diff --git a/archives/messages.go b/archives/messages.go
index 3a8c859..a716bf1 100644
--- a/archives/messages.go
+++ b/archives/messages.go
@@ -232,13 +232,12 @@ func DeleteArchivedMessages(ctx context.Context, config *Config, db *sqlx.DB, s3
 }
 
 const sqlSelectOldOrgBroadcasts = `
-  SELECT id
-    FROM msgs_broadcast
-   WHERE org_id = $1 AND created_on < $2 AND schedule_id IS NULL
-ORDER BY created_on ASC, id ASC
-   LIMIT 1000000;`
+SELECT id
+  FROM msgs_broadcast b
+ WHERE b.org_id = $1 AND b.created_on < $2 AND b.schedule_id IS NULL AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM msgs_msg WHERE broadcast_id = b.id)
+ LIMIT 1000000;`
 
-// DeleteBroadcasts deletes all broadcasts older than 90 days for the passed in org which have no active messages on them
+// DeleteBroadcasts deletes all broadcasts older than 90 days for the passed in org which have no associated messages
 func DeleteBroadcasts(ctx context.Context, now time.Time, config *Config, db *sqlx.DB, org Org) error {
 	start := dates.Now()
 	threshhold := now.AddDate(0, 0, -org.RetentionPeriod)
@@ -261,23 +260,10 @@ func DeleteBroadcasts(ctx context.Context, now time.Time, config *Config, db *sq
 		}
 
 		var broadcastID int64
-		err := rows.Scan(&broadcastID)
-		if err != nil {
+		if err := rows.Scan(&broadcastID); err != nil {
 			return errors.Wrap(err, "unable to get broadcast id")
 		}
 
-		// make sure we have no active messages
-		var msgCount int64
-		err = db.Get(&msgCount, `SELECT count(*) FROM msgs_msg WHERE broadcast_id = $1`, broadcastID)
-		if err != nil {
-			return errors.Wrapf(err, "unable to select number of msgs for broadcast: %d", broadcastID)
-		}
-
-		if msgCount != 0 {
-			logrus.WithField("broadcast_id", broadcastID).WithField("org_id", org.ID).WithField("msg_count", msgCount).Warn("unable to delete broadcast, has messages still")
-			continue
-		}
-
 		// we delete broadcasts in a transaction per broadcast
 		tx, err := db.BeginTx(ctx, nil)
 		if err != nil {