This is the kind of radio move that makes a résumé suddenly feel like a circle.
Audacy CHR 98.5 WKRZ in Northeast Pennsylvania and 107.9 WKRF are bringing Robert Hawk back home to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, where he will join Lissa Krahnke as the station’s new morning co-host beginning Tuesday, September 8.
And after digging into Hawk’s background, this becomes a much better story than simply “afternoon host moves to mornings.”
Because Hawk did not just grow up in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
HE GREW UP WANTING TO DO EXACTLY THIS.
Before There Was A Real Microphone There Were Cassette Tapes
Hawk’s own biography at Big Country 92.5 tells a pretty perfect radio-origin story.
As a kid growing up around Scranton, he loved radio enough that he would make cassette tapes at home and imitate morning shows, talking between songs as though he already had an audience.
Read that again.
A kid in Northeastern Pennsylvania sits around making pretend radio shows on cassette tapes.
Then life happens.
He grows up.
Gets into the business.
Eventually winds up doing real afternoon radio hundreds of miles away in Sioux Falls.
And now he is coming back to the market where those homemade shows started…
TO DO MORNING RADIO FOR REAL.
Come on.
That is a radio story.
Sioux Falls Was Not Some Placeholder Stop
Hawk is leaving a real position behind.
At Midwest Communications Country Big Country 92.5 KTWB, he has been handling 2 to 6 p.m. afternoons, with the station itself promoting him as one of its core weekday personalities.
He also built enough of a presence there that KTWB maintained a dedicated Hawk Talk Podcast alongside his on-air work.
So this is not somebody coming home because there was nowhere else to go.
He was already doing the job.
He was already established.
He was already part of another station’s lineup.
This is a broadcaster choosing the opportunity to come back to the region that helped create his obsession with radio in the first place.
And Now Lissa Gets A Partner
Hawk will join incumbent morning personality Lissa Krahnke, giving WKRZ a new two-person morning combination.
That matters.
Because morning radio is not just about adding another microphone.
It is about finding somebody who gives the existing personality something new to react to.
Different instincts.
Different stories.
Different timing.
Different life experience.
Different ways to push a conversation somewhere unexpected.
Lissa already knows the station.
She already knows the audience.
Now the question becomes:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HAWK WALKS INTO THAT ROOM?
That is the fun part.
Coming Home Gives Hawk An Immediate Advantage
A morning personality can absolutely succeed in a market they did not grow up in.
People do it every day.
But there is something different about somebody who already understands why the place feels the way it does.
The towns.
The roads.
The accents.
The rivalries.
The weather.
The references outsiders miss.
The things locals laugh about before somebody from another market even understands the setup.
That can save years of cultural catching-up.
Hawk is not studying Northeastern Pennsylvania.
HE IS FROM THERE.
That gives WKRZ something valuable before the first show even starts.
There Is Also A Format Jump Here
Do not overlook this part.
Hawk has most recently been doing afternoons on a Country station.
Now he is stepping into mornings on a CHR.
That is a very different musical environment.
But personalities who understand how to connect with people should not be trapped inside one format forever.
The fundamentals travel.
Storytelling travels.
Humor travels.
Timing travels.
Authenticity travels.
You change the records.
You adjust the language.
You learn the brand.
But personality is personality.
And if Hawk can take what worked in Sioux Falls and translate it into WKRZ’s faster, more pop-driven world, this could become a very interesting fit.
WKRZ Has Real Heritage To Protect
This is not some disposable CHR that appeared yesterday.
98.5 WKRZ has been serving the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton region as a contemporary hit outlet for decades.
That creates expectations.
Heritage brands carry an advantage because listeners already know them.
But they also carry responsibility.
You cannot simply put anybody behind the microphone and assume the call letters will do the work forever.
You have to keep creating reasons for younger listeners to care while respecting the people who have been with the brand for years.
Morning personality is one of the biggest tools available to accomplish that.
An On The Dial Perspective
This is exactly the kind of hire I want to see more often.
Somebody leaves home.
Builds experience.
Learns another market.
Develops their craft.
Then gets the opportunity to bring all of that experience back.
That is talent development with an actual story behind it.
And frankly, the cassette-tape detail is why this one lands so well.
Because almost every radio person has some version of that story.
Maybe it was talking into a tape recorder.
Maybe it was pretending the bedroom was a studio.
Maybe it was calling into the request line constantly.
Maybe it was sitting in the driveway because the DJ had not finished the break.
The technology changes.
The obsession does not.
Now The Pretend Morning Show Becomes The Real One
That is what makes September 8 special.
Robert Hawk is not going back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre just to take another job.
He is going back to the place where he first imagined himself doing one.
There is a poetic little piece of symmetry in that.
The kid who once pretended to host radio shows on cassette tapes is coming home to sit next to Lissa Krahnke and wake up the same region that helped make him love radio.
That is cool as hell.
So welcome home, Robert.
Bring the laugh.
Bring the stories.
Bring everything Sioux Falls taught you.
Bring the personality.
And when that microphone opens Tuesday morning, remember something:
THE KID WITH THE CASSETTE RECORDER FINALLY GOT THE REAL MORNING SHOW.
Now make it unforgettable.
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