KXLY drops Rick, Teresa Lukens

Rick and Teresa Lukens, longtime KXLY TV and radio broadcasters, were dropped by KXLY last week.

Rick Lukens, who has been with KXLY for more than 27 years, said they got a call from station management while they were on vacation. The station exercised an option to drop their contracts and give them three months of pay. Lukens said the station cited budgetary reasons.

The couple held many high-profile on-air positions at KXLY over nearly three decades. Rick Lukens was a longtime TV sports reporter, sports anchor and sports director. He also had a popular news-feature segment called “Lukens at Large.”

Teresa Lukens was with the station for almost 26 years. She was a producer and then became co-anchor of “Good Morning Northwest Sunday” beginning in 1999. Her husband later joined her as co-anchor.

In 2002, they moved into radio, as co-hosts of the morning show at KXLY-FM and later to the morning show at KXLY-AM.

At the beginning of this year, they were moved to KVNI-AM, a KXLY Broadcast Group sister station in Coeur d’Alene, where they were co-anchors of the morning show.