Corner Office Makeover @ Saga Portland

• RAMP has independently confirmed that Saga has parted company with Bob Adams, Market President & GM of the company’s Portland Radio Group in Portland, ME.

The news was initially reported on Tuesday in the Portland Press Herald, which quoted from a staff memo sent to the Portland staff by Saga Pres./CEO Ed Christian and SVP of Operations Chris Forgy announcing Adams’ departure after five years. The only reason given was the need for a “more defined growth pattern,” and that “a change was necessary.” We understand that Adams’ successor will be announced very shortly.

Adams’ exit is the latest departure within the Portland group within the past three months, the others related to the COVID-19 pandemic — in late March we reported that Ken Altshuler was released as morning co-host on News-Talk WGAN after 18 years, followed in April by the departure of WGAN weekend talk host John McDonald.

The drama peaked in mid-May with the exit of Randi Kirshbaum, a 38-year cluster veteran who served in the multiple roles of Program Director of AC WMGX (Coast 93.1) and Triple A WCLZ, afternoon talent on WCLZ and middays on Country WPOR after she refused to return to the office for medical reasons. Making a very complicated story very short, while Kirshbaum maintains that she was terminated, management claims she was laid off. The Press Herald reports that Kirshbaum “has hired a lawyer, who plans to file a discrimination complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission and a possible lawsuit.”