Clear Channel Denver executive Greg Foster revealed the move on Friday via the following tweet:
Big announcement today: Colorado's Afternoon News debuts Mon at 3p on @850KOA, with Dave Logan, @SusieWargin, Mike Rice and @SusanWitkin1
— Greg Foster (@NewsRadioPD) June 13, 2014Every day I'm thankful for the people I've met who have given me incredible opportunities. From KTCL, KBPI, KOA & 9News, someone has believed in me. The result has led me and my family down an incredible path. Today I am very excited to announce that I am returning to 850KOA after a 10 year hitatus. Starting Monday, Dave Logan and I will host Colorado's Afternoon News from 3-5 p.m.... guess you could say we are kind of getting the band back together. I will continue to work on special projects and fill in at 9News, as well as build on my growing residential real estate career with RE/MAX. Thanks to all who have supported me in the past -- I hope you will continue to do so in the future!Krieger exhibited a less exuberant tone in a tweet about the situation, but still managed to infuse the news with his trademark dry sense of humor:
Yes, it's true, KOA let me go this week. It was fun. Well, not the firing itself, but . . . you know. Looking forward to what comes next.
— Dave Krieger (@DaveKrieger) June 13, 2014As you'll recall, Krieger was a standout sports columnist for the Rocky Mountain News -- and when the tabloid folded in 2009, he was among the handful of well-known Rocky scribes hired by the Denver Post. But in January 2012, he took a fulltime gig at KOA as Logan's partner after the Post declined to work out a way for him to balance the two jobs.
At the time, Krieger told us his decision to sign up with KOA wasn't motivated by concerns about the long-term future of newspapering. "At my age, long-term does not exist," he said. "And what happens down the road to print journalism or terrestrial radio, for that matter, are long-term trends. I know old media is less well off than it used to be -- more endangered. But if I work for another ten or fifteen years, that'll be great. So for me, it was about what I wanted to do after getting up tomorrow. And I derive a lot of satisfaction from radio. I had a radio show in college, which is going a long way back, and I like the performance aspect of it. And Logan's been a friend of mine for 25 years. I really enjoy working with him. So this feels right."
Unfortunately for him, the ratings generated by the two Daves weren't what executives had hoped when they allowed Logan to go all-sports after the departure of his previous co-host, Lois Melkonian, who signed on with a station in Houston. Hence, the new concept, which will team Logan and Wargin from 3-5 p.m. on weekdays, rather than filling the typical 3-7 p.m. slot. The last two hours of the show will feature what the station describes as an "all-news presentation...co-anchored by Susan Witkin and Mike Rice."
This hybrid approach minimizes Logan's airtime and puts him in the position of broadening his focus beyond the fields of play -- and according to a Dusty Saunders piece in the Denver Post, he may not be too happy about it. But it's an undeniable win for Wargin, who'll have a high-profile radio slot to go along with occasional pieces for 9News. And if none of that works out, there's always real estate.Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.
More from our Media archive circa April 23: "Susie Wargin, sportscaster, latest 9News veteran to announce departure from station."
