iHeartMedia Cuts Several Well-Known Boston Radio Broadcasters

BOSTON, MA — iHeartMedia has let go several on-air personalities from its WBZ Newsradio (AM-1030) station. The broadcasters departing the station include 35-veteran news anchor Deb Lawler, political commentator Jon Keller, sports anchor Tom Cuddy and overnight talk host Bradley Jay. The cuts come as iHeartMedia tries to cut costs by layering more national programming on its local stations.

Lawler, who started at the station in 1982, has been the morning news anchor since 1992. The cuts are hitting other stations, both in Boston and other markets. iHeartMedia also fired Jackson Burnes, the morning show executive producer at WZLX (FM-100.7). Ginny Brophy, who joined iHeartMedia's country station WBWL in Boston in 2018, was fired on Tuesday.

The industry news site NERW says with the cuts, listeners of the stations can expect iHeartMedia to build "a smaller number of super-regional hubs that will originate voicetracks, music scheduling, traffic, billing and a lot of the other functions that once had to be handled in each local market."