When Bret Saunders was in high school, in Plymouth, Michigan, he and his peers at the student radio station took a tour of classic-rock powerhouse WRIF. The Detroit station’s star DJ, Arthur Penhallow, encountered Saunders and his friends in a hallway and rolled out his on-air catchphrase: “Baby!” Penhallow said in his booming voice. “I remember thinking at the time how lame that was,” Saunders recalls. “He could just say ‘Hi,’ but he had to share his trademark ‘Baby!””

Saunders has taken a different approach throughout his 28-year career as morning host of Denver rock fixture KBCO. He’s amassed a fanbase by being exceedingly relatable. Whether he’s portraying Sage, a beloved character he created who promises listeners Red Rocks tickets in exchange for stumping him; standing in for the everyman in rock-star interviews (“I don’t understand anything that’s going on, either,” he recently admitted to the Barenaked Ladies’ drummer) or simply admiring a Colorado sunrise, Saunders has a way of bringing people together. “You can’t put any voice on in place of Bret,” says John Bradley, a former KBCO program director and on-air talent who lives in Boulder, the station’s former home base. “He actually listens and he cares.”

Saunders’ KBCO career abruptly ended June 24, when he was laid off along with dozens of other iHeartMedia radio employees nationwide. He wasn’t the only Denver DJ to be axed: Other local layoffs affected Gregg Stone of 103.5 The Fox, a classic-rock station, and Denise Plante of 106.7 The Bull, a country station. The terminations were part of iHeartMedia’s plan to save $50 million across its more than 850 U.S. stations, 24 of which are in Colorado. In an employee memo, two iHeart execs declared that the changes were designed to help scale new tech they’ve developed over the last few years that will “both deepen our relationships with the listeners” and provide their ad salespeople with “faster and easier-to-use information about our programming, talent and audiences.”

Costly talents like Saunders and Stone, presumably, do not fit these goals. They represent radio’s more traditional role: DJs who employ catchphrases, create characters, and speak their minds as oral traveling companions for listeners commuting to work. The recent layoffs are a “big blow,” says Andrew Matranga, a University of Denver journalism studies professor who follows local radio. “Radio is the companion medium. It’s the old friend communicating and providing something back to you.” Saunders is more optimistic. “I don’t believe the medium is dying,” he says. “I believe the medium is going through adjustments. I don’t see any reason why it would go away.”

The Colorado layoffs are a symptom of larger problems that have plagued iHeart, and the radio business in general, for decades. No longer do listeners have to rely on DJs and programmers to pick what music plays through their speakers. They can do it themselves, using podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or even SiriusXM satellite radio. Still, radio listenership levels are mostly holding steady: 82 percent of Americans listened to the radio at least weekly in 2023, according to Nielsen data. That’s down slightly from 92 percent in 2009, but still respectable, especially if you consider monthly listenership: 93 percent of Americans tuned in at least once per month in 2026.

But Saunders points out that what radio people call “cume,” or time spent listening, has decreased: “In the old days, someone who picked a radio station would listen for eight hours a day,” he says. “Now they’ll check in—they want to see what a new song is, or listen to the news—but then they’ll go to Spotify or Pandora or YouTube. That’s the difference.”

Brett Saunders
Brett Saunders hosts the morning show at Denver’s KBCO. Photo courtesy of Brett Saunders

iHeartMedia, by far the largest radio company in the U.S., has been aggressively adapting to this shift for more than a decade by diversifying its digital offerings. In 2010, listeners downloaded the iHeartRadio app 10 million times; last year, iHeart podcasts, including those featuring comedian Chelsea Handler and morning-show talent Charlamagne tha God, accounted for 40 percent of the company’s digital revenue.

But as with other forms of media, the shift to digital has financially destabilized the radio industry, as broadcast ad dollars have evaporated—and not been fully replaced by digital ad sales. On-air advertising for old-school AM-FM broadcast radio stations has plunged over 10 years, according to media-marketing data analysts Borrell Associates. While advertising for digital media such as podcasts and streaming has increased, it’s far less valuable (and stable) than traditional broadcast advertising once was. In 2016, radio stations made $9.8 billion in broadcast ad revenue, compared to just $600 million for digital; last year, broadcast dropped to $7.1 billion, with digital increasing to $2.3 billion.

IHeart reps did not respond to requests for comment, and Jeb “Nerf” Freedman, a KBCO vice president and program director, declined to comment. Bob Pittman, iHeart’s chairman and CEO (and a founder of MTV in the ’80s), insisted in 2025 that his company has overcome such challenges: “Broadcast radio is not only healthy, but robust.”

Still, as of early last year, iHeartMedia’s debt was more than $5 billion, the result of a 2018 bankruptcy filing. Its multiple waves of layoffs since then seem to have been successful, as the debt previously was as high as $20 billion. “The cruel truth is that you really do have to cut expenses and continue to re-create yourself,” says Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates. “They’re the only company that actually saw net growth in 2025–when you add their radio and digital advertising revenues together—so they’ve turned the corner. But some tough decisions have to be made to be able to do that.”

During an hourlong interview at Torchy’s Tacos, Saunders is careful not to criticize KBCO or iHeart. Many recently laid-off iHeart personalities expressed similar caution, citing severance packages still in progress. Plante did not respond to an interview request. Stone, who was a veteran personality for 103.5 The Fox, a Denver classic-rock station, as well as a syndicated morning host whose voice appeared on iHeart stations all over the U.S., declares the radio business “dead” but radio as a medium very much alive.

“When you own 900 radio stations, and you have stockholders, you’re about money— and everybody wants to have their share,” he says. ” If they wanted to sell off those radio stations to a small group or an individual owner who could make $10 million or $15 million a year, that’s pretty good profit— but when you’re a huge corporation, I guess that’s not enough.”

Saunders, Bradley, and Matranga agree that radio’s problems began in 1996. That was when President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act, allowing companies to own as many radio stations as they could afford to buy. The effect was that media giants such as iHeartMedia gobbled up hundreds of stations around the U.S. and began to rely on cheaper, more efficient syndicated programming and national DJs. “This is all just centralization and corporatization,” Matranga says. “They’ve been doing this for decades.”

An alternative to KBCO and other corporate stations, of course, is National Public Radio (NPR). Saunders praises Denver’s Indie 102.3, and DU’s Matranga says Boulder’s KGNU programming provides “all of music history in all of the world in one day.” But public radio has problems of its own, due to cuts in federal funding and membership dues; NPR CEO Katherine Maher recently cited a $15 million revenue decline and hundreds of employee buyouts.

All these factors are prompting Saunders, Stone, and others recently laid off to consider sidestepping into podcasting or another form of DIY radio branding or influencing. “I haven’t really given a lot of thought to what my next step will be,” Saunders says. “I miss being on the radio. I have obligations financially.” Then, in his sunny morning-DJ voice, he expertly changes the subject: “Look! It’s a beautiful day. We’re at Torchy’s!”