AZ Radio: KJIK Employee Allegedly Torches Station

Scott Louis Welbaumn, an employee of KJIK 100.7 FM Magic in Duncan, AZ has been arrested for allegedly set the station on-fire last Wednesday morning.

According to eacourier.com, he then stayed to watch.

The fire caused the station to go off the air until around noon Wednesday, according to a statement from its general manager, Dan Curtis, on the station’s Web site.

Early Wednesday morning, police dispatch received an anonymous call about a structure fire at the station. When officers arrived, they noticed smoke pouring out of the building and a man, later identified as Welbaum, standing in the parking lot watching.

Welbaum was told to retreat from the area, and he informed officers he was an employee of the station and there was a significant amount of expensive electrical equipment inside. The fire department responded to the scene and extinguished the fire. According to reports, Safford Fire Chief Clark Bingham advised the fire was possibly arson and that it appeared to have been set intentionally in multiple places from the inside of the building.

Officers then learned the anonymous phone call about the fire had been placed at a pay phone at Walmart across the highway. A Thatcher officer responded to review surveillance footage from the store and saw a man he believed to be Welbaum approach and use a pay phone at the time of the tip.