Audio By Carbonatix
Back in January, Clear Channel laid off 1,800 employees, several of whom were good Friends of Unfair Park and most of whom worked in ad sales. Today comes news that the San Antonio-based conglomerate has laid off more folks in a second round of budget-cutting — and gone even deeper in the talent pool, with several on-air folks among the 590 being let go. One radio trade pub is reporting that Alan Ayo — a Best of Dallas winner in ’04 — is out at KDGE-FM, while Jen Austin’s no longer doing nights for KDMX-FM. It also says here that “Crash has exited middays on classic rock KZPS.”
Clear Channel’s Dallas market manager J.D. Freeman tells Unfair Park today that, yes, those three were indeed let go yesterday — and that they are, for now, the extent of the local on-air layoffs. Ayo was The Edge’s music director, and those duties will now be handled by the station’s operations manager, Vince Richards. But he was also the much-loved 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. midday host — and beginning today, as matter of fact, that job is being handled out of Los Angeles by a very familiar name: Josh Venable.
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