Eddie and Jobo will be getting paid to sleep

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: Eddie and Jobo will be sleeping in, and still getting paid : : Ed Volkman and Joe Bohannon were leaving Prudential Plaza on Friday, the on-air team of 20 years having been told by management they had done their last "Eddie and Jobo" morning show for CBS Radio's WBBM-FM 96.3. : As Volkman tells it, they were stopped on the way out by an older man who had been a fan of his father, TV weather legend Harry Volkman, whose 45-year run on the air in Chicago ended four years ago. The man said he complained to WFLD-Ch. 32 at the time. : "I said, 'Well, Fox overall always went for a younger demographic target, and my dad was getting to be, like, 78,' " Eddie recalled. "The guy said, 'But he's a legend!' And I said, 'You can be a legend, but sometimes you just don't fit anymore.' And Jobo's trying to stifle a laugh. I went, 'No matter how much they love you, sometimes they've got to do something to shake up their image.' Everything I was saying was a parallel to what had just happened." : B-96 "had to make a move because the youngest in the demographic have heard us since they were in diapers and have to assume we're like 600 years old," said Volkman, 52. And if he seemed philosophical about the station's bid to shake up its image after being shaken out of a job, he can afford it. : Literally. : While B-96 is making its on-air change in pursuit of young listeners, the big bills still go to Eddie and Jobo. : The duo is in the final year of a seven-year deal that pays each more than $1.5 million annually, and that contract runs into next summer. : "I feel the worst for people who think I'm sitting here all devastated," Volkman said. "But I'm thinking, I've never been able to take a vacation that's more than 10 or 11 days. I don't think people realize we're going to be well-paid. … When I wake up Friday mornings, it will be in my account—that is, if I decide to wake up before noon." : Rod Zimmerman, CBS Radio senior vice president and market manager for Chicago, expects to have his new B-96 morning show ready to unveil in a month or so. In the interim, the station is replacing Volkman, Bohannon and Erica Cobb, who came aboard three years ago, with midday man Jamar "J Niice" McNeil, whose 10 a.m.-to-2 p.m. slot will be filled by weekend host Rebecca Ortiz. Michelle Menaker, known to "Eddie and Jobo" listeners as "Showbiz Shelly," gets to stay. : Zimmerman said Eddie and Jobo defined the Top 40 Contemporary Hit Radio format "more than any other personalities in the radio industry in Chicago, … but it's time to take the station in a new direction" in the morning. : Back in 2002, agent Steve Mandell was able to triple Volkman and Bohannon's pay in part because of a negotiating tactic that backfired on management. The two were pulled off the air in hopes of pressuring a renewal with a modest increase. Instead, Clear Channel-owned rival WKSC-FM 103.5 shrewdly ignited a bidding war and when B-96 won, Kiss FM brought in Kevin "Drex" Buchar, who has enjoyed an impressive run. : But so much has changed in radio—to say nothing of the economy—since then. : "I look at the revenue for all radio stations in this town from seven years ago and the rankings are kind of similar today, but no one's making near the money they did," Volkman said. "A few months ago, my wife was upset when I told her they may want us back, but not at that price. : "Things are just different now, vastly different, and I said, 'If they cut my salary in half, I'll go from being one of the five top-paid people in Chicago radio to probably being one of the five top-paid people in Chicago radio.' … You saw what happened to Mike North." : North also scored a $1.5 million salary from CBS Radio in 2002, but left WSCR-AM 670 and now is doing his sports show on the Web until he's free next month to move to Comcast SportsNet Chicago. : He's not alone. The elite club of Chicago radio millionaires has been shrinking for a while now. : Volkman and Bohannon also ran smack up against new ratings methodology in Arbitron's shift from diaries to Portable People Meters this year. Doubts have been cast about the reliability of the sample, but Eddie and Jobo's ratings took a hit with the move to PPMs, though the numbers were recovering some of late. : One problem, Volkman theorized, was that a young teen being driven to school by a parent has no control of the radio. But, also, it seems morning drive just isn't want it used to be. : "The most listened-to day-part now, according to PPMs, is now middays, and middays used to be a throwaway," Volkman said. "So the days of the overpaid morning star and everybody else making chicken feed may be over." : And Volkman laughed. Because, even after losing his show, he can afford to. : : (Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)

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