Most companies do this because it's the end of the year, which often matches the end of their fiscal year, and they want their numbers and margins to look a certain way. I've always heard good things about Crash, and it's always sad to hear bad things happen to good people. It's awful, and it happens in all industries.
As for KZEP, the beginning of the end was probably when they slid it to 93.3, or maybe even earlier than that, like when the numbers first started going down.