio Oxford 0.25

1233 kHz (Orange)
Absolute Radio Northampton 0.5
Absolute Radio Manningtree 0.5 

1242 kHz (Green)
Absolute Radio Boston 2
Absolute Radio Stockton-on-Tees 1
Absolute Radio Stoke-on-Trent 0.5

1260 kHz (Purple)
Absolute Radio Lydd 1
 
Links...

1) News item from Radio Today

2) Announcement from Absolute Radio

BBC to close another batch of Medium Wave radio transmitters in 2021

In a posting on the 14th of April 2021, the BBC announced that they were going to close the medium wave service for ten regional stations in May & June of this year. With fewer and fewer people now listening to medium wave radio, the BBC felt that the transmitter didn't offer value for money.

"As I have written about in previous blog posts, we have been closing some Medium Wave (MW) transmitters across the UK which no longer offer sufficient value for money for licence fee payers."

"A large and increasing share of radio listening in the UK - including to the BBC - is digital, and the BBC is committed to a digital future for radio. In recent years we have made significant investment in local DAB expansion, all of our local radio stations are available on digital terrestrial TV (such as Freeview), and we have transformed our online and mobile offering with BBC Sounds."

A total of 14 medium wave transmitters will be closed down and these are shown below...

Most of them are reasonably low power with powers between 0.5 to 2 kW. The large one is the 160 kW Radio Ulster transmitter near Belfast which would have been heard all over Europe at night. 

They also announced that four regional transmitters will be reducing their output power.

The current power levels are shown above as it's not yet clear what the new power level will be.

"In addition, the following stations will have reduced MW coverage:

Radio Wales
Impacted areas including North of Snowdonia, Anglesey, Bangor, Caernarfon, Conwy, and Betws-y-Coed and Areas around Wrexham and east of Snowdonia. Still available on, FM, DAB, and online and on all TV platforms (Terrestrial, Satellite, and Cable)

Radio Gloucestershire
With areas around Stow-on-the-Wold being impacted DAB will likely be the best option for most listeners. Available on 104.7 FM around Gloucester, 95.0 FM around Stroud and 95.8 FM around Cirencester. Still available on Freeview/Youview and online (through a smart phone, computer, or smart speaker)"

The BBC announced its intention to close MW transmitters back in 2011. It's likely that more will close in the years ahead.

Link...

1) Next phase of changes to some local BBC radio Medium Wave services - Apr 2021