Cañon City bids a beloved farewell to its last remaining local radio station on New Years Eve

CAÑON CITY, Colo. (KRDO) - A beloved radio station in Fremont County is set to close its doors for good on Wednesday, prompting an open house for listeners to express their gratitude, as employees carried out their final hours on air.

Employees say that their out-of-state ownership made the ultimate decision, and so the community mourned the last day on air for KRLN Radio and its sister station Star Country on Tuesday, ahead of the New Year.

Just as it had for the past 77 years, KRLN's small but impactful studio, transmitted the voices of a highly-dedicated crew on Tuesday morning, for its typical 6 a.m to 9 a.m programming.

"We may be a small market radio station, but we don't have to sound like one." is the motto Ed Norden says he has lived by since he joined KRLN in 1982, after establishing the beginning of his radio career in Nebraska.

"I think I went to work every day trying to establish credibility with the listeners as somebody who was reliable, who was going to be there and who would get the story correct and deliver with integrity." said Norden, who has spent the last 42 years working either full-time or part-time at KRLN, which accounts for more than half of the station's existence.

Founded in Cañon City in 1947, KRLN has occupied the morning drives of southwestern Coloradans with laughs, hyper-local news, weather, and the best country music around.

"It's a family, it's as simple as I can put it, it's a family," said Tay Jeffords, a man who wears many hats, just as all employees at the station do, serving as a News Director, Operations Manager, and on-air talent.

The third musketeer of the small-station operation, is a man you may recognize the voice, and the name of, without hesitation: Lobo Loggins.

Although some, may beg to differ.

"I have been called Elbow Riggins, Loco Riggins, Lobo Lobbins."

Whatever you want to call the 72-year-old, you can't call him a bad DJ.

While Loggins runs the The Morning Line, a daily news show alongside Jeffords, he also acts as the orchestrator of the tunes bumping on Star Country 104.5, which has acted as the soundtrack to many Cañon City and Fremont County residents for decades, but especially under Loggins watch.

With a career spanning over 40 years in radio, Loggins says he always used the industry as a side-job, to his main passion: Music.

Born in East Texas, Loggins says country music is in his bones. He still teaches guitar lessons to this day, and his son, is now in a band that performs in Colorado. However, his top highlight to his musical life, is a record deal he earned in Tennessee in the 1990s, which saw him notch a Top 40 country song, "Ain't No Cows in Texas" in 1991.

However, after heading to Colorado for family reasons, he says he found his way to KRLN in Cañon City in 2012, and has been pouring his musical prowess into their sister station ever since.

"You wouldn't believe how many compliments I've gotten on that 7 p.m. to midnight show, because I'm I'm finding some old stuff, not just, you know, not not going back to the 30s and 40s, but just stuff that you don't hear on the radio anymore." explained Loggins of the research that he loves doing, to dig up all different kinds of country tunes.

"Then [to] have people say, I can't wait for 7:00 to roll around because I love that music," said Loggins, "Man, so do I."

Norden summarized a point made by all of the three men, which is that radio, is a job driven primarily by passion.

"I don't know what it is about us radio people, but it seems like we're there, and we can get it out of our bloodstream," Norden said cracking a smile. "I probably have gained more from this radio station in this community than I've been able to give back, at least in my mind, because it's been such a big slice out of my life." he later added.

Local residents like Shirley Banie, say that she can feel the absence of KRLN looming already.

"It's just a really a strange feeling just of, you know, of all these years of every morning here and the news weather and the music, it won't be there." explained Banie, who has been next-door neighbors with KRLN for 30 years. She says their relationship has grown so closely-knit, that the radio folks have taken to watching her cattle in her back yard when she's not there.

Other life-long residents, who also happen to be local elected officials like Fremont County Commissioner Debbie Bell, says the closure hits very deep for her.

"I'm a Florence High School graduate, and when I was in high school, I was a cheerleader. And I remember KRLN coming with their microphones and tape recorders during big game days and putting recordings of cheerleaders on the radio to cheer on our team." explained Bell, who was once a print journalist in Cañon City, making the loss of a media channel for the area, even more disheartening to her.

"It's a very emotional day for me. I'm just I'm really upset by this. I'm very, very sad that this is happening to our community." she added.

With their final hours on air Tuesday morning lasting a little extra longer until 10 a.m, Norden, Jeffords and Loggins, reflected on a career where they gave their all, but one that also ended too abruptly.

"I certainly never envisioned a full time retirement to happen in this kind of a scenario." said Norden, "I can look back and say that  I was proud to be a broadcast journalist and tried to hold myself to the highest standards in doing so" he later affirmed.

Loggins, jokes that he won't miss the 3 a.m. alarm every day, a habit that will take quite some time to shake. However, the reality of the situation isn't lost on him.

"If there's a prison break, or if there's a blizzard, or if there's a flash flood coming down the Arkansas [River], [the community] turn[s] to this radio station for that information. And for us not being here, that breaks my heart." said Loggins, "So the community involvement, that's that's probably the most important part of being in a small market radio station." he stated.

On Tuesday, the station held an Open House for community members to come by and see the studio and show their appreciation to the crew members. Several people appeared throughout the morning, including at least one middle-aged man who said he got his first job ever at KRLN when he was a teen.

Some dropped off snacks or treats, other's, with homemade tokens of appreciation.

"You kind of feel it, but you don't really know it, about how people actually feel about [KRLN]. You get that physical impact, where you don't get through a broadcast. People come in and say, hey, we're going to miss you. That means a lot." explained Jeffords.

Residents, and employees expressed a hope that the station could one day, be brought back to life. Jeffords explains that the building is very outdated, that has some much needed maintenance that would have to happen first.

For those who want to listen, Star Country has music scheduled out until midnight Tuesday night. But no more than a second after 12:00 a.m., the airwaves fall flat, and will stay that way. Marking the end of 77 years of radio for Southern Coloradans, from as far as Fairplay, to Ordway, and even Falcon.

"There's going to be a certain amount of community withdrawal, that the spot on the dial is silent." Norden said