The Josh Innes Show - Sympathy For Clout

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

I saw that someone I worked with in St. Louis got fired yesterday. I find it annoying when people who are still employed at the radio station comment on your social media posts after you've gotten fired. It's as if they want the attention and want people to know they are sad. That said, this person who got fired also posted a 4 minute video of herself sobbing in the parking lot...what are we doing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at TELUS.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. All right, everybody. How are you? It's Josh. greetings. I saw that somebody got fired in St. Louis at my old company there because they fire everybody. Basically, you had to be a member of their cult, I guess, to get to stay in the group. Because if it's anybody who was hired within the last couple of years, you're out. And you just

have to be part of their clique of people that remain employed. And if you stay in there, you're set for life. Like, I guess that's the way it is. You're untouchable. But they're kind of being whittled down. Like, the number of actual people in the building they have there aren't many. So, and look, you know, I look back on it. You talk about mistakes and shit you made should have never left Nashville, but at the time you don't know that. You know, you don't know that at the time that you shouldn't leave and you, you know, but let me play a couple of commercials and we'll get into this. Like, you have no idea when someone calls you and they're interested in you in St. Louis at a great radio station, you have no idea, our historical, legendary

radio station. You have no idea that it's a bad decision and something you shouldn't do, right? And And I kind of forced the issue on it. I know we've talked about this before. My biggest regret about the St. Louis thing is that I really forced the issue when I shouldn't have because they came to me. And at the time, I had a deal with I heart and I had to sign it. Like, that's kind of the way things were going. And they approached me about it. And I'm like, they're like, listen, we just don't have anything.

We can't move our morning guy on this station. We'd love to have you. But we're stuck with this morning guy we have. But hey, in like two years, like, look, the job's still. going to be there in two years. Let's talk in two years. And I'm like, no, I'd rather come and do afternoons. I'll do it. And that was the mistake. That's why, like, part of me can't hate them, like, completely, because that was on me. Because I said, I'll come do afternoons because I just want to be there and be on that station. And there was a lot of money involved in it. And I was

like, you know, I felt like they were eventually going to blow out the morning guy anyway and put me in there. So, like, that's the reason I took it. But I forced the issue and probably shouldn't have forced the issue. And I wonder how my life would be different right now had I not forced the issue because I was going to sign that two-year deal in Nashville, which would I guess that would have been in what, 2003. So that would have just come up this year. So who knows what my life would be? They may have just blown me out in Nashville. I don't know. I don't know if I was making enough money to get whacked, but I mean, look, they whack some folks that don't make a ton of cash. So maybe I would have. Like I was talking with a buddy of mine, a buddy of mine about

that. And I'm like, so if I would have never left, I'd still be in Nashville. Or you could have gotten fired in Nashville, which I guess is quite possible. So I don't know. But I'd bring that up because I saw that somebody got fired there. And no one ever talks about it. You never hear these websites, these Barrett medias or anybody else like that, talking about how Hubbard, the company that I worked for, fires people. It's always I heart fires people and Odyssey fires people, and this person's gotten fired at this company, and this company's financials are terrible. They don't talk about how the company I worked for in St. Louis hired, fired, 20-something people when I worked there. And I was only there in the building for 15.

months, I think. So I was in the building for 15 months, if that. And they hired and fired, just on-air people alone. The hiring and firing, the people that I saw fired there. Let's see, the morning guy on the country station got fired when I was there. The, I got fired eventually. Scott got fired. So there's three. They fired, who else did they fire? I think they fired. They fired at least three or four on-air people. They didn't have a ton of local on-air people anyway. So they fired one of the girls that was on the morning show on Casey, so there was about four. They fired the

promotions person at Casey, five. They fired some people behind the scenes. Just the company in general Hubbard fired like 20-something people across their whole company. And that wasn't a very big company, by the way. I mean, it's not like, you know, it has a ton of stations. It's a smaller company. But none of these outlets ever write about this. You never see, boy, Hubbard is struggling, lays off more people. You never hear that.

The second I heart lays off people. It's, oh, my God, eye heart's laying off people again. But when Hubbard, who's supposed to be this gold standard, great company, great to work for, best company to work for, the fuck it was. They keep firing people. Like, they just fired the afternoon girl on this rock station who had gotten there just before I did. And I think she'd been there a couple months before I got there. And they hired her from, like, Vermont or New Hampshire, Maine, might have been Maine. And they hired her and brought her down to St. Louis.

And she was fine. Nice girl. And they just fired her. I only know this because I saw her social media where, bless her heart. And look, grieve how you want to fucking grieve. Do you? Like, you know, when I got fired in St. Louis, I just posted, hey, I no longer work for Casey. I didn't do some big overly emotional thing, whatever it is, what it is.

People who are of a younger generation who haven't been around this business their whole life and seen the way other people do it, some people just have full-on meltdowns. And this girl, bless her heart. Look, I have nothing against her. She was very nice. She was a very nice person. And I had no issue with her. Nothing negative to say about her as a person.

