-
KKBQ/Houston Morning Host Kevin Kline Announces Retirement
December 7, 2020 at 12:44 PM (PT)
What do you think? Add your comment below. -
COX MEDIA GROUP Country KKBQ (93Q)/HOUSTON “Q Morning Zoo” host KEVIN KLINE announced TODAY (12/7) that he plans to retire. In a post on the station’s web site, KLINE wrote, “After 30 years in the radio industry, over half of them spent in HOUSTON on the legendary 93Q, I have decided to retire and start a new, as of now, untitled chapter in life.” KLINE said he and wife TRISH “plan to live abroad, country to be determined, and that decision doesn’t happen without 93Q putting us in a position where we could afford to travel and experience different cultures.”
“From my first on-air shift in 1990, I set goals for myself, the pinnacle of which was to have a morning show in a top 10 market by age 40,” he wrote. “When I signed my contract on APRIL 1, 2005, I not only met, but exceeded my goal, reaching a Top 5 market at age 35.”
His candid post went on to say, “My mom asked me the other day, ‘What are you running away from?’ I simply told her, ‘the alarm clock.’ And while that is certainly at the forefront of the decision, COVID also allowed me to quietly reflect, and that reflection led to important lessons about myself … I found out that the amount of pressure I put on myself to succeed in everything I ever try prevents me from enjoying the endeavor and prohibits me from celebrating the outcome. I realized that the exhaustion I always feel after five hours on the radio isn’t because of the job, it’s because my depression and mental health issues force me to overuse my energy to be ‘up and happy.’ I learned that my need to always please everyone and be liked by everyone is an impossible ideal to live up to, and COVID, quarantine and lockdown, confirmed what I’d suspected all along — my happiness and my calm is TRISH and my dogs.”
He added, “This 30-year ride has been a blast. It has been personally meaningful and gratifying. And the ride has changed our lives in ways we never imagined it would. TRISH and I know how lucky and blessed we are to have had this long, incredible career. Many, who are lucky enough to even get into this highly competitive radio industry don’t last 30 months, so to have had an audience to entertain for 30 years, that is something I have never taken for granted.”
Read his full post and watch a video about his retirement here. His replacement had not yet been hired.