Radio Disney, Launching Pad for Younger Stars, Will Shut Down Subsequent 12 months

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Radio Disney, the nationwide radio community that entertained younger listeners for greater than twenty years and helped jump-start the music careers of Disney Channel stars like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Selena Gomez, is about to finish operations early subsequent 12 months, Disney’s tv division introduced on Thursday.

The transfer is a part of Disney’s growing give attention to its streaming platform, Disney+, and its tv channels, based on Disney Branded Tv. Shoppers’ rising curiosity in additional personalised music experiences and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on in-person musical occasions additionally contributed to the choice, the corporate stated.

Thirty-six full- and part-time staff will probably be laid off on account of the transfer, including to a wave of layoffs at Disney throughout the pandemic. In September, Disney laid off 1000’s of staff at its U.S. theme parks, and on Thursday greater than 100 individuals, together with some senior executives, had been laid off throughout Walt Disney Tv, a Disney spokeswoman stated.

Radio Disney Nation, which debuted in 2015 as a digital-only platform, will even stop operations. Radio Disney in Latin America, which is separate from the U.S. operations, is not going to be affected.

Began in 1996 as a terrestrial radio station, Radio Disney grew to become a vacation spot for preteens and youngsters, primarily taking part in pop music and songs popularized by Disney Channel reveals. By 2005, the station was accessible throughout 97 % of the US. In 2009, Radio Disney reached about 30 million listeners per week, a Disney spokeswoman stated. That 12 months, it opened a studio in Burbank, Calif., that grew to become its programming headquarters.

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In a shift, the community started reaching its viewers totally on digital and satellite tv for pc platforms as an alternative of over the airwaves in 2014, when the corporate bought 23 native market stations. (Its final remaining native station, KRDC-AM in Los Angeles, will probably be bought in 2021.)

Within the Nineties, the station largely performed well-liked artists like Britney Spears and ’NSync. It later served as a launching pad for artists early of their careers, together with Hilary Duff, Raven-Symoné, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Zendaya.

“Radio Disney was undoubtedly the primary and one of many form of most vital occasions within the improvement of the tween music business,” stated Tyler Bickford, an affiliate professor of kids’s literature and childhood research on the College of Pittsburgh and the creator of “Tween Pop: Youngsters’s Music and Public Tradition.”

By embracing pop music and mixing it with its live-action reveals on the Disney Channel, Disney was capable of entice older kids across the ages of 11 and 12, Professor Bickford stated, contributing to an rising preteen demographic that Radio Disney labored to domesticate.

The station’s influence on up-and-coming younger expertise can nonetheless be felt at present, based on the singer-songwriter Megan Nicole.

Ms. Nicole’s first single, “B-e-a-utiful,” continuously obtained airtime on Radio Disney after its launch in 2011. She stated the station supported her early in her profession.

“I used to be with my label for 3 years, I went unbiased, and at the same time as an unbiased artist Radio Disney nonetheless supported me, which, wanting again, is fairly superior of them to do,” the singer, 27, stated.

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She usually performed reveals across the nation with Radio Disney, she stated, and carried out on the Radio Disney Music Awards preshow in 2014. She stated one in all her fondest recollections of Radio Disney concerned collaborating in an on-air expertise present when she was younger.

“I used to be too afraid to speak on the cellphone with a D.J., so I had my buddy do the speaking, after which I sang and handed the cellphone again to my buddy,” she stated. “It’s fairly humorous that I went from being afraid to speak to anybody to, quick ahead years later, they’re taking part in my music.”

Ms. Nicole advised her Twitter followers on Thursday that Radio Disney’s closing was “the top of an period.”

“I grew up with them, prefer it was simply so iconic as a toddler,” she stated. “Disney was every part.”

Brooks Barnes contributed reporting.



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