Inland Northwest Broadcasting CHR “Z-Fun 106” KZFN Moscow ID has announced that Steve Shannon stepped down from mornings at the station on June 30. Shannon began hosting mornings at KZFN in 1985 and remained until 1996 to join 95.7 KJR-FM Seattle. He would return to the station in 2004 and continue hosting mornings until the end of June.
Shannon, who also serves as Operations Manager for Inland Northwest Broadcasting, will continue to program KZFN and has moved to afternoons replacing Ceci Raichl. Raichl departed the station in May after four years for a new position with the University of Idaho.
KZFN prevously announced the addition of Iliad Media Group’s Joey & Lauren Show based at Hot AC “My 102.7” KZMG Boise to succeed Shannon in mornings.
Steve Shannon was the first voice heard on ZFun 106 (KZFN-FM) in the August heat of 1985. After more than 30 years hosting the morning drive, his morning show, ‘The Rude Awakening’ had its final run on June 30th.
The Rude Awakening morning show ran consecutively from 2004 until June 30th, but Shannon also hosted mornings on ZFun 106 from 1985 to 1996 before a stint at KJR-FM in Seattle, then making his way back to the Moscow-Pullman market.
Shannon will remain Program Director for ZFun 106, and Operations Manager of the parent company, Inland Northwest Broadcasting. Additionally, he is hosting the Afternoon Drive daypart.
In 2012, The Rude Awakening won Morning Show of the Year from the Idaho State Broadcasters Association. Under Shannon’s direction and leadership, ZFun 106 has been a perennial nominee as a Top 50 finalist for the Crystal Service Awards by the National Association of Broadcasters.
The final week of the show featured two co-hosts from years past, Anne Cosby (2006-2010), Lauren Paterson (2011-2012) and frequent-guest, retired Dean of the Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University and longtime Pullman, Washington Mayor, Glenn Johnson. Also featured was Gary Cummings, longtime broadcaster in the Moscow-Pullman market and former owner of KRPL Inc.
The morning drive now features ‘Joey and Lauren in the Morning’, a syndicated morning show based in the Boise market but quickly gaining syndication in markets all around the Pacific Northwest. The show is co-hosted by Joey and Lauren Jenkins, a married couple, formerly based in the Moscow-Pullman area. A full-circle fun-fact is that Joey started his broadcast career at Inland Northwest Broadcasting while attending University of Idaho, Journalism and Mass Media Department as a play-by-play announcer for prep football and assistant to the Sports Director, longtime broadcaster and voice of Washington State University Volleyball and Women’s Basketball, Steve Grubbs.
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com