As usual, the end came without a warning.

On Friday morning Rick Emerson and his in-studio posse -- newsman Tim Riley, producer Sarah Dylan and production assistant Greg Nibler -- were doing what they've been doing for years: broadcasting their quirky, Portland-based radio talk show.

They left the KUFO-FM headquarters when their morning shift ended at 9, but by midafternoon one of the station's new executives, Scott Mahalick, who most had yet to meet, summoned them back: They were finished.

After just six months as KUFO's wake-up show -- and 3 1/2 years after they started their afternoon show on sister station KCMD-AM -- Emerson and company had been fired.

No time for goodbyes to the audience. That's how they do it in broadcasting, lest a disgruntled, just-ex-employee hijack a microphone and raises havoc on the air. Which isn't to say that Emerson, or any of the other on-air personalities and executives who had been dismissed by the company's new corporate owners hadn't seen it coming.

"You can tell when things are in serious free-fall when you can't get any of the executives to return your e-mails," Emerson said Monday. "It's this weird environment where everyone knows, but nobody says. I figured it was time to start packing."

Not just for the Emerson gang, either. KUFO's afternoon hosts, Cort and Fatboy, also were let go Friday. Meanwhile, sister station KUPL was in the midst of its own shake-up. Main morning host Lee Rogers announced his retirement, effective the end of the year.

The fate of the rest of KUPL's morning team, Alana Lynn and Jake Byron, has yet to be determined. At KINK, longtime Portland deejay Dolbeer will be taking over the evening show, while Sean Martin moves to the afternoon drive shift.

A lot of change, but much less surprising once you recall that KUFO, along with KINK-FM, KUPL-FM and KCMD-AM, are all under new management, having been sold by CBS Radio to the new, Portland-based conglomerate, Alpha Broadcasting in August.

The company also picked up Paul Allen's two local stations, political talker KXL-AM and the all-sports talk station, KXTG-FM, and very quickly set to installing their own executives, and planning for significant changes at all the stations.

"We want to be live and local and based here in Portland," said Alpha president Bob Proffit. "Focus is in making the best live radio we can."

What that will entail is as mysterious as the enormous UFO hovering above Portland in the promotional video airing on KUFO's Web site. "It is not our intention to harm you," an alien voice says. "We come in peace."

Which would probably be more reassuring if it weren't for the other tagline hovering above the ad: "The Beast Must Be Fed."

And while this may seem like a sinister way for a new media company to establish itself as a small, local alternative to the vast media behemoths who run the majority of Portland's other broadcast outlets, it seems all too familiar to Emerson and company.

Raised in Kennewick, Wash., and an 11-year veteran of Portland's airwaves, Emerson, 36, has done a lot of his growing up on Portland"s airwaves. The talk show host has cycled through a few stations and even more owners over the years, but the essence of his show, along with his newsman/sidekick Riley and producer/on-air foil Dylan, has been more or less consistent since 2001.

The quirky, pop culture-dominated show (on which this journalist has appeared as an on-and-off guest commentator) attracted a cult audience that is almost unnervingly enthusiastic.

When Emerson got fired from Entercom's KOTK-AM in 2005, his listeners bombarded the station with so many coffee cups (a protest referring to the host's addiction to caffeine) that he was offered a job from a CBS Radio executive who began their first meeting, Emerson said, by asking: "How do you account for your audience's loyalty?"

Emerson and friends restarted their midday show at CBS' KCMD-AM in March of 2006, and stayed there until this March, when the nationally syndicated morning show KUFO had been running went out of business.

Promoted to the higher-profile morning slot (where they were allowed to hire back newsman Riley, who had been laid off in a cost-cutting measure the previous December), the team went through a bumpy transition.

"We were like the boyfriend who's so appealing to his girlfriend until they move in together," Emerson said. "Once they had us they realized everything about us had to be made over."

Eventually things seemed to settle down. But never entirely, which Emerson now chalks up to CBS' quiet campaign to make its Portland stations suitable for purchase.

Alpha, which is owned largely by Larry Wilson, who had been semi-retired since selling his first company, Citadel Communications, in 2001, came to terms with CBS in early August. The new owners began moving in almost immediately, before taking full control in late September. Much of that time, company president Proffit said, has been devoted to figuring out what Portland radio listeners like to hear, and what they wish they could hear more.

"I think markets tend to be more alike than they are different," Proffit said. "But given the opportunity I'll go with the research. It's always best to get a read of the market."

And though Proffit and his colleagues are being close-mouthed about how their plans will come together on the air, a few hints have emerged.

A disc jockey from Seattle's KISW-FM who goes by the name Ricker will take over KUFO's midday slot. The new morning show will remain a mystery until Wednesday at dawn, Proffit said.

So what's to become of Portland's just-extinguished live and local talk radio host? Emerson isn't quite certain.

"I've got possibilities," he said. "But I really love Portland. Of all the places I've lived, Portland is the only place I'd call home. The audience I've found here, the culture of the place. This is where I want to be. Will there be another 'Rick Emerson Show'? Where does it belong? At this point, I don't have an answer."

All he knows for sure is that the Beast, whatever it is, has been fed.