When P.J. Butta found out his job was being eliminated after 12 years at KDAY (93.5 FM), the midday DJ says it was a surprise — and it wasn’t.
“Meaning that, it’s a surprise that I didn’t know it was going to happen,” he says. “But when you’re in radio, you expect it to happen at some point.”
Butta was one of four midday DJs who lost their jobs at Meruelo Media stations in Los Angeles in February.
In addition to Butta, Marci Wiser of KLOS (95.5 FM), Bryhana Monegain at KPRW (Power 106 FM), and Carolina “Caro” Marquez at KLLI (Cali 93.9) were also let go by the company.
DJs Monegain and Marquez could not be reached for comment. Station owner Meruelo did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
However, RadioInk.com earlier reported that Meruelo Media CEO Otto Padron shared a staff memo in which he referred to the cuts as “staff reductions.” The publication also reported that in addition to the four midday hosts, Meruelo also let go DJ Felli Fel who had held the afternoon time slot at Power 106 since 2000.
For Wiser and Butta, it’s been sad to leave the community of listeners at the stations where they had worked for years.
“I look at my listeners as family, extended family. I truly do,” says Wiser, who had worked at the classic rock station KLOS for more than nine years when she was let go. “The whole reason I got in this business is, well, I do have a love for music, but creating a connection with the listeners has always been really important to me, and that’s what makes it all worth it.
“So I miss my listeners and I hope to be back at it very, very soon,” she says.
“For me, my show was always interacting with listeners,” says Butta, who’d spent 12 years at the classic hip-hop station, the last 10 under Meruelo’s ownership. “When I entered radio, taking calls on the air and talking to the audience was kind of how I learned and how I’ve continued.
“My bread and butter is talking to listeners and joking around with them,” he says. “To do a syndicated show, it’s just not the same. It’s like playing tennis but you don’t have a player there. You have to play against the wall and it’s no fun.”
When asked about her next moves after leaving KLOS, Wiser hinted that there are things in motion but would wait until final decisions are made before talking about them.
Butta still has side gigs he’s long held. So many, in fact, he laughs at how difficult it is to remember them all.
“I’ve been in radio over 30 years, and even when I started radio I had other jobs,” he says. “Because you also know radio’s not gonna last forever.”
“So you always prepare yourself,” he says.
His gigs outside of KDAY include working at Dodger games as an in-game host, greeting the crowd as they arrive via the DodgerVision screens and playing games with fans between innings. He’s been an adjunct professor of radio at Mount San Antonio College since 2005. He’s got a syndicated Top 20 countdown show for international audiences.
There’s a podcast called Smooth Era premiering in the near future in which he’ll interview stars of ’90s R&B, and he does live DJ gigs online or in-person, such as a recent networking mixer hosted by Daymond John of “Shark Tank.”
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Butta says he’s doing some networking for himself to replace the KDAY job and has been approached for opportunities in other radio markets or in syndication to do on-air shows or behind-the-scenes programming.
“People have been telling me, obviously, to do more podcasts or a syndicated show,” Butta says. “Then again, as I think of that, that’s part of the problem with radio. Syndication, automation, or voice tracks.
“It’s almost like I want to do it for the money, which I shouldn’t, because this is actually killing the industry that I work in and love,” he says.