TERI HAYT OFF TO OHIO; 'STAR' RAISES NEWSSTAND PRICE
Teri Hayt, managing editor of the Arizona Daily Star, is leaving the newspaper for an executive-editor position with GateHouse Media, where she will oversee the chain's Ohio newspaper operations.
Hayt is the latest in a growing list of significant Star departures within the last two months. Columnist Josh Brodesky and reporter Rob O'Dell have moved to The Arizona Republic. Photographer David Sanders is now working for UNS Energy, the parent company of Tucson Electric Power. A number of other notable departures from the Star newsroom occurred earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, effective Monday, Sept. 24, the Star bumped its newsstand price from 75 cents to $1; the price outside of Southern Arizona moved from $1 to $3.
Perhaps this is because fewer people are purchasing the product in traditional print form, preferring instead to get the news at azstarnet.com. That is, when they can sift through the constantly moving text in the story during the ad-loading process.
That will be especially fun once the eventual online pay structure goes into effect.
KWFM, BLESS YOU AND YOUR LUNACY
Not that many people noticed, but KWFM AM 1330 went off the air late last week and was still largely silent as of Monday, Sept. 24.
This is not an unusual occurrence; KWFM has been dealing with lengthy outages as of late.
But what might be considered a bit unusual is the response I got when I went to the radio-station offices, near Broadway Boulevard and Swan Road, in search of an answer. Most radio stations have a front-office area where folks can go if they want to, say, pick up a prize from a contest they've won. The rest of the office is usually protected by safety glass, so a receptionist needs to let you in if you have business with station employees—but at least a visitor can get in the front door.
Not surprisingly, things are a little different at KWFM. First, I had to climb a flight of stairs at the back of the building, then navigate a labyrinth-like hallway before I got to the station's poorly marked door.
The door was closed, but I could hear voices inside, so I knocked politely. A very nice, older receptionist—I think her name was Anne—opened it and said hello. There was a man there as well, but he wasn't so polite. I'd say jittery was more accurate.
So I asked Anne and Mr. Jittery—a curly-haired gent who was sporting ill-fitting khaki shorts and a tucked-in maroon polo shirt—why the station was off the air. Mr. Jittery responded, interrupting sweet Anne, by saying, "Are you with the police force?"
"Huh?" was more or less my response.
Then, in what can best be described as a bit of a panic, Mr. Jittery told Anne: "Please close the door. Close the door. They're not allowed in here. Close the door."
So Anne gradually closed the door while Mr. Jittery paced in circles behind her.
Anne answered the phone when I made a follow-up inquiry and told me the station "was waiting for a part" before it could get back on the air.
In other KWFM news, operations manager Alan Michaels severed his ties with the station last week. Michaels joined KWFM in February.
