Buck Owens Broadcasting Country 550 KUZZ/107.9 KUZZ-FM Bakersfield will be revamping its entire on-air lineup.
Morning hosts Cliff Dumas & Tanya Brakebill will retire on Friday, June 23 with current Music Director/afternoon host Kenn McCloud and evening host Vanessa Heraldez moving to mornings as “Kenn & Ness”. Current 9am-12pm host Mike Bell will slide down to 10am-2pm, with Program Director and 12-3pm host Brent Michaels shifting to 3-7pm. Skyview Networks’ B-Dub Radio will be added in evenings.
Dumas will be departing KUZZ after three years in mornings to focus on his new station group. The Dumas led BTC USA Holdings Management acquired Frontier Media LLC’s stations in Texarkana AR/TX and Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka AK and then five stations in Northern Michigan last fall. Dumas also co-hosts a syndicated morning show with Sharon Burns and was Chief Content Officer of Pattison Media’s Everything Podcasts. He has also hosted mornings at KRST Albuquerque and spent a decade at KSON San Diego. Dumas is a member of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame for hosting mornings at KHAM Hamilton and CISS-FM Toronto, was the voice of CMT Canada and the Canadian Country Music Awards, and produced and hosted many Canadian Country music specials.
Brakebill has been with KUZZ since 2002 with multiple stints as morning co-host and also midday host. She will continue to serve as Public Affairs Director for the company. She stated that she originally intended to retire from the on-air role last summer.
McCloud has hosted afternoons at KUZZ since December 2017 after joining in 2016 as a weekend/fill-in host. He previously spent fifteen years at iHeartMedia Bakersfield with stints as SVP/Programming, Operations Manager, and PD/Morning host at both AC 105.3 KKDJ and Country 96.5 KBKO. McCloud also has programmed in Des Moines and Albuquerque.
Heraldez began hosting nights last November after a year as a weekend host at the station.
