Posted by chicagomedia.org on November 23, 2008 at 21:54:54:
In Reply to: Eddie & Jobo fired from B96 posted by WOW on November 21, 2008 at 11:26:09:
WBBM-FM thanks Eddie, Jobo and Erica; Erica thanks fans, rips critics
Hours after dismissing Eddie Volkman, Joe "Jobo" Bohannon and Erica Cobb after their WBBM-FM 96.3 Friday morning show and quickly scrubbing them from the station's Web site late last week, B-96 posted a farewell note of thanks to the trio.
By all accounts, the parting was amicable -- and not just because Volkman and Bohannon continue to be paid under a seven-figure contract that runs into next summer. Volkman said he and Jobo got to keep their office keycards and can even attend CBS Radio's Chicago holiday party if they want.
"We weren't led away in handcuffs, like last time," Volkman said, referring to the radio team of 20 years' earlier B-96 exit in 1994, which forced them into purgatory -- Philadelphia -- before returning to the station in 1996.
Cobb on Sunday posted a farewell note from Mexico on her Facebook page.
"I am SO grateful and unbelievably blessed to have been a part of so many of your lives every morning," Cobb wrote. "And I'm even more touched that so many of you feel that there will be a void by me not being there tomorrow. I love you all, I'll miss you all, but this is NOT the end, and I'll see you soon.
"No tears for me," she continued. "I'm in MEXICO for crying out loud and when I return it's back to the grind. But I'll do so with excitement as I'm a firm believer in one door closing another one opening! AND to the haters ... LOL, it's such a rare opportunity that I actually address people who have so little to do but talk poorly about others who CHOOSE to work hard to achieve their dreams!"
Cobb's note addressed critics head-on: "I've NEVER considered my success your failure. And find it QUITE sad that you'd consider my 'failure,' which it's clearly NOT, your success. But if that's the way you want to play it, then I want you to prepare for MANY more failures in YOUR future."
WBBM-FM management -- which will have midday voice Jamar "J Niice" McNeil fill in on mornings along Michelle "Showbiz Shelly" Menaker until a regular replacement is named next month -- thanked Volkman, Bohannon and Cobb on the B-96 Web site, acknowledging Eddie and Jobo's nearly two decades of legendary entertainment and service."
"We also know that the time for change has arrived," the station posting said. "We will all miss them greatly, but now is the time for a new direction in morning drive."
Volkman said in my Sunday column that 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." He also cited changes in the industry.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)