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iHeartMedia laid off the majority of the news staff at KFI-AM 640 on Monday, leaving the newsroom decimated by the cuts. Employees were informed while Gary Hoffman and Shannon Farren were on the air, and they discussed what was happening with listeners.
At the conclusion of the duo’s second hour on Monday, they addressed the ongoing cuts happening just outside their studio because they felt as if they could no longer ignore it.
“It’s a very sad day here. A very sad day,” she reiterated. “iHeartMedia is slashing people left and right, and the entire news department, essentially, is being fired right now as we speak, and has been since this show started. It’s very hard to talk about it because of what it’s meant to our lives and everyone else listening. And I mean, these are people that you have connections with, and that you have for years, and the place where you turn to get news and local news, and KFI has always been the place and the company has decided that we don’t need that anymore.
“Yes, it makes sense financially, I guess, if you’re going to be the person who has to make those cuts. But, God, you’re losing so much, and the station’s losing so much, and everyone listening is losing so much.”
Shannon Farren continued by saying she’d never encountered an environment like Monday at KFI-AM 640.
“I’ve never worked at a place where this much bloodletting at once. I’m probably gonna get in trouble for this, but I just can’t do a show and not talk about what’s going on. That’s just not who we are.”
“That is the weird thing about it, is that we’re in this room, we’re here, but in that hallway that’s 10 feet away from us, there are people carrying boxes out,” co-host Gary Hoffman said. “Maybe it means it’s an opportunity for us to be thankful for the next 45 seconds of job that we have. That is the uncomfortable part of it. Or one of the many uncomfortable parts.”
“It’s really hard to continue to talk about news and Cabinet appointments when people’s lives are being upended as we speak. It’s awful,” Farren concluded.
According to a social media post from former KFI-AM 640 News Director Chris Little, at least 13 of the 25 news reporters, anchors, editors, and producers at the iHeartMedia station were cut on Monday.
