Monday, August 7, 2017

Bellingham WA Radio: KBAI Flips To Classic Hits

Former Progressive radio talk station KBAI 930 AM / K255DC 98.9 FM is now a classic hits station. Cascade Radio Group General Manager Don Kurtis said the change is the result of a national decline of progressive talk radio syndicates.

“It was apparent the time had come for a change. It was certainly not a right-wing conspiracy,” Kurtis said of the change this week. “There is nothing behind it other than we can’t put a consistent product on the air and in order to be viable for our sponsors, we need to have a consistent product.”

While there was strong support for the progressive shows in the county, Kurtis said hosts Jon Grayson and Bill Press alerted KBAI that they were ending their syndicated shows at the end of last year, and that this year has seen the death of Alan Colmes, as well as a reduction of hours from host Leslie Marshall.

Kurtis said KBAI was 95 percent syndicated content, as only the hour-long Joe Show with host Joe Teehan was locally produced. Teehan is now a news anchor for sister Saga station N/T KGMI 790 AM / K243BX 96.5 FM.

KBAI 930 AM (1 Kw)
Kurtis said there are no plans to change KGMI or introduce a progressive talk show to the station, as he strives for consistent programming.

K255DC 98.9 FM (250 watts)
Kurtis said the station is always trying to focus on increasing local content, but local production is expensive and being a talk show host is more difficult than most people think.

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