Five jobs eliminated at area radio stations Clear Channel consolidating operations

Five full-time jobs were cut last week at radio stations in Bangor and Ellsworth.

The stations are owned by San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications.

General Manager Jim Herron said Tuesday that the cuts were a result of consolidating operations in a new building on Target Industrial Circle in Bangor.

Clear Channel owns 19 stations in Maine and operates an additional three in the state, Herron said. The company owns and operates more than 1,100 stations nationwide.

Clear Channel stations in Maine employ about 140 people, he said, with most of those jobs full time.

As Clear Channel has acquired stations in Maine that previously had competed, it made sense to move operations to a central building. The company renovated a building in the Bangor industrial park.

The job cuts came in the clerical and programming support areas of the business, Herron said.

In its Hogan Road location in Bangor, Clear Channel operated the news-talk station WVOM-FM (103.9); adult-contemporary station WKSQ-FM (94.5); and classic rock station WFZX-FM (101.7). WFZX had been broadcasting at 101.7 and 97.7 FM, but the latter frequency now will be dedicated to WNSX-FM, a sports-talk station.

In its Acme Road location in Brewer, Clear Channel operated WWBX-FM (97), which offers Top 40 music, and WABI-AM (910), which plays adult standards and big band music.

The company’s Ellsworth location was used for some of WKSQ’s programming; the country music station WLKE-FM (99.1); and WNSX-FM, the sports station. The Ellsworth office will remain open, Herron said.

It was his decision to consolidate operations and make the cuts, not a directive from Clear Channel’s corporate headquarters, Herron said. “It was not a fun day,” Herron said of the announcement.

NEWS reporter Andrew Neff contributed to this report.