BANGOR, Maine — Bangor resident Jeff Solari hosted an afternoon sports show for seven years on WZON radio called "The Shootaround with Jeff Solari."
"We used to broadcast games from right up there," Solari said while pointing to the announcers stand at Mansfield Stadium.
During his time on air, though, Solari said he didn't just become engulfed in local athletics but the Greater Bangor community as a whole.
"Day in and day out, you're in these gyms, you're out doing high school girls' or boys' basketball, or baseball, or softball, or whatever. You know, it was just so much interaction and community involvement," Solari explained.
And through those interactions with members of the community, he said he learned just how important a local radio station like WZON could be to its listeners
"To just have that be part of your life at the house in your car, you hit that button, those are the voices you know the names you know, the songs you know," Solari said.
Longtime Zone Radio fan Amy Roeder said what made the stations so special to her was not just the music but the sense of familiarity they gave her each time she'd tune in during a drive.
"The people who were running these radio shows, we would see them out in the community," she said. "They were us. That was us on the radio right there."
It was announced this week that WZON and Zone Radio's two other stations, WKIT and WZLO, all owned by Stephen King, would be ceasing operations by the end of this year. Solari and others say they feel the community is losing something big.
"It's going to leave a big hole," Solari said. "I mean, we were very lucky to have them for this long."
In a statement, Zone Radio officials shared that King cited his age and the millions of dollars in losses over the four decades he's owned the stations as the main reasons that led to the decision.
"I've loved the people who've gone to these stations every day and entertained folks, kept the equipment running, and given local advertisers a way to connect with their customers," King said in a statement.
During his time working alongside Solari at WZON, Toby Nelson said King gave them the freedom to be creative.
"You could be living in Stockton Springs and call into Bangor, and you could talk about the Red Sox, or you get your latest song that you want to hear on the radio, or you could talk to the DJ," Nelson said.
Despite his fondness for the station though, Nelson said the closures are unfortunately a sign of the times.
"Now it's literally all on your phone, just like that, so radio lost that sense of immediacy," he explained.
Listeners will have until Dec. 31 to tune into all three Zone Radio channels one last time.