One of Denver's leading progressive radio voices has just left the airwaves. David Sirota released a statement Monday morning that he is no longer working at Clear Channel Denver.
Sirota posted this statement on his Facebook page about his departure:
Just a quick note to inform you of some personal news in my life. After almost 4 years of working in radio, I no longer work at Clear Channel Denver.
My heartfelt thanks go out to Lee Larsen, Kris Olinger and Jay Marvin who originally gave me the opportunity to add radio to the many venues in which I do my journalism work. I'm also thankful to John Turk for being such a good partner in producing award-winning radio over the nearly four years we've worked together. And I'm sincerely grateful to all the listeners who consistently and up until the end kept rewarding my radio work with strong ratings.
I'm looking forward to continuing and expanding my journalism in my ongoing newspaper column, magazine writing, book writing and television work. As always, you can find all of my various work linked at www.davidsirota.com. You can also always email me at ds@davidsirota.com, follow me on Twitter @davidsirota or find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rocktheboat.
Thank you all for your ongoing support over so many years. I'm really looking forward to 2013 and beyond!
Rock the boat,David
It remains unclear under what circumstances Sirota was leaving Clear Channel Denver, however his departure does come as a surprise. His morning drive-time radio show, which was broadcast on KKZN AM760 in Colorado from 2009 to 2012, was quite popular and, in 2010, won the Readers' Choice award for best radio program from Westword as well as 5280's Editors' Choice for best program that same year.
Both Sirota and Clear Channel could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing.
In November of 2012, Clear Channel shut down KPOJ in Portland, a popular progressive talk radio station that also reportedly had solid ratings after broadcasting for more than eight years. Overnight the format turned into a Sports station.
In early 2012, Clear Channel went back and forth on the future of California Bay Area progressive talk radio station Green 960. It was first reported that the media behemoth was going to take Green 960 off of the regular airwaves and move it onto a different HD2 format. But after that plan was scuttled, Clear Channel kept Green 960 but renamed it KNEW 960 and added conservative firebrand Glenn Beck.
Clear Channel was purchased in 2008 by Bain Capital, the company founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.