Radio personality Mark Wallengren, who had worked at KOST-FM/103.5 since 1985, and Ted Ziegenbusch, who worked at the station for several decades off and on since its founding in 1982, were both abruptly laid off Wednesday by the Burbank-based station.

“I’ve got some kind of important news,” Wallengren announced via a Facebook video shot in a bar at LAX on Thursday morning, a pint of Modelo with a lime and salted rim on the counter beside him. “I didn’t know it, but yesterday, last night at 7 o’clock, I realized — or I was told — I’ve done my last show at KOST 103.5 after 35 years.

“And let me tell you, what an incredible ride,” he continued. “What an incredible journey, what incredible memories, that I have. I was allowed to work there, raise a family, travel all over the world, making friends with incredible friends like you. And that is over.

“But I do want to say, even though I was not able to go on the radio and say goodbye, or you know, have some kind of retirement thing, it’s OK. This is a weird, crazy business.”

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Ziegenbusch also announced on Facebook that he had “had been ‘retired’” by the station, too. He had worked at the station from 1982 to 2000 as host of its late-night Love Songs program, left for three years in the mid-2000s, and had been there consistently in a variety of roles from 2009 until Wednesday.

“I was the last remaining member of the original KOST on-air staff that was hired way back in 1982 and I was still working at KOST until January 15, 2020,” Ziegenbusch wrote. “It’s been a wonderful journey!”

The station is owned by iHeartRadio, which announced its plans for what it described as “employee dislocations” — layoffs essentially — at stations all across the nation, according to a company memo to employees obtained by the online radio news site AllAccess.com.

Angel Aristone, iHeartMedia’s executive vice president for communications, said in an email that she could not comment on specific on-air talent or markets, but offered a general statement about the layoffs this week.

“We are modernizing our company to take advantage of the significant investments we have made in new technology and aligning our operating structure to match the technology-powered businesses we are now in,” she wrote. “This is another step in the company’s successful transformation as a multiple platform 21st century media company, and we believe it is essential to our future – it continues our momentum and adds to our competitiveness, our effectiveness and our efficiency with all our major constituencies.

“During a transition like this it’s reasonable to expect that there will be some shifts in jobs – some by location and some by function – but the number is relatively small given our overall employee base of 12,500. That said, we recognize that the loss of any job is significant; we take that responsibility seriously and have been thoughtful in the process.”

KOST bills itself as the feel-good station for Los Angeles, but fans on Wallengren’s and Ziegenbusch’s social media weren’t feeling that on Thursday as they’d learned their longtime radio friend was gone.

“I am beyond devastated,” wrote Rebecca Fleming in a comment on Wallengren’s Facebook video. “You’ve got to be kidding me. An end of an era (and) to not even say goodbye. I feel like I lost a family member.”

“Thank you for the countless hours and shifts you came in for!” Kristan Rios wrote on Ziegenbusch’s Facebook announcement. “We will miss your smooth golden voice Ted Ziegenbusch! You will be remembered!”

Former colleagues and L.A. radio friends also chimed in their disappointment at the news.

“Forgive my language but this is utter (bleep),” tweeted former KROQ morning co-host Gene “Bean” Baxter from England to which he moved after voluntarily stepping down in November. “@MarkWallengren is on the Mount Rushmore of @KOST1035fm and deserves a lot better.”

Wallengren replied: “Gene, you my friend are missed. I’m touched that you even thought to chime in. Have a spare room?”

Wallengren mentioned in his video that one silver lining to the unexpected news was that he would be able to spend more time with his parents, who are in their 90s. By the afternoon, he’d posted an update on Facebook with photos of him with his mother in snowy Santa Fe, N.M.