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)

Long distance reception of a Spanish station on Medium Wave during daylight hours

Since I did a previous scan of the Medium Wave band in March, I have found several other very weak signals buried in the noise. One of these however is just about audible and can be heard in the middle of the day. I built a very basic loop aerial with some wire would around a cardboard box (30 x 45 cms) and tuned it with a variable capacitor. The result was that I can now ID two of the signals.

The signal on 855 kHz was Radio Nacional 50kw transmitter near Santander on the north coast of Spain, a distance of 992 kms or 616 miles. As can be seen from the map above, the path is almost completely over the ocean.

The aerial mast in Spain is just 300m or so from the water while I am 10 kms from the south coast of Ireland.

Radio mast near Santander

The other signal heard was from the test DRM transmitter of France Blue (8kw) on 1071 kHz near Brest, a distance of 500 kms or 310 miles.

I was wondering if the signals were possibly sky wave but I don't think so. They are there in the middle of the day every day and they are really steady like you might expect from a ground wave signal.

The radio used was a very basic Sony radio which was indoors. The loop aerial was just sitting on top of it.

992 kms seems like a remarkable distance for a ground wave signal on the medium band. There are plenty of much closer transmitters in the UK that I can't hear but the sea path to Spain seems to be making all the difference.