Updated: 1:51 p.m.

After this story was published, Gustav responded with the following comment: "Daria is a great talent and I wish her all the best with her future career prospects."

Daria Eliuk has been a Portland personality for 20 years. Her radio career began in 1997 on 94.7 KNRK and, until August of this year when she mysteriously disappeared from the airwaves, she hadn't been off the air for longer than two weeks.

Daria has always had a relationship with radio listeners that extended beyond that of a standard radio DJ. She calls the listeners "listener friends" and frequently reads personal essays on air. Beginning in the late '90s and up until this year, Daria voice was part of Portland's DNA.

Her main gig was always with Entercom-owned stations in Portland, first at KNRK and then, starting in 2003, at 105.1 The Buzz, which is housed in the same building as KNRK.

Last year, her show with Mitch Elliott and Ted Douglass on The Buzz was disbanded and Entercom decided to bring her back to 94.7, reuniting her with another classic Portland radio personality, Gustav.

At the time, almost exactly a year ago, Daria was sad to say goodbye to the men she worked with on The Buzz, but also enthusiastic about the possibilities of being back on KNRK.

"While I grieve the loss of working with two of my closest friends everyday," Daria told The Oregonian/OregonLive diplomatically, "I am so lucky to be returning to an old friend I've never lost touch with."

Mark Hamilton, program director at 94.7, also appeared to be enthusiastic about the move, saying that one of the things he most values is maintaining personalities on the air.

"I remember I used to find it very unsettling that I'd tune into a radio station and my favorite DJs would disappear and you never knew what happened to them," Hamilton told The Oregonian/OregonLive in November of 2016.

But in late August, that's exactly what happened to 94.7 listeners. Without warning or explanation, Daria was suddenly gone.

Listeners began to wonder what happened. As weeks went by and Daria didn't return, a Reddit thread popped up question what had happened, and The Oregonian/OregonLive began to get emails, all asking, "Where is Daria?"

Emails sent in September to Gustav and KNRK went unreturned. But on Saturday, the first day she could officially talk about what happened, Daria invited us into her sprawling Victorian home in Southeast Portland, to tell us how a 20 year radio career could suddenly come to an end.

"I get the feeling I'm not supposed to say I was fired," Daria said, sipping coffee in the dining room of the home she shares with her husband and son, "even though I clearly was fired."

Daria's short hair is mostly bleached blond. Her voice, soothing on the radio, is just as soft in person. She has an almost undetectable lisp and is immediately warm and intimate. On Saturday, she wore a black tank top and flowing pants, casually dressed for a weekend morning at home with her family, one leg tucked under her as she spoke.

"It happens to everybody," Daria said from across the table, without bitterness in her voice. "I am not the first nor will I be the last this has happened to."

A new general manager started at Entercom in Portland in July. According to an Entercom blog post, Bill Ashenden joined the "Portland cluster as the Vice President and Market Manager for Entercom Portland effective July 10th, 2017."

"We have no personal relationship at all," Daria said, of the new manager.

In a sitting room across the house, her eight-year-old son, Alexander, and former professional lacrosse player husband, Dallas Eliuk, quietly played with action figures. Mid morning light spilled in through sheer white curtains, highlighting the glass house filled with painted Ukrainian eggs placed in the center of the dining room table.

Both Daria and Dallas have Ukrainian heritage. It's just one of the things they share, along with a deep passion for superheroes and cosplay. Throughout their home are framed professional photos of the couple dressed up as Catwoman and Batman. You have to look closely to see that the photos aren't movie posters featuring Hollywood stars.

Even out of costume, Dallas looks like a more-approachable Bruce Wayne. Now, Dallas makes pins based on obscure comic book and movie references, like Nicholas Cage Superman from a failed Superman project in the '90s.

"And the end of August, I was told I am not going to be on the air anymore," Daria said, "and then basically they're not renewing my contract."

Daria has been under one contract or another since 1997. When she was moved from The Buzz back to KNRK in 2016, she was entering the second year of a two year contract.

She was blindsided by the station's decision.

"I was like, 'I'm fired,'" she said, "and they were like, 'no, no.'"

"I think the final phrasing was 'We are electing to not re-sign your contract." she said.

Daria is surprisingly calm about her dramatic change of fate at Entercom.

"I'll give you a hypothetical example," she said, trying to explain why she thinks the corporation let her go. "This is purely hypothetical."

"Let's say, hypothetically, there's an ice cream store," she said. "And this ice cream store is called The Ice Cream Store and it has three employees and they're all named Bob: Bob 1, Bob 2, Bob 3. And then there's Mr. Ice Cream Man, the owner."

In her creamy voice, she tells a parable about the owner of an ice cream shop firing two employees to increase his profits, to make the business appear more desirable to investors.

When asked about what led to Daria's contract not being renewed, an Entercom spokesperson said the company does not comment on personnel matters. But, in the story, it's safe to assume Daria is one of those employees.

When she talks about her show on The Buzz, she points out there were three people involved -- three Bobs.

"What I feel is that when my beloved Mitch was let go, I should have been let go also," Daria said, "but I still had a year on my contract."

Again though, she isn't angry. Instead, she is disappointed.

"It's business and I understand it and I honestly really don't hold it against them," she said. "I am just mournful and regretful of the way that it ended."

After being on Entercom for 20 years, and being voted Portland's favorite radio personality in Willamette Week's Best of Portland multiple times, including this year, it felt cruel to both Daria and her "listener friends" to drop her so unceremoniously, without explanation.

"I believe that 20 years is something to celebrate," she said.

But without any sort of official announcement or explanation of her departure, there have been no parties or place for fans to comment about what she has meant to them. Her co-workers, potentially considering their own employment, haven't commented either.

But listeners say she's had a profound impact on their lives.

"I grew up listening to her," Michael Herrington, a host on KPAM 860 tweeted about Daria Monday. "She's the reason I wanted to be on the radio and also the reason that I question if I'll ever be good enough."

"When I was a teen girl she was a quirky, funny and honest woman's voice in an ocean of male DJs," another Twitter user, Carrie C., wrote. "She helped me find my voice."

"She is the best," wrote Emily Rowney on Facebook. "My favorite were the stories she used to tell back when she was on 94.7 in the early 2000s. There was this particular one about her summer camp stalker that made me laugh so hard I nearly peed."

After 20 years in constant communication with the public, Daria said she feels lonely. She misses the relationship she had with her listeners.

But, she's looking to the future. Daria is only 47. A listener donated podcasting equipment that is set up in her study, where she keeps stacks of stories. She's working on learning that technology, and Dallas is updating her website. She's considering writing some fiction and she already has more live storytelling events scheduled.

And she isn't ruling out another radio job, either.

For now though, she's processing her grief about the loss of her on-air life and learning how to exist post-radio.

And while she misses her listener friends, Daria luxuriates in time with her family. Not surprisingly, Halloween is a big holiday in the Eliuk household. Alexander is dressing up as either a Stormtrooper or as Robin, but probably Robin. His parents are still deciding on costumes.

"We always plan to go as something else," Daria said. "But almost always end up going as Batman and Catwoman."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker