KEZK released long-time air talent Jim Doyle just before his Friday show was set to begin at 2PM. Doyle was let go (and let's not be coy and call it a layoff) at the same time other programming elements were added and shifted between CBS' two STL FM's. This comes directly on the heels of the company's dismissal of
It's no surprise that these most recent changes occurred the same week that CBS suits were in town reviewing budgets and programming. As much as I've beat up CBS/STL FM's PD Mark Edwards, I'm told that losing Kelly and Doyle were just about the last things he'd want to do; this was apparently a corporate decision and not Mark's.
As a former PD, I've been in those situations myself and being forced to do such a thing is a very bitter pill to swallow. I know that if there had been any other way to effect a budget change, he'd have taken that route instead of the way things turned out. Edwards is a smarter PD than that.
Jim Doyle's been on the radio in St. Louis for, what, three and a half decades? God forbid that a few suits, of any level or stripe, take a small paycut or slimming of their annual bonus to keep a legend on the air and ensure continuity of brand to their station.
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