iHeart local cuts reach KGOT and KENI in Anchorage radio shakeup

iHeartMedia’s national restructuring has reached Anchorage radio, where longtime KGOT host and programmer Casey Bieber says he was let go after more than two decades with the company, and Amy Demboski says her last radio show on 650 KENI has aired.

The changes are not just personnel moves. They cut into Alaska’s local media landscape, where familiar radio voices have long carried traffic, weather, politics, community events and the daily texture of life in a state national programming rarely understands well.

Bieber, known on air as Casey B, wrote in a public Facebook post that he had spent 29 years in radio, 25 years at iHeartMedia, 20 years at KGOT and 12 years doing the morning show.

“Unfortunately, today is a sad day, as I was let go due to corporate restructuring,” Bieber wrote.

Demboski, a former Anchorage municipal manager and conservative talk host, wrote in a public Facebook post that “today was my last radio show on KENI” after three years speaking to Alaska listeners. She described the company’s move this way: “iHeart Media is shifting their focus from local content to a national focus.”

iHeartMedia owns a cluster of Anchorage stations, including 101.3 KGOT, KASH Country 107.5 and 650 KENI. The company was formerly known as Clear Channel, and remains one of the country’s largest commercial radio owners.

The pressure on local radio did not start this week. BIA/Kelsey reported that overall U.S. radio revenue dipped to $14.7 billion in 2015, with over-the-air radio producing $14 billion and online radio $710 million. Even then, the firm described declining over-the-air revenue and double-digit growth in online revenue as the shape of the business.

That split has only become more important. The Radio Advertising Bureau said in February that digital advertising reached $2.3 billion in 2025, one-quarter of all radio industry ad revenue, and had become radio’s primary growth engine. The same report said digital revenue had grown since 2022 while core radio advertising declined.

The shift does not mean local radio is dead. It means the money is moving. Advertisers are putting more dollars into streaming audio, streaming video and other measurable digital campaigns, while large station owners try to protect margins with technology, shared services and fewer local payroll costs.

For Alaska listeners, the effect is practical. A national show can fill airtime, it doesn't have the same understanding that a local host would.

Bieber’s post leaned on that relationship.

“We spoke to thousands of people daily,” he wrote. “Whether it was during the morning commute or the school drop-off line, spontaneous dance parties or birthday shout-outs, or even navigating icy road conditions to having fun under the midnight sun.”