A Connecticut radio host with more than three decades on air in the state was laid off this week, as part of nationwide staff cuts by audio giant iHeartMedia.
Midday listeners on the Hartford-based FM station WHCN (The River 105.9) no longer will hear the voice of Allison Demers. Her last day was Monday, Demers wrote on Facebook, with her job eliminated due to budget cuts.
“I just want to thank everyone for listening. I will miss the personal interactions, the interviews, hosting events, the music and all of the amazing people I met and worked with,” Demers wrote on Facebook.
Neither Demers nor an iHeartMedia spokesperson immediately responded to a request for comment.
Demers had not been at WHCN long; she joined the station in July 2024. But she is a veteran of Connecticut radio, having spent 13 years hosting the morning drivetime show “Allan, Mike and Allison Morning Show” on CBS radio on Lite 100.5 WRCH.
She also had a long stint on the Waterbury-based WATR and worked at KC 101 at the end of the last millennium. She has also contributed to WTNH’s daytime television program “CT Buzz.”
All told, Demers has spent more than three decades in Connecticut radio.
“I have been SO blessed to do this work! I’m so grateful for all of it! I’m 56, and I started when I was 22!” she wrote on Facebook.
Demers is not the only iHeartMedia host to lose their hosting job within the last week, with anchors and broadcast directors from stations in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Seattle, among others, also sharing their exits from the company.
The radio conglomerate, which owns more than 860 stations across the country, cut hundreds of employees during layoffs in November 2024.
The company also laid off hundreds in 2020 in what critics described as a move to save money by homogenizing content and decreasing investment in local journalism.