VA Radio: Morning Host Kris Neil OUT At iHM's WKDW

Kris Neil

Longtime WKDW 900 AM morning show host Kris Losh, professionally known as Kris Neil, is no longer with the Staunton radio station.

Losh found out he had been let go Wednesday following his morning shift on the AM classic country station.

"Yeah, I had no idea," Losh said by telephone Thursday afternoon. "Maybe I'm naive."

According to Losh, the only reason he was given for the decision by parent company iHeartMedia was that his position had been eliminated.

iHeartMedia's Steve Knupp, the senior vice president of programming in Staunton and Harrisonburg, sent the following statement via  email to News-Leader.

"As of August 10th, Kris Neal (sic) will no longer be part of the morning show on WKDW AM. We appreciate all of his contributions during his time with us and wish him well."

Losh had been with WKDW 25 years, hosting the morning show the past 17 years.

"To be honest, that was my dream job," Losh said. "That's the station I wanted to be at, it's what I wanted to do. Even as a kid, doing morning show, it was a dream."

For the first eight years he was with WKDW, Losh was everything from the receptionist to fill-in host to traffic manager. He even played the station's old mascot, the K.D. Bird, once.

Then, in 2000, he was asked to be the substitute host of the morning show.