05/23/2024
Hello all. This is Ken. I didn't expect this to be my first post as owner, but sometimes things come up that need to be said. If you haven't heard, all of the Brookings Radio on-air talent- the DJs- were let go without notice yesterday. This wasn't only in Brookings, but in several other stations owned by the same Alpha Media group. It's apparently intended to save the company money.
In my humble opinion, Brookings (and the region) just lost a bit of what makes us special. We lost the people that came and broadcast our local sporting events. We lost the live broadcasts from special events like the truck raffle for the Boys & Girls Club of Brookings. We lost support for community groups like Brookings Regional Humane Society and Brookings Community Theatre Volunteers. We lost severe weather updates and coverage of breaking news in the area. I was living in Volga in 2001 when the town was evacuated for a propane leak, and Brookings Radio was critical in getting out information for what all of us residents needed to do. And the loss of all this, and more, makes me sad.
I'm also angry. The human beings who were treated so poorly yesterday deserved more than this. Bald Bob, Brian Waltz, Michael Quinn, Jay Roe, JD Berreth, Dusty Stalder, Perry Miller, and others (sorry if I forgot you) have been the backbone of our community for decades. Voices that have moved on in either occupation or in life like Brad DeBeer, Grant Peterson, or the late Dellas Cole were also such a fixture for so many years that most of the time, we were so used to them that we didn't even register who was talking, we just knew what we were hearing was true and expected. And when the weather was bad, and the authorities were telling us to stay home or get to shelter, this was the one group that always made it in to keep us informed.
For a number of years now, I've been doing in-studio spots with Bob on KBRK in the mornings. Its a pale imitation of what Kevin did for a number of years, but I've enjoyed it tremendously, even if we often strayed away from the selling of appliances that I was supposed to be doing those mornings. I consider Bob a friend and I feel awful about this being the ending for his radio career. I've linked his daughter's post in the comments. Please support these folks in any way you can.