Community, Crime, Featured, News, Opinion

EDITORIAL: Let KHTS Turn to Rubble

by Jerome Horwitz

This editorial is in response to Carl Goldman’s whiny, self-serving, and misguided editorial here.

Stop what you’re doing. Put down your reusable shopping bag and your artisan cold brew. We are facing a crisis of monumental proportions: A zoning decision might—brace yourselves—inconvenience an AM radio station.

Yes, the legendary KHTS, Santa Clarita’s very own beacon of analog resilience. The little station that could… and still does, despite the invention of podcasts, streaming audio, the internet, and literally every modern technology developed since the Bush administration (the first one). And now, the prospect of progress has the airwaves all a-flutter.

Carl Goldman, naturally, has stepped in to play his usual role as The Voice of Reasonable Alarmism™. Because where else can you find a front-page editorial about zoning laws written with the energy of a hostage letter from a rotary club? The same outlet that publishes diatribes comparing bike lanes to Marxism is now clutching its pearls over the possible silencing of Carl and Jeri’s grandstanding frequency of nostalgia.

Let’s not pretend this is about the public good. This is about one very specific business being slightly less comfortable in the face of change. A business that, let’s be honest, hasn’t been “just the local radio station” in years. KHTS is 2% news, 50% political megaphone, and 48% folksy cult of personality. It’s like if Fox News had a bake sale and called it civic engagement.

Sure, they show up during wildfires. So does CAL FIRE. So do emergency alerts on your iPhone. So does your neighbor with the drone and the live stream. The idea that we’d all be doomed without KHTS telling us which direction the smoke is blowing is laughable—especially when half the time they’re also telling you which local candidate is “destroying the fabric of Santa Clarita” by suggesting maybe we try composting.

Let’s be honest: If KHTS were run by anyone other than its current ownership—let’s say, hypothetically, by people not actively auditioning for a spot on Truth Social—they wouldn’t get half the editorial coverage or performative outrage they’re getting now. But because they’re local, loud, and love to say the quiet part into a live mic, we’re expected to treat them like sacred cows of civic virtue.

This is not about saving the soul of Santa Clarita. This is about zoning. Growth. Reality. A city that wants to keep moving forward.

So no, the sky isn’t falling. The airwaves might get a little quieter. But that’s not a crisis.

That’s just evolution.

In closing, Carl, sweetie, you moved to Utah. You don’t care about this city. Maybe let the actual residents have a louder voice than some carpetbagger like you.