EWTN Ends 34-Year Shortwave Mission to the World
Costly repairs and dwindling listeners prompt EWTN to shift resources from shortwave to AM, FM, apps and streaming after decades of global outreach.
On October 30, 2026, Michael Warsaw, chairman of the board and CEO of EWTN, announced that the network was ending its shortwave radio service. WEWN went off the air on October 31 after 34 years of broadcasting—the station with which EWTN first launched its radio work in 1992.
Warsaw said the board of governors had recently confirmed the decision. He pointed to declining shortwave listening, high operating costs relative to a shrinking audience, and aging facilities that would require major, costly repairs. Making those investments, he said, would not be “prudent management of our resources.”
From Irondale to the ends of the earth
He recalled that "it was shortwave that inspired and enabled the growth of EWTN Radio," and thanked the collaborators and benefactors who sustained the station for more than three decades. Among them he named Piet Derksen and his wife Trudy, whose $26 million gift built the WEWN facilities.
EWTN had already stopped beaming shortwave directly to North America in 2008. Since then the English service had reached mainly Africa and the Middle East, and the Spanish service to Latin America—regions where shortwave had long remained a lifeline for Catholics seeking solid teaching, news, and prayer when local media were scarce or hostile.
A shift, not a silence
Warsaw framed the closure as a reallocation of the network’s effort toward "newer and broader-reaching distribution channels." EWTN Radio content will remain available through digital platforms, internet streaming, mobile apps, podcasts, satellite, and an affiliate network of more than 600 AM and FM stations worldwide.
For a Catholic audience that had long depended on EWTN for catechesis and connection to the universal Church, the end of WEWN marks the close of a pioneering chapter. The mission of bringing the Gospel and the life of the Church to distant listeners continues—now carried chiefly by terrestrial radio and the digital means that have become ordinary for millions of the faithful.