CEDAR RAPIDS — The local voices on WMT radio that once filled the Eastern Iowa airwaves — and beyond — are off the air.
In late June, iHeartMedia, the corporate owner of WMT and almost 900 other radio stations, abruptly cut staff throughout the company, citing financial losses and replacing local voices with nationally syndicated programs and ones from WHO in Des Moines, a station iHeartMedia also owns.
“I think there’s a heartbeat of a community that may now be silenced,” said Doug Wagner of Cedar Rapids, the morning voice on WMT for the past 10 years, who was among those dismissed…