Bay Area Radio Legend Is Laid Off, Goes Down Swinging

A fixture in Bay Area radio unleashed a scathing attack on corporate radio upon being laid off from his longtime post, reports SFGate. After 24 years at San Mateo's 107.7 The Bone and 37 years in radio, morning host Lamont Hollywood informed fans Monday in a blistering Facebook post that he was out of a job thanks to cost-cutting by parent company Cumulus, per KRON.

• "What we are all witnessing is the tragic consequence of debt-fueled media consolidation," he wrote. "For years, giant corporate conglomerates bought up hundreds of radio stations using massive leverage, only to spend the next decade slashing real human talent, gutting local newsrooms, and replacing live voices with syndicated feeds and automated voice-tracking just to pay down interest on executive balance sheets."

He blasted "suits in corporate headquarters" for treating radio stations like spreadsheets, arguing that algorithms can't match the trust built with listeners. Hollywood, who long teamed with Paul Tonelli before launching The Lamont Show solo, closed his message by thanking fans and promising this isn't the end of his show—just its move to an independent platform outside corporate control. Another California station, KCAL, laid off its entire on-air staff.