Chet Buchanan departs KLUC-FM, 98.5, after 25 years

Tracking time has been a way of life for Chet Buchanan his entire professional career. In leaving the KLUC-FM, 98.5, radio team, he says, “It’s just time. There wasn’t any one moment where I decided, ‘All right, this is it.’”

For the first time in a quarter century, Buchanan has no professional radio affiliation in Las Vegas. The local broadcast favorite is leaving the station, informing KLUC on Thursday night and first confirmed by the station’s social media post Friday morning. His final live show was Jan. 29.

KLUC’s statement: “Thank you @chetbuchanan for 25+ years of Las Vegas radio. Your voice, leadership, and commitment to our listeners have helped define KLUC and its role in the Las Vegas community for nearly three decades and for that we greatly appreciate you.”

The parting was abrupt, though the station had been airing repeats of Buchanan’s shows over the past couple of weeks as he halted live broadcasts.

As Buchanan says, “This was my choice. I walked away. But they were very kind. They were very gracious.”

Buchanan, 59, did not elaborate on the specifics of why he left. But he allows that he is under a one-year, noncompete agreement with the station, which is owned by Audacy Inc. entertainment company.

“It’s just one of those gradual things,” he says.

Buchanan has risen as a philanthropic leader during the Christmas season through the annual KLUC Toy Drive, hosting it for the past 25 years. He has for two weeks each December taken up residency on a scaffold in the NV Energy parking lot on West Sahara Avenue.

Last year, the campaign collected more than 6,700 bicycles (filling 40 semitrucks) and nearly $800,000 in gift cards. He spent 300 hours on the scaffold during that run, never leaving his perch.

“I kind of knew at the end of the Toy Drive this year that I probably wasn’t going to do another Toy Drive,” Buchanan says. “I was looking at that scaffold, wondering, ‘Am I going to be able to be up there when I’m 70 years old?’”

Buchanan started his tenure at KLUC in 1999 and hosted “The Morning Zoo” and, later, “The Chet Buchanan Show,” teaming with Vegas entertainer Mikalah Gordon in the latter broadcast.

He has also been the in-arena announcer voice of the Aces since the team’s move to Las Vegas in 2018, while alternating in a similar role with the Seattle Kraken NHL franchise. This has allowed him to spend hoops season in Las Vegas and hockey season in Seattle. Buchanan’s family owns an 80-acre farm in the Seattle area.

“I’m probably the luckiest guy, in that I get to spend time on the farm where I grew up, and that’s home. And then I get to live in the greatest city in the world, in Las Vegas, and that’s home,” Buchanan says. “I get the best of both worlds. I’m just probably the only idiot that spends winters in Seattle and summers in Vegas (laughs).”

Buchanan has also served as a stellar fundraising emcee, presiding over such annual events as the Nevada Ballet Theatre Black and White Gala and The Animal Foundation’s Best in Show dog adoption effort.

He has several philanthropic interests. He’s the board president of Project 150, supporting high school student services, is on the board of the youth assistant program HELP of Southern Nevada, and on the board of Variety The Children’s Charity of Southern Nevada.

Having cut loose his broadcast duties, Buchanan says he wants to spend more time with his wife, Amy.

“We really want to take a road trip and go to Mount Rushmore, of all the silly things, and she wants to learn to play golf,” Buchanan says. “We just want to do more stuff together. But I’m not going anywhere. Nothing really changes. I just don’t have to get up at 3 o’clock in the morning anymore.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.