Most members of the KFI 640 news team in Los Angeles, including news director Chris Little, lost their jobs Monday amid pressure from iHeartRadio to eliminate hundreds of jobs across the country.
Little, in an Instagram post, said 17 of the station’s 25-member news team, including himself, were laid off. Her Instagram post showed the station’s Christmas tree, which was put up the day before the layoffs.
“Today they fired seventeen journalists. Yesterday we put up the tree. Little said: “I am one of the deceased.”
KFI anchor Joe Kwon, editor Erin Benmosche, and journalists Corbin Carson and Chris Adler were among the other employees who lost their jobs.
Tim Conway Jr., who hosts his namesake show from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. weekdays on KFI, addressed the layoffs at the top of his show on Monday.
“A lot of people have left the iHeart Media building.” “And that’s hard,” Conway Jr. said.
Conway Jr. then shared memories of the Christmas staff and talked about his long working relationship with Little.
He hadn’t worked at the station, which calls itself “the most stimulating news and talk radio station” in Los Angeles and Orange County, since 1991. He was named news director in 2000.
Parent company iHeartRadio is cutting hundreds of jobs across the United States. The company owns about 860 stations nationwide and faces a significant debt burden. The New York Post reported that as of Monday, iHeartRadio had “roughly $5.21 billion in total debt.” The New York Post reported that as of Monday, iHeartRadio had “roughly $5.21 billion in total debt.
Last week, on iHeartRadio’s third-quarter financial call, CEO Bob Pittman said job cuts would help the company save about $150 million. “Eliminate layoffs.”
Veteran KFI program director Robin Bertolucci and her husband Don Martin, who ran sports station AM 570 out of the same building in Burbank, retired last week amid national cuts at iHeartRadio.
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