Reier Broadcasting Company has taken its five station cluster in Bozeman MT off the air.
Oldies 93.7 KOBB-FM Bozeman, Classic Rock 97.5 KOZB Livingston, Country 99.9 KBOZ-FM Bozeman, Talk 1090 KBOZ Bozeman, and Sports “ESPN 1230” KOBB Bozeman all suspended operations on Friday. Employee Ed Donohue wrote on Facebook that the stations had “too many major issues were continually ignored” and in an additional comment wrote that owner Bill Reier “has been ill for a long time and the business has been neglected for years in many ways”. Amongst the issues were that license renewals for the stations have been pending since 2012 due to owed regulatory fees.
Eric Jon Magnuson
A story yesterday (Thursday) from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle says that what apparently brought the situation to a head was missed lease payments for the offices/studios; specifically, after “attorneys for the owners notified the station in early May that they had 30 days to vacate […] the owners’ attorneys took possession of the building, land and equipment” late last week.
(See https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/business/kboz-radio-stations-go-dark-future-uncertain/article_ddb0d310-c8be-5a3e-b815-510e0a0d96bd.html; via Tom Benson.)