Posted by chicagomedia.org on November 21, 2008 at 15:41:34:
In Reply to: Eddie & Jobo fired from B96 posted by WOW on November 21, 2008 at 11:26:09:
Eddie and Jobo out at WBBM-FM
It's "no mo" for "Eddie and Jobo."
Eddie Volkman and Joe "Jobo" Bohannon, in their 20th year as an on-air team and the final year of a seven-year deal that paid each man more than $1.5 million annually, are done at CBS Radio's WBBM-FM 96.3.
The two got the news after getting off the air Friday that that morning's would be their last for the rhythmic Top 40 outlet. They and Erica Cobb, who became part of their show three years ago, have been scrubbed from the WBBM-FM Web site.
Michelle Menaker, known to "Eddie and Jobo" listeners as "Showbiz Shelly," will continue with the station.
Jamar "J Niice" McNeil will move from middays to fill the morning void on an interim basis, requiring weekend host Rebecca Ortiz to slide into the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. slot in the meantime.
"They have defined the Top 40 [Contemporary Hit Radio] format more than any other personalities in the radio industry in Chicago," Rod Zimmerman, CBS Radio senior vice president and Chicago market manager, said. "They've made a great contribution to the radio station and always done a great job, but it's time to take the station in a new direction [in the morning] and they understand that."
Zimmerman -- who said there are "two or three shows ... some within the station, some outside" under consideration to replace "Eddie and Jobo" -- doesn't expect a new morning program to be announced for another month or so.
Volkman and Bohannon, whose contract runs through the summer, were hard hit in Arbitron's switch this year from diaries to Portable People Meters and the radio business, like all media operations, has been hard hit in the economic downturn.
"There are a lot of factors that go into a lot of decisions like this, and so there's not one particular reason for making a change except that we feel the timing is right to take the morning show in a new direction," Zimmerman said.
Part of the reason the two were able to triple their previous pay in 2002 from WBBM-FM was because of a miscalculation by management, which pulled them off the air in hopes of pressuring them to renew at modest increases. Instead, a bidding war erupted with Clear Channel-owned rival WKSC-FM 103.5, which then found what it was looking for in Kevin "Drex" Buchar.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)