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Published on Thursday, 25 July 2013 08:05
Clear Channel Media + Entertainment has released more than a handful of its employees nationwide this week, including some on-air staffers. Chicago was not spared the budget ax, as popular nighttime personality Scotty Kay, aka Special K, is now gone from WKSC-FM/103.5 Kiss FM. He was released on Wednesday.
In addition to being a highly-rated DJ for 103.5 Kiss FM, Scotty Kay was also the station's Music Director.
Making this move even more of a surprise is the fact that Scotty Kay's ratings were beating those of rival WBBM-FM/B96 in the all ages numbers, the 25-54 demographic, and the stations' target demo of 18-34 year olds.
A Chicago area native and graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Scotty Kay started out as a professional dancer. He was even featured on the first season of the FOX television show "So You Think You Can Dance." Special K also worked as a club DJ and emcee, DJing events all over Chicago, and eventually the world. DJ Times Magazine named him as one of America's best live entertainers four times.
Special K began his on-air work on WKSC-FM in the Fall of 2006, when he was given a weekend shift and allowed to be one of the hosts of the weekend dance show, "Club Kiss." From there, he also did production and promotion work for 103.5 Kiss FM, as well as fill-in work. In the Fall of 2009, nighttime host Silly Jilly accepted a position in Houston, TX. Special K was picked to fill-in for the empty shift, while a search was conducted for a replacement. His worked received such a positive reaction from fans that he was quickly awarded the 8:00pm-1:00am night shift on a full-time basis.
Looking to do more for his station, he volunteered to take over the Music Director position in May 2010, when Kenard "K2" Karter left that role for a job opportunity in San Fransisco, CA.
On top of his two jobs at Chicago's WKSC-FM, Special K voice-tracked shows for Clear Channel radio stations in smaller markets, such as Austin, TX. Those stations now find themselves down one DJ, as well.
Yesterday's surprise release of Scotty Kay, aka Special K, aka Scott Corchin (his true name), creates a pair of vacancies for the Chicago station. A search is now on for a replacement DJ/MD. For now, weekender "ErikZ" is filling in for the vacated weeknight shift.
Of course, Clear Channel Chicago wasted no time in scrubbing the 103.5 Kiss FM website clean of all mentions of Special K.
In the meantime, Special K continues to do club DJing events around town. On Saturday night, he will be the special guest DJ at Zante Lounge, located at 888 W 159th Street in suburban Orland Park.
