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The story
Background
Disney had for a long time been involved in the music business, building off its success in movies and TV shows, which later became Disney Music Group. However, with radio, Disney was not committed to the medium only doing a few shows. Radio Disney is Disney's third foray into radio. In late 1955, Walt Disney started The Magic Kingdom radio show—running Monday through Fridays and which was heard on ABC Radio. Even before the 1996 Disney-CC/ABC merger, Disney and ABC Radio considered as early as 1991 planned for a children's radio network but dropped the idea. Starting on July 31, 1994, Disney started a weekend radio show, Live From Walt Disney World, that originated from both Disney World and Disneyland on Radio AAHS.
In November 1995, ABC Radio Networks and Children's Broadcast Corp. reached an agreement for ABC Radio to provide marketing and sales to Radio AAHS. After Disney's acquisition of CC/ABC, Disney had ABC Radio cancel the agreement in August 1996 plus announced the start of its own children's network and ended AAHS's Disney World broadcasting rights.
History
ABC Radio Networks (1996–2006)
Radio Disney was test launched at 5 am on November 18, 1996, in four markets, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and Birmingham, Alabama by ABC Radio Networks. On March 8, 1997, a fifth test market was added, Seattle on former KidStar station KKDZ.
Pleased with the results in those four test markets, ABC Radio Networks announced on May 8 that Radio Disney would begin a nationwide rollout, starting on October 1. On August 26, Radio Disney was launched in Los Angeles on KTZN/710, and by the end of the year, the network had 14 affiliates.
By August 1998, 28 stations had affiliated with Radio Disney, with an expected 63 stations by the end of 1999. Radio Disney purchased KAAM (AM) (Plano, Texas) for $12 million and switched the station to the network in August. In 1998, the network was based out of its Dallas station.
Other than music, the network aired other programs such as "Mickey & Minnie's Tune Time", a two-hour, weekday-morning, toddler-aimed program, and two 60-second features per hour which included contests, "ABC News for Kids" and "Gross Me Out". The network ran its Radio Disney Project Family Initiative from July 1 to September 15, 2003, with family-themed programming and events to get family to sign on to the Radio Disney Family Pledge.
Radio Disney would later begin being carried on XM Satellite Radio in 2001, with the station launching on Sirius Satellite Radio in 2002.
Disney entered a joint venture to launch Capital Disney digital radio channel in the UK and operated from 2002 until June 29, 2007. In 2004, Disney paid the former Children's Broadcasting Corporation (which operated children's radio network Radio AAHS) $12.4 million in a lawsuit settlement.
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In April 2002, Radio Disney began using a new logo, which was followed by the network redesigning its website, and changing its slogan to "Your Music, Your Way" on May 28, 2002.
On July 30, 2003, ABC Radio Networks founded the Radio Disney Group, who took over operations of most of Radio Disney's stations.
The year 2006 marked the network's 10th anniversary; Radio Disney rebroadcast its first hour of programming from November 18, 1996, on June 6, 2006, at around 4:58 pm. EST on stations in selected markets, such as WQEW. Also, as part of the 10th anniversary, Radio Disney held the "Totally 10 Birthday Concert" on July 22, 2006, at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California. It also included a simultaneous live webcast on the Radio Disney website. A second concert was held in Dallas, Texas, on November 18, 2006, at the Dallas Convention Center.
Disney Channels Worldwide (2006–2014)
In August 2006, operational duties of Radio Disney were transferred to the company's Disney–ABC Cable Networks Group (currently d.b.a. Disney Channels Worldwide), which otherwise operates Disney's cable television properties, except for ESPN.
On June 12, 2007, Disney spun off and merged its ABC Radio Networks with Citadel Broadcasting into Citadel Communications while retaining its ESPN Radio and Radio Disney networks and stations.
In March 2008, Radio Disney and Gracenote signed a licensing agreement starting immediately that allowed the lyrics to be seen along with the song online on Radio Disney Internet Radio Player. The channel began streaming live on iTunes Radio Tuner in August 2008. In November 2008, Radio Disney relocated its main operations from Dallas to Los Angeles. The former radio studio that housed Radio Disney in Dallas began to be used by The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show in 2008.
On October 8, 2008, the network launched the Next Big Thing feature which allowed listeners to vote on young unsigned artists' songs to be played. In 2013, the Radio Disney Music Awards began airing on the Disney Channel.
Sometime in April 2009, Radio Disney changed its logo to the one used until the station's closure.
By 2009, Radio Disney was starting to reduce its station footprint to the larger markets to make the network more profitable. In January 2010, Radio Disney Group requested permission from the FCC to "silence" five of its owned-and-operated stations (along with a sixth station operating under a local marketing agreement with another company) while the stations were being sold. Disney sold six AM stations and one FM station that year. In June 2013, Disney announced the sale of seven owned-and-operated stations in medium-sized markets, in order to focus back on Radio Disney's broadcast distribution on the top-25 radio markets.
