Stephen King is taking a big old ax to his Maine radio empire. The prolific author bought Bangor-based station WLBZ in 1983, renaming it WZON in honor of his 1979 novel, The Dead Zone, per Billboard.

Stephen King, the horror author whose books have sold hundreds of millions of copies, inspired classic films and disturbed untold nights of sleep, has long played another role closer to his home in Maine: local media magnate.

Stephen King has written dire endings for dozens of characters. His next one, however, is rooted in a grim reality. The verbose author is closing the three Maine radio stations he co-owns with his wife Tabitha at the end of the year,