Stephen King’s Rock Radio Station Won’t Go Silent After All

Maine radio station purchased by local business duo

Tourists pose outside Stephen King's Bangor home in 2016.
Tourists pose outside Stephen King’s Bangor home in 2016.
Jennifer Mitchell/Maine Public file
Share
Tourists pose outside Stephen King's Bangor home in 2016.
Tourists pose outside Stephen King’s Bangor home in 2016.
Jennifer Mitchell/Maine Public file
Stephen King’s Rock Radio Station Won’t Go Silent After All
Copy

Horror author Stephen King’s rock ‘n’ roll radio station is going to continue rocking around the clock and into the new year.

Two businessmen purchased WKIT-FM from the best-selling writer after he announced that the station and two others would go silent after New Year’s Eve. The buyers are the Maine-based duo Greg Hawes and Jeff Solari, who formed Rock Lobster Radio Group to run the station.

“WKIT is the most legendary station in the region. It has tremendous history. We couldn’t let it die,” they said in a statement.

King is a lifelong rocker and performed with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band that featured literary icons performing for charity. He announced earlier this month that at age 77 he thought it was time to say goodbye to the radio stations.

“I’m sorry as hell to be closing down WKIT and its sister stations,” King posted earlier this month on social media. “I held off the suits for as long as I could.”

King’s foray into radio began in 1983 with the purchase of a radio station that was rebranded WZON in a nod to his book, “The Dead Zone.” That station closed before being acquired again by King in 1990.

This article was originally published by the Associated Press.

“Reducing your footprint” became one of the most familiar ways to talk about climate change, but why did that framing catch on? And what does it leave out?
A recycling nonprofit, through its New Bedford warehouse, puts used nets, ropes and other marine debris in the hands of local artists
Republican John Loughlin says he would reshape the office into a taxpayer oversight and accountability agency similar to a state inspector general
Federal cuts to Medicaid and food assistance complicate an otherwise encouraging revenue picture
Jewish advocacy leaders say the numbers are improving, but incidents remain higher than before the Oct. 7 attacks and the Gaza war
A Greek restaurant hiding inside a jazz club, a reimagined oyster bar and a group of diners with matching notebooks: meet the people keeping local restaurants buzzing