A Brief History of Radio Consolidation

How deregulation, consolidation, and debt reshaped U.S. radio — and why the old growth model is breaking down

Come with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear — an era radio professionals call The Before Times.

Before 1996, radio consolidation existed — but it had limits. The FCC capped how many stations a company could own nationwide and restricted how much of a local market one owner could control. Most stations were owned by local operators or regional …