We present recent measurements of excited-atom and ion emission from KCl surfaces illuminated by vacuum-ultraviolet synchrotron radiation (hv = 8-28 eV) and ultraviolet laser light (hv = 4 eV). At low intensities characteristic of the synchrotron experiments, excited atoms are desorbed by simple valence-band excitation process involving the metallization of the KCl surface. At the higher intensities typical of laser desorption and ablation, we observe a strong decrease in K* emission as a function of the number of laser shots, but an essentially constant yield of Cl*. K+ and Cl- emission at high intensities show similar behavior. The energetics of these desorption phenomena can be treated in a bond-orbital model which shows that creation of a single valence hole is sufficient to excite an ion to an anti-bonding state.