Strelzin announced on his show that he was told by station management that budget cuts mandated by the California home office meant he would not longer be paid, and therefore, would not do the show.
Caller after caller commiserated with Strelzin, including fellow host Barbara Perez. Strelzin said he was told at 2 p.m. Monday of the changes in store.
David Candelaria, general manager for the El Paso Entravision operation, which owns several El Paso radio stations and KINT television (channel 26), was quoted in the El Paso Times as saying that guest hosts would fill in for Strelzin until a new host is found. He also said if Strelzin could find sponsors to pay his salary, he might come back.
Strelzin said that was a possibility. Although he said management did a poor job of dealing with him (the 2 p.m. meeting was only an hour before air-time, and Strelzin noted that "if I were quitting, they would have asked me for two weeks notice to find a replacement") Strelzin said that being on the air was an important job for the community.
"You reach so many people," he said. "You educate people, bring good people to speak."
Talk radio numbers are not extremely high, Strelzin said, something at least partly attributable to the method for calculating audience -- a ratings book sent to people in the community, who fill it in as a sort of diary of their listening habits. But at that, he said, the importance is not measured only in total audience.
Talk radio can be used to generate community interest in politics, and serves as a sounding board to gauge ideas.
Strelzin spoke to NPT Tuesday morning, in a conversation frequently interrupted because he was fielding calls from well-wishers and potential new partners. He plans to stay busy, he said.
"I'm not going to stay at home watching TV. I'm going to do something," he said.
Strelzin has been in the media for 40 years, although his entry to talk radio is relatively recent -- since 1998. He started as an announcer for UTEP Miner track, basketball and football, and through the years has owned and announced Diablo baseball, high school football, and been a television host.
Strelzin gained national attention in the early 1990s when he successfully sued the Border Patrol, which was detaining students at Bowie High School, where he was principal until 1998.
He said he might work with the schools again, although he already has been approached by people eager to hear him on the air again.
Regardless, he said, his family gene pool is built for the distance, and at 71 (72 in June) he plans to keep working.
"My dad was 89. On Feb. 1, my aunt, my dad's sister will be 100," Strelzin said. "I learned from my dad, if the brain is fallow the body will go shortly after that."
