Local Radio Is Under Threat in Small-Town America

As the FCC weighs ownership rule changes, the stations communities rely on during fires, storms, and disasters are struggling to survive

I’ve spent my life in radio. And I can say this with certainty: when fires burn, storms hit, or disasters unfold, local radio is absolutely essential.

Especially in small towns.

Radio still works when the power goes out, when cell service drops, and when broadband is overloaded or nonexistent.

Local stations know the evacuation routes. They know which roads flood first. They know where the shelters are, which schools are closed, and which neighborhoods are in danger. They’re talking directly to local fire chiefs, sheriff’s departments, and emergency managers — not reading a generic script from two states away.

That lifeline is at risk.

The FCC is reviewing radio ownership rules, and some broadcasters argue it’s doing so as if radio still lives in a protected bubble. It doesn’t. It’s competing with global digital platforms that face no ownership limits — and no obligation to serve local communities in an emergency.

Small stations are struggling to survive. AM stations, especially. And rules that block them from sharing resources, pairing weak signals with stronger ones, or attracting investment don’t protect local radio.

They starve it.

I’ve seen how this plays out.

I was working in Orlando, then Miami, as consolidation took hold. On paper, stations grew. Office spaces expanded. New studios were built. But a lot of people suddenly found their jobs “redundant” — loaded onto the ice floe and pushed off.

Then I landed in Miami, working in a building that housed not two stations, but five. That feels normal now — even quaint. Back then, it was shocking.

Scale changed everything. Some of it made stations more efficient. Some of it hollowed them out. And there’s no question the ranks of radio talent have shrunk since those heady days.

The lesson isn’t that consolidation is good or bad. It’s that pretending the economics don’t matter is fatal.

Small-town radio stations don’t need speeches about localism. They need a chance to survive.

Because when they disappear, what replaces them isn’t another local voice.

It’s silence.

Why this matters to you — even if you never worked in radio

If you live in a small town, local radio may be the only real-time source of information during an emergency — wildfires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes.

When everything else fails, radio is often what’s left.

When a local station shuts down, the community doesn’t just lose music or talk shows. It loses a trusted voice that knows the place — and knows how to respond when something goes wrong.

These stations don’t vanish because no one cares. They vanish because the math stops working. And rules that make survival harder don’t protect communities.

They weaken them.

If the FCC gets this wrong, people won’t notice all at once. There won’t be an announcement. Just fewer local updates. Slower information. Less coverage.

And then, one day, no signal at all.

Small communities can’t afford that.

Neither can the people who live there.