L-A Radio: iHM 'Retires' Mark Wallengren, Ted Ziegenbusch At KOST

Mark Wallengren

Radio personality Mark Wallengren, who has worked at KOST 103.5 FM since 1985, and Ted Ziegenbusch, who has worked at the station for several decades without interruption since its founding in 1982, were among the purge of on-air talent at iHeartMediam reports The Orange County Register.

“I have some sort of important news,” Wallengren announced via Facebook video shot Thursday. “I didn’t know it, but yesterday, yesterday evening at 7 am, I realized – or I was told – that I did my last show at KOST 103.5 after 35 years.

“And let me tell you, what an incredible race,” he continued. “What an incredible journey, what incredible memories I have. I was allowed to work there, raise a family, travel around the world, make friends with amazing friends like you. And it’s done.

“But I mean, even if I couldn’t go to the radio and say goodbye, or you know, having some sort of retirement, it’s OK.” It’s a weird and crazy business. “


Ziegenbusch also announced on Facebook that he had also been “retired” by the station. He had worked at the station from 1982 to 2000 as host of his late-night Love Songs program, which had gone on for three years in the mid-2000s, and had been there constantly in a variety of roles from 2009 to Wednesday.

Teddy Ziggy

“I was the last remaining original KOST staff member who was hired in 1982 and I was still working at KOST until January 15, 2020,” wrote Ziegenbusch. “It was a wonderful trip!”

Angel Aristone, executive vice president of communications for iHeartMedia, said in an email that she could not comment on specific talent or markets on the air, but made a general statement about the layoffs this week.

“We are modernizing our business to take advantage of the significant investments we have made in new technologies and to align our operational structure to match the technological activities in which we currently find ourselves,” she wrote. “This is a new step in the successful transformation of the business as a 21st century multiplatform media company, and we believe it is essential to our future – it continues to build on and adds to our competitiveness, our effectiveness and our efficiency with all our main constituencies.