This story was originally published on YachatsNews.com and is used with permission.
Silence will greet some Lincoln County radio listeners this week after a longtime broadcast institution folded under financial failure.
After 75 years of operation, Yaquina Bay Communications of Newport and its five remaining stations serving Lincoln City, Newport and Waldport will air for the last time Sunday. The stations are KNPT-AM and KNCU-FM in Newport, KBCH-AM and KCRF-FM in Lincoln City, and KWDP-AM in Waldport. The music formats of the stations ranged from classic rock to adult contemporary and country.
The Federal Communications Commission cancelled the license for a sixth station, KYTE-FM, in June because it was not broadcasting in areas required under its license.
The eight full- and part-time employees of the company learned of the closure and the loss of their jobs in an email this month from owner David Miller, who was in Utah visiting family for the holidays.
Miller and his wife, Linda, own Yaquina Bay Communications and operated the stations out of a two-story 8,000 square foot office and studio on Alder Street in Newport’s Deco district.
“As you all know, the bank foreclosed on us on Tuesday,” Miller said in his Dec. 8 email to staff.
Lincoln County circuit judge Marcia Buckley signed the foreclosure and sale order in August, nearly a year after Oregon Coast Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit seeking $532,000 for remaining balances on two loans. Miller owed the bank $414,000 in balances and interest from a 2009 loan of $755,000 and $118,000 from a 2016 loan of $110,000 — and did not pay off the balances in October and November 2021 as agreed.
The Oregon Department of Revenue and the Oregon Employment Department also have liens on Miller’s properties, according to the bank’s lawsuit.
Oregon Coast Bank was the only bidder at a sheriff’s sale Dec. 5 on the foreclosed radio station headquarters in Newport and two tower properties.
The bank then sent Miller a letter demanding possession of the properties by Dec. 15, Miller said in his email, but he negotiated allowing the stations to operate until Dec. 31, which will conclude the fiscal year and billing month. He also requested the stations be allowed to broadcast the Oregon Duck Fiesta Bowl game Jan. 1 but did not indicate if that request was granted.
“This means that all of you will be terminated on December 31st,” Miller’s email said. “I am sorry about that, but at this point I have no other choice. I appreciate all that you do for me and these communities we serve. Wish we could have continued.”
Neither Miller nor staff responded to requests for comment.
Miller, 72, told YachatsNews in August that the 2020-22 pandemic devastated his radio station income and the goal was now to retire. “We have 22 grandkids in Utah and Idaho … that’s where my wife wants to be.”
KNPT started in 1948 followed by KYTE. Miller came to Newport as general manager in 1988 and purchased the two stations in the 1990s. He added KCRF and KBCH in Lincoln City, started KNCU and then added KWDP, formerly KORC in Waldport in 2011.