On April 10, 2014, it was announced that Radio Disney's Top 30 Countdown would become a syndicated radio show, distributed by Rick Dees's Dees Entertainment. Aha Radio, Slacker and ShowMobile signed online carriage agreements with the network in mid-2014.
Shift to HD Radio and digital (2014–2020)
On August 13, 2014, Radio Disney's general manager Phil Guerini announced plans to sell all but one of its remaining owned-and-operated stations on or before September 26, 2014, in order to focus more on the network's programming, co-branded events, and digital outlets. Listenership reports indicated that the majority of Radio Disney's audience listened to the network via satellite radio and other digital platforms, and only 18% via terrestrial AM/FM radio. KDIS remained operational to serve as the originating station for the Radio Disney network, while the remaining stations would continue carrying Radio Disney programming until their respective sales were completed. The last five Radio Disney owned-and-operated stations for sale were sold on September 15, 2015, to Salem Media Group (who was the largest purchaser of the stations) for $2.225 million.
On April 13, 2015, Disney announced that the Radio Disney network would move to HD Radio subchannels; the network would be distributed by iBiquity via deals with broadcast companies (CBS Radio, Entercom, Cumulus Media, etc.) with ad sales handled by its HD Radio Digital Network. A network representative stated that the move was intended to target families as in-car listeners. Eventually, those deals ended quietly after a few years. On August 6, 2015, Radio Disney was made available for listening on iHeartRadio.
It was announced that on November 25, 2019, Disney had secured a deal with Entercom to bring Radio Disney and Radio Disney Country to the company's Radio.com platform.
Decline and closure (2020–2021)
On December 3, 2020, Disney announced that both Radio Disney and Radio Disney Country would shut down in the first quarter of 2021 as part of its restructuring plan to focus more on producing content for the television networks and Disney+, with KRDC being put up for sale. Radio Disney began to wind down operations on New Year's Eve 2020, as their DJ's hosted their last shows, and was discontinued on SiriusXM on that same date. Radio Disney Country was completely shut down at noon Pacific Time on the same day as the main Radio Disney feed; KRDC subsequently returned to the main feed. On January 1, the station ceased its Top 40 format and switched to an automated flashback playlist which mainly consisted of songs from throughout the nearly 25-year history of the network. The Radio Disney app and website shut down on January 22, 2021, while the station continued to broadcast on iHeartRadio until it was removed sometime during March. At that point, the station was only heard in the Greater Los Angeles Area on terrestrial radio until April 14, 2021, at 10 am PT, when it was quietly discontinued and switched to a simulcast of sister station KSPN. The final song where Radio Disney played prior to being switched was "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield.
Despite the station now being defunct, Radio Disney's Instagram and Twitter (now X) remain active to promote other Disney movies and TV shows, mainly those airing on Disney+.
Replacement services (2021–present)
On March 25, 2021, Disney launched Disney Hits, at the time exclusively on SiriusXM. Unlike Radio Disney, Disney Hits only includes music from The Walt Disney Company's productions.
In August 2022, Disney announced a partnership with Audacy Inc. to launch nine additional Disney-branded audio feeds through the Audacy mobile app, in addition to making Disney Hits available on that platform. The nine channels include jazz, a sing-along channel, flashback-format channels devoted to the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, a "Disney Reimagined" channel, a Spanish-language channel, a channel devoted to music from Disney Channel, and an LGBTQ-oriented "Disney Pride" channel. The announcement noted that additional Disney-branded channels, including at least one Christmas music channel, would be added later in 2022.
Radio Disney History of #1s
These songs hit No. 1 on Radio Disney's Top 50 Songs from 1997 to 2020.
1997: Will Smith – Men in Black
1998: Celine Dion – My Heart Will Go On
1999: Britney Spears – (You Drive Me) Crazy
2000: NSYNC – Bye Bye Bye
2001: NSYNC – Pop
2002: Avril Lavigne – Complicated
2003: Hilary Duff – Why Not
2004: Hilary Duff – Come Clean
2005: Bowling For Soup – 1985
2006: Hannah Montana – The Best of Both Worlds
2007: Jonas Brothers – SOS
2008: Jonas Brothers – Burnin' Up
2009: Taylor Swift – You Belong with Me
2010: Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris – Baby
2011: Selena Gomez & the Scene – Love You like a Love Song
2012: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
2013: One Direction – Best Song Ever
2014: Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea – Problem
2015: Shawn Mendes – Stitches
2016: Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty
2017: Julia Michaels – Issues
2018: Marshmello & Anne-Marie – Friends
2019: Shawn Mendes – If I Can't Have You
2020: BTS – Dynamite
From Wikipedia’s article on Radio Disney, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4