Four favorite DJs were laid off — and their fans reacted in all sorts of ways
Decades of local DJ talent have just gone off the air.
And the social media reaction is like an 11 on your radio volume.
South Florida fans have reacted with anger and disappointment to the news that Kimba, Jade Alexander, Todd Allen Durkin and The Beast are gone for now.
The Pennsylvania-based Entercom’s layoffs were reported Tuesday by Ramp: Radio and Music Pros.
Radio silence for South Florida talent that goes back to the 1980s in this market when classic rock wasn’t yet called classic but was being played as current.
Layoffs hit Kimba, Alexander, Durkin, the Beast
▪ This means Kimba, who has been on South Florida airwaves for so long she’s recognizable by one name. She was one of the downsizing casualties.
Kimba was an afternoon drive DJ and assistant program director at WLYF 101.5 Lite FM). But before she sailed soft yacht rock there she was a rowdy jock for the long-gone and much-missed (by us “OK, Boomer” generation anyway) ‘70s and ‘80s rock station, WZTA Zeta 4.
Kimba sent a message to her listeners through a text to the Miami Herald.
“Thank you so much for listening — from back in the day to now,” she wrote. “The outpouring of love, support, and even outrage has been truly humbling. I hope to be talking with you again real soon.”
▪ Also hit by the layoffs: Jade Alexander, who was on middays on Classic Hits WMXJ (102.7 The Beach). Alexander has nearly 30 years in South Florida where she spent a decade on WHYI Y-100.7 FM spinning contemporary pop and as an anchor and entertainment reporter for TV’s WFOR.
In 1995, the Herald dubbed Alexander “the queen of Saturday nights at Confetti” for her popular weekly dance parties at former South Florida nightclubs like Confetti and Bermuda Bar. Disco, as a name, might have been dead, but Alexander did her part to keep Miami-Dade and Broward dancing.
▪ If Todd Allen Durkin wasn’t playing Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert and Dan + Shay’s latest hits on WKIS Kiss Country 99.9 FM, you quite possibly saw him on the theater stage where, as an actor, he co-starred in recent productions by Actors’ Playhouse, Miami New Drama, Zoetic Stage and others.
▪ Brian “Beast” London, co-host of WAXY 790 The Ticket’s Tobin, Leroy & Beast morning show, also was part of Entercom’s cuts in a move to centralize operations. In The Beast’s quarter-century on the radio, he spent some 12 years on WQAM 560 AM, too.
“We thank them for their contributions and wish them the best,” an Entercom rep told Ramp.
Fans’ reactions
The company did not immediately offer further comments on the changes. But for many South Florida listeners, these people were simply “the best,” to quote a Tina Turner oldie surely one of these people played at one point or other on the radio.
One such listener offered Kimba some mighty high praise on her Facebook page but prefaced it with a — ahem — colorful attack on South Florida radio that went, more or less, like this:
“Because South Florida radio sucks big [@$%&], [@!*#], sweaty, unwashed, syphilis ridden [!@#$%], Kimba Schnickelfritz, you deserve to be on the Mount Rushmore or radio! What a [expletive] business.”
“Now there’s a visual,” Kimba teased back. “I love you for that.”
“Kimba Schickelfritz fired? BLASPHEMY!!!” read another.
Yet another thanked a “humbled” Kimba for career inspiration.
“Something for you to think about on a day like today. Way back when, in your 94.9 Zeta days, I would listen to you non-stop while in high school. Hearing your voice, anecdotes, jokes etc. is what made me go into media. I even called you up one day (i requested the song Vanishing Cream LOL) and I told you that I really hoped one day I could work alongside you! Fast forward a few years later and although I didn’t make it to radio, I did end up in media. So thank you! I’m sure you had a hand in shaping hundreds of careers throughout the years.”
During Kimba’s run on Zeta 4, a Miami Herald radio columnist wrote of the DJ in 1992: “Kimba has an appealing, throaty voice; she sounds like she’s always suppressing a laugh. And she manages to slip a joke in here or there between the music.”
Years later, Kimba was a hit with local musicians when South Beach clubs still featured the likes of then up-and-comers like the Mavericks, The Goods, Natural Causes, Marilyn Manson and Load. That’s because she hosted the Zeta Goes Local program, which gave the locals some exposure.
“I don’t think the show is, like, the eighth wonder, or anything like that,” Kimba told the Miami Herald in 1998. “But we’re giving these bands a chance to be heard, and the alternative is not being given a chance to be heard.”
Durkin, whose fans know him from stage, screen and by voice, were similarly moved.
“You electrified all our ears with your beautiful voice, and presence full of laughter, love of music and integrity. They cray cray,” a fan posted to his Facebook page.
A message to the listening family
The Beast, meanwhile, posted a message to his listeners on his Facebook page where he acknowledged being “inundated with texts, tweets, calls, message and smoke signals.”
He thanked his Entercom family and supporters and wrote, in part: “I love you with all of my heart and I hope at least at one moment or another I made you smile. That is, at the very nature of it, what I’ve always wanted to do, as an entertainer. Whether it was on the air, or off, just one smile or chuckle was my goal. I may not be walking by your desk or studio tomorrow, but I won’t forget about you and I hope you don’t forget about me.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 2:08 PM.
