Business in brief: City radio stations have new owner

Spokane’s seven Citadel Broadcasting Corp. radio stations officially switched over to Mapleton Communications of Los Angeles on Tuesday in a move that apparently cost at least a few local jobs.

Don Morin, whose title is now market manager of Mapleton in Spokane, said the switchover included “some personnel changes in conjunction with the close of the sale.”

Sources close to the station said up to six employees were laid off on Monday, mostly in non-on-air positions. Morin declined to discuss any specifics of the personnel changes. He did say there would be some “shuffling” of on-air personnel.

Morin said that there were no plans at this point to change any of the station’s formats. He said the local group of stations would now be known as Radio Spokane.

Its stations are: KDRK-FM (Cat Country 93.7), KGA-AM (The Big Talker, 1510), KEYF-FM (Oldies 101.1), KEYF-AM (1050), KJRB-AM (The Fan, 790), KBBD-FM (Bob, 103.9) and KZBD-FM (The Buzzard, 105.7).

Citadel had earlier dismissed KGA-AM talk show hosts Mark Fuhrman and Rebecca Mack in a move related to the sale.

Hayden Lake

Structural panels factory will open

Acsys Inc. will start producing structural panels next year in Post Falls.

The Hayden Lake firm developed a panel for residential and commercial construction that has a steel interior sandwiched in foam. Currently, Acsys contracts with a Virginia firm to make the panels for East Coast clients.

The Post Falls facility at 708 Clearwater Loop will serve a growing West Coast clientele, said Werner Nennecker, Acsys’s president. About a dozen people will work at the plant, which will produce roughly $12 million worth of panels per year.

The panels go up more quickly than a traditional framed building, he said.

“We take a lot of time out of builders’ schedules,” Nennecker said.

Acsys considered several locations in Western states before deciding on Post Falls. Labor rates, cost-of-doing business and access to Interstate 90 were all factors, Nennecker said.

“All of our product goes out on tractor trailers,” he said.

SAN FRANCISCO

EPA asked to cut aircraft emissions

A coalition of states and environmental groups is urging the federal government to curb global warming pollution from planes and other aircraft.

California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia plan to file a petition today asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from domestic and foreign aircraft departing or landing at American airports.

“We want the EPA to take their head out of the sand and actively promulgate rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown told the Associated Press. “The EPA has taken a very passive and unimaginative approach to combating global warming.”

Aviation is responsible for about 3 percent of the country’s overall carbon dioxide emissions, and the Federal Aviation Administration expects domestic aircraft emissions to rise by 60 percent by 2025, according to the petition.

The petition asks the EPA to develop rules to reduce aircraft emissions by requiring operators to boost fuel efficiency, use cleaner fuels or build lighter, more aerodynamic airplanes.