Twin Cities Radio: Barb Abney Fired From KWTN

Barb Abney

KWTN Go 96.3 FM fired afternoon DJ Barb Abney on Thursday, 18 months after the station earned headlines for hiring the former 89.3 The Current host.

“I’m a free agent again,” Abney said Thursday afternoon. “It was a shock, but not as much as it was (when I was fired from The Current).” She said ratings were the reason for her dismissal: “You get the ratings or you get the boot.”

A veteran of Cincinnati’s WOXY.com, Abney moved to the Twin Cities in 2006 to take a job with The Current. According to twincities.com, she quickly established herself as a prominent personality on the station as well as in the local music community. But just days after the Minnesota Public Radio station celebrated its 10th anniversary with a series of sold-out concerts and special events, the station let her go, telling the media it was a “programming decision.”

The move spurred a backlash among Abney’s listeners, who took to social media to vent their anger and, in some cases, cancel their MPR membership. At the time, the Pohlad family-owned K-Twin was in the midst of rebranding itself as Go 96.3, a modern-rock station that also airs Minnesota Twins games. Two weeks after The Current let her go, Go 96.3 hired Abney and used her high profile to help launch the new station, according to the report.