Portland ME Radio: GM Bob Adams OUT At Portland Radio Group

The president of several Portland radio stations is no longer working for the company, the latest of several high-profile changes and firings at the stations over the last few months.

The Portland Press-Herald reports the  departure of Bob Adams as president and general manager of the Portland Radio Group was prompted by the stations’ need for a “more defined growth pattern,” according to a memo sent to employees by Saga Communications, the group’s Michigan-based parent company. The memo called Adams “a fine, dedicated, career long broadcaster who all of us like and respect.” He had worked for the company for more than five years.

Street talk has it that Adams was giben the news over lunch and never returned to work.

Bob Adams

In recent months, Portland Radio Group stations have made news for highly-visible firings that upset some listeners. Randi Kirshbaum, an on-air host for WCLZ and WPOR who had been on Portland radio 38 years, was laid off May 18 after she refused to return to work at the company’s South Portland studios because of health concerns related to COVID-19 and a serious lung disease that runs in her family. Kirshbaum, who was also program manager for WCLZ and Coast 93.1, has hired a lawyer, who plans to file a discrimination complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission and a possible lawsuit.

Ken Altshuler, who was the liberal-leaning co-host of WGAN’s weekday morning news and talk show, was fired March 27 after some 18 years.  Altshuler said at the time he was told his firing was part of financial restructuring at the station, while McDonald said he was given no reason.

The Saga memo sent to Portland Radio Group staff Monday is dated Monday and announced Adams’ “departure” effective Monday “with regret.” The only reason given was the need for a “more defined growth pattern” and that “a change was necessary.” No other details were provided. It also said Adams’ replacement would be announced in the next few days, and thanked Adams for his “service and commitment” to Saga.

Several of the changes at Portland Radio Group have occurred since the COVID-19 pandemic began shuttering businesses in mid to late March, and affecting all businesses that make money from advertising, including radio.

Saga, which owns or operates 79 FM and 34 AM stations in 27 markets, released a statement in May saying its net income increased 22.6 percent in the first quarter of this year, which ended March 31. But the quarter ended just two weeks or so after businesses began closing.

After being laid off, Kirshbaum posted a message on Facebook asking her supporters – who were angered by the move – not to boycott or protest the stations. In her post, she called the Portland Radio Group’s management and staff “wonderful people” who “had nothing to do with my termination.” On Tuesday, Kirshbaum referred questions about Portland Radio Group and Adams’ departure to her lawyer, David Webbert.

Webbert called Adams’ departure an  “abrupt termination, without cause” and part of a pattern of age discrimination by the company. He said Saga has been using “excuses” to push out older, veteran employees like Kirshbaum, 66; Altshuler, 67; and McDonald, 75, without cause. He said Adams, who has worked in radio for 27 years, may fit the pattern. Webbert said he plans to cite age discrimination when he files a complaint on Kirshbaum’s behalf with the Maine Human Rights Commission.

Before coming to Saga in 2014, Adams had been general manager at a radio station in Gilford, New Hampshire, from 1993 to 2000, and vice president and general manager for Cumulus and Citadel stations in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area from 2000 to 2014.

The Portland Radio Group includes country stations The Outlaw and WPOR, oldies stations Rewind 100.9 and Pure Oldies 105.5, easy listening station The Bay, adult alternative station WCLZ, adult pop station Coast 93.1 and news station WGAN.