The American Forces Network, whose studio in Vicenza, Italy, is pictured, is cutting four radio programs and will stop offering commercially produced podcasts on its AFN Go streaming service beginning Thursday, officials said. (Richard Scavetta/U.S. Army)
The American Forces Network is cutting several of its radio programs and will stop offering commercially produced podcasts on its AFN Go streaming service starting Thursday, as part of broader Defense Department cost-saving measures, officials said.
“We looked at radio programs that had redundancies in music formats, niche audiences, or diminishing listenership,” AFN’s chief of radio, Tom Arnholt, said in an email Tuesday when asked about the cuts.
“The goal was to preserve our most popular radio services, while leveraging our AFN Go playlist capabilities to continue providing the widest variety of popular music choice we could.”
The Defense Department announced April 21 that the programs AFN Legacy, Freedom Rock, The Blend and Joe Radio would stop airing in May.
Despite removing their classic and modern rock stations — Legacy and Freedom Rock — AFN is working on a new streaming-only offering that will combine classic, modern and alternative rock genres, Arnholt said.
“Unfortunately, the Legacy and Freedom Rock stations were experiencing diminished listenership and were evolving into niche listenership,” Arnholt said. “Combining the formats to create an AFN-managed rock playlist station is a more cost-effective way to provide listener favorites from across the most popular rock sub-genres.”
A rollout date for the new streaming-only service was not available.
The Defense Department announced April 21, 2025, that the programs Joe Radio, AFN Legacy, Freedom Rock and The Blend will stop airing as of May. (American Forces Network)
Meanwhile, The Blend Hot Adult Contemporary format was seen as too similar to AFN The Eagle. Fans of Joe Radio can find similar music on the Hall of Fame playlist station, which features a variety of Billboard No. 1 hits from the past five decades, AFN said.
Joe Radio should not be confused with “The Joe Show,” which broadcasts live from Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany, and provides listeners with information about news and events in the European theater.
The network confirmed that no AFN stations, including AFN Vilseck, will be closing as part of its cost-cutting measures. Only the four radio programs are being discontinued, in addition to the podcasts being removed from AFN Go.
The podcasts include “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” “The Sean Hannity Show,” NPR’s “Consider This,” “The Mark Levin Podcast” and others.
AFN began offering podcasts on AFN Go in 2022, after the app — formerly called AFN 360 — was rebranded.
The app has seen audience growth of more than 30% in the past year, according to the Defense Department’s statement. But AFN officials say podcast listenership has been lower than expected.
“The cost of maintaining the platform and podcasts was increasingly difficult to support given the relatively low listenership,” Arnholt said. “The majority of the political opinion podcasts on AFN Go are available on other popular, commercial platforms that target specific (demographics) for that type of content.”
