Greg Kihn Exits Longtime Radio Gig in Bay Area

There’s a new breakup song on Greg Kihn’s playlist.

The ’80s pop star-turned-radio personality has parted ways with KUFX-FM (aka K-Fox) in Northern California after a 16-year stint doing the morning-drive show.

"I am unemployed, along with a large percentage of my fellow Americans, but I am an optimist," the former Greg Kihn Band frontman posted on his website. "I believe for every door that closes others open and I'll be back on the air soon doing what I love to do most -- entertaining my loyal fans."

The San Jose classic rock outlet K-Fox is simulcast on San Francisco’s KUZX. Kihn’s exit from was the station’s decision.

"After 16 years, they wanted to try something new," the 63-year-old Baltimore native said. “I can understand that.”

Said Dwight Walker, vp and GM of K-Fox: "You have to understand this is the big leagues. The nature of radio is kind of like that."

The Greg Kihn Band scored a massive hit with “Jeopardy,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983. Its popularity was fueled by an MTV-favorite video in which a wedding devolves into a zombiefest and the singer is left at the altar as his gleeful bride-to-be splits with some dude in a convertible. (Watch the video below.) The song also inspired “I Lost on Jeopardy,” a 1984 parody by “Weird” Al Yankovic whose video also got MTV airplay.

The Greg Kihn Band dented the Billboard 200 with three albums from 1978-80 before breaking nationally with “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ’Em).” The bouncy 1981 FM and pop hit was driven by its uber-catchy “ah-ah-ah ah-ah-ah ah ah” vocal hook and the key line, “They don’t write ’em like that anymore.” The album that spawned it, Rockihnroll, began a string of LPs whose titles were puns on the Kihn’s name, including Kihntinued and Kihnspiracy. The latter, which featured “Jeopardy,” reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200, the band’s best showing on that chart.

Kihn also had a national mini-hit as a solo artist with “Lucky,” which reached No. 30 in 1985.

The news of Kihn’s exit comes a month after Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps wrapped their popular morning show on KLOS-FM Los Angeles. The Mark & Brian Show had been airing on the classic rock outlet since 1987.