After rescuing and rebuilding the station where she started her career in 1974 while in junior high school, Delilah Rene has surrendered the license of 1030 KDUN Reedsport OR telling the FCC that “after more than three years of operation, I’m not able to continue operating the radio
station and provide the financial means to do so”.
Delilah purchased KDUN from Post Rock Communications for $60,000 in May 2021. At the time she noted that Reedsport had no newspaper, television or other radio station and hoped to “engage the entire town in the station, offering local programming and news, complete with local hosts.” She would relaunch the station in September 2021 documenting the rebuild of the station to operate in what was once her fifth grade classroom. The station had been featuring a local morning show hosted by station manager Bob Larson and Delilah’s program in evenings.
Delilah wrote the following message to listeners announcing the shutdown,
It’s been my privilege to bless this community with the great music and companionship on KDUN AM 1030 for the better part of past four years. Thank you for giving this radio station your attention and support.
Reedsport is in my heart. So is this radio station, KDUN, when I started my radio career in 1974 as a junior high student before realizing a wonderfully blessed radio career that continues today. When the opportunity to put this radio station back on the air in 2021 become a possibility I jumped at the opportunity. I surrounded myself with so many talented individuals who helped me bring this radio station back to life. I’m proud of how we were able to entertain and inform you, whether it was with great music, fun conversations, local high school sports play-by-play coverage and so much more.
I’ve met so many wonderful people and re-connected with so many friends, old and new, in the process of being the owner of KDUN AM 1030.
Sadly, we can no longer continue to provide service and have returned the radio station license to the FCC for another broadcaster to provide service in the future. Bob Larson has done a wonderful job of managing the station the past year and he poured his heart and soul into keeping us on the air. Ryan Warrey, our engineer, has made multiple trips from the Seattle area to our little hamlet to maintain equipment and many special people have worked together to make the station a part of Reedsport. But sadly there is not enough business to sustain a commercial radio station.
I look forward to many more visits to Reedsport, more high school reunions and more special moments with friends in the area.
Until we meet again on the radio, God Bless!
Delilah
Smokey Rivers 
Lawrence Whelchel 
Brandon Charles 
I know Delilah is heartbroken about bringing down the curtain on KDUN. I worked alongside her for her first three years of ownership performing the required functions to keep a small market station moving along. Programming, sales, PR, socials, production, legal compliance, billing. It was an enlightening and instructive experience!
Watching her return the station to the community was an exercise in love, kindness and hope. And constant expense. Reedsport’s major employer departed decades ago. The town has been trying to find its footing ever since. Advertisers who could support the station did. The hospital. The big church in town. The bakery. A couple of realtors. The State Farm Agent. A few restaurants. A couple seasonal attractions. A regional maker of a non-dairy creamer. Just not enough.
A staff of quality contributors passed through KDUN during that time. I hope they benefitted from the experience and that they will fondly their time at “Dune Radio”.
Delilah deserves credit for doing what only she would or could do with KDUN. Not for the radio of it, but for the Reedsport, Oregon of it.
Smokey, It was a much worthy enterprise to at least attempt. But being an AM only product in the 2020s is still a high hurdle to clear. Could more have been done on the digital side (online news, video content?) to reach more of the town? Or even to keep the station/brand alive without the expenses of a 50kW daytime transmitter? All backseat second guessing at this point for KDUN, but I see the same issues at other stations I have assisted with.
Without a proper sales staff to insure the stability and growth of station, it was defined to fail. The large wattage was an ambitious decision but if you can reach the entire coast with that signal then why would not put a sales rep. in some of those cities in the broadcast arena? KDUN went through drastic changes just with the first few months of being on the air. An aging manager and his wife from the south coast with no vision. An absentee owner, to a firing of that first manager, then bring in another “radio” manager who did not impress me much after I tried to run one of the very first ad buys during the transition of managers. I meet Bob who did impress me but again he looked like a guy with handcuffs on un sure of what was going on yet with staff. I invited both the owner or her new manager to address a concert I was doing, KDUN was a sponsor as I sold them an opportunity to ingratiate themselves into the community. Citing family concerns they opted out of the chance to introduce themselves to the public to which they were trying to reach in the first place. I have been in radio for 42 years and although initially behind KUDN, I really thought that this could revitalize the community. Her instincts were valid, it could have worked but with nom sales staff to effectively sell this station the writing was on the wall. I meet with these people a more than one occasion and low and behold, other than Bob Larson, I could see then that many aspects of this station nothing technical, but the approach of the sales staff staff left me knowing that unless they did something to address sales it was destined to not bring in revenue. Those Nat. ads were trade outs for her syndicated shows, hardly anything local, or even coastal for that matter? 50,000 watts to only focus on the little tiny town of Reedsport? You forgot that you served the entire coast!. This is why the station is in the situation it is in. Great programming, nice facilities, good equipment, and talent,
but without listener predicated involvement what’s the point? Here’s a quick lesson for the so called experienced players at KDUN…….The goal is to get people to tune in right? How did KDUN go about that? Answer that and you’ll see why KDUN will go silent. You forgot about your listeners and never included them to the programming, No local sports, contact for major league ball just weeks before folding? Way too ambitious, but you knew that and did it anyway. Lots of money going out nothing coming in? Big Shoe’s forgot about the little guys, and now who suffer’s. A dream realized now shuttered, opportunities for others to get into broadcasting like Deliah did gone, staff who had possible careers vanished, all due to cadre who for some reason forgot where they came from in the first place. Big dreams in a small town sounded wonderful. Absentee ownership and not so direct involvement, several staffing changes in the beginning, syndicated programming, no local coverage of anything, were the station downfall
A lot of smaller operators are going through this, or about to go through it, and this makes me sad because they have poured their heart and soul into quality radio. I almost hate that these words are leaving my mouth, but we’re getting to a point radio almost needs to be the secondary business in a profitable media strategy.
To the original point though, only someone so passionate about radio, would have even entertained this to begin with. I guess this is one of those, don’t be sad because it’s gone, be happy that it actually existed for a few years in the first place scenarios. I have a feeling many of us will be reliving air checks, and memories over the next several years remembering a once innovative industry.
The music and programming was all wrong. Nothing but tired 70s and 80s oldies that are heard on many other stations within listening range. As a radio veteran, I was surprised that THIS was the programming that Smokey, Chris Mays and the team came up with.
Lackluster community involvement. Very little local/coastal content. Too much on-air turnover.
While admirable on some levels, this whole thing was ill conceived. There was never going to be enough advertising revenue to support a robust local station and local staff. I kept hearing the same 4 or 5 commercials over and over again.
I really wanted this to succeed, but it was obvious early on that this wasn’t heading in the right direction.