N/T KERN-AM Lays Off Anchors, Host

In an effort to cut costs, officials at radio station KERN AM 1180 Bakersfield, CA. have laid off two longtime anchors and severed the remainder of its relationship with a popular talk show host, according to a story by Susan Scaffidi at The Californiana.

Brett Reckamp, director of AM programming, confirmed Friday that news anchors Danielle Sullivan and Bill Curtis, and former host Inga Barks, were laid off effective this past Wednesday.

"It was just a straight-up economic issue," Reckamp said. "Working for the news department can be quite expensive."

Reckamp said KERN's news team was the largest in the seven-station radio group owned by parent company American General Media. The layoffs bring the news team down to six people, including two anchors, one producer, a show host and two anchor/reporters. Reckamp also serves as the program director for the news.

"We're just doing more with less when it comes to doing news," Reckamp said.

While she would not comment on the layoffs, Sullivan, who started with the station in 2003, noted that she and Curtis had served as morning co-anchors from 2005 to about 2008. From there, she and Curtis were both re-assigned to different slots, with Sullivan eventually serving as the mid-morning anchor starting at 10:30 a.m. and Curtis anchoring the afternoon slot starting at 2:30 p.m.

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