But I saw her social media. And I saw it yesterday when she got fired. And I'm talking minutes after she got fired. She's on Instagram, sobbing on Instagram, in her car. And I'm fairly certain she was still in the parking garage at the radio station. sitting in her car in the parking garage at the radio station minutes after being fired sobbing and I'm like ma'am we can't this is not the way to do it and look I understand that I'm a person who has done a lot of dumb shit and made a lot of bad decisions and I have done things

poorly I totally get that but that's kind of how people think now the first thing they think when they get fired is I have to run to social media to let people know I got fired. I was talking to another friend, or Jilly was talking to a friend who had got let go by Iheart a couple weeks ago. We had no clue that this person had been let go by I heart because they didn't go to social media with it

at all. And then this person called Jilly to check in, and she's like, by the way, I got fired. Wait, you got laid off in the I heart thing? Like, yeah, I got laid off. Like, well, why didn't you post anything? I don't know, because I'm an adult person and I don't need pity and people crying over me on social media. And I I don't need to, you know, go and attack all these people, like all these companies and

never get a job again. And that's kind of been one of my flaws. And look, I get it, man. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. I've done a lot of dumb shit. And I've said things I shouldn't say. And, you know, looking back on it, you make mistakes. You know, but then sometimes you make mistakes, but you feel like you were justified in them.

Like, one of the reasons why I don't think I'll ever be on the radio in Houston on 610 ever again, other than as a guest when I was last year, I guess two years ago now or whenever it was. I guess it was right before I got fired. I guess it would have been June of 2024, so a month or two before I got fired. Maybe a little later, I'm not sure. But if it was on 610 day and I was on, then that makes sense. But when we got to 790, they started taking audio of Gem and I over, they took 610 salespeople took audio and were sending it out to potential clients and they're like, is this the kind of horrible shit you want? They spliced it up and made it sound a lot worse. Didn't put context in anything. And I went off on this on the air. I was like,

this is bullshit. This is wrong. I went off on the person that ran the company that let the local company that let them do that. And I called her a clown. I think it's that she looked like a clown. And because of that, and I've apologized for that. And I apologize because I, there are certain things that I've meant that I've done. And then there are other things that I've done that are radio things that looking back on it, it was just, hey, it's in the heat of the moment. Like all the shitting on Meltzer and Seth, that was just radio shit trying to drum up some interest. And I've told both of them that. I'm like, hey, look, I fucked up. We're friends. That was all part of a radio thing. Like, that was me. Like, once I'm on the air, I'm trying

to win, it's that. But sometimes it's really justified. And when I saw what they were doing to us, we had just gotten that job and they were trying to railroad us and make us sound like shit and send audio to all these clients to make us sound like racist and shit, I went off. And I meant that. I meant what I said at the time, and I thought it was a low thing to do. But I have since apologized for it because I was trying to get back on the air there, and I figured that was a way to do it and whatever. But some apologize you mean more than other apologies. Some apologies you truly mean.

Like when you shit on your best friend on the radio for two years, then you get fired, or one of your best friends, certainly, and one of your really good friends that you worked with, those apologies are real because those are your friends. The apologies that you make Just to try to get back in the good graces of somebody And get a job, those are not real apologies Those are bullshit apologies And I've done a couple of those in my life too I've done some real apologies I've done some bullshit apologies

But I'm watching this girl on this video Just sobbing And I'm like ma'am like What the fuck are you doing? If you want to post like hey I got let go It's a really sad day whatever And I guess everybody grieves or like decompresses differently or unloads differently.

But to me, it's a bad look to sit there and literally sob over it. Like, I get it. It sucks. You just, you moved your whole life from, you went to a different universe. You go from, I guess she was from Maine and went down to St. Louis. And maybe I'm just hardened because I've been hired and fired and left so many times. Like, I was talking to somebody here, one of the girls up here. And she goes, well, how many places have you lived?

I was like, well, get out of Penn. Like, where haven't I lived? And she's like, these are all for radio. I'm like, yeah, I mean, from the time I was a kid moving with my dad for radio, to all these times I've moved as an adult for radio, that's what I do. So you get a little bit more hardened to it. It still hurts and it still sucks, but you don't, like, you don't treat it. Like, to me, I get more angry than hurt by things. This chick was obviously just hurt, and I'm, like, watching this video of her sobbing.

And I'm like, ma'am, first of all, let's get the fuck out of the parking garage at the station. And like, what are you doing? I mean, just bawling and talking about how sad it is. And this is the worst. And I've got to find a job and I got to find something. And like, I get that. But it ain't going to be in St. Louis. There ain't no radio jobs there.

I can tell you that. So best of luck to you. But I don't know, man. I think that younger people in the radio world now, they handle things in a weird way. Because their first instinct is to go to social media and essentially, look for pity. And that post of hers probably has more likes than any post she's ever going to post before or ever again. She will never post anything that will get the thousands of likes she's going to get. The other thing I fucking hate that I really hate is when people

who are still employed at a radio station, then go and like the fucking post. I would rather you just said, fuck you and never talk to me again. Because the last thing I want from someone at a radio station where they're firing everybody, but you get to be on the boat, you're on the lifeboat. You stay around. I don't need you liking my post where I'm saying it's sad that I got fired. Enjoy having your fucking job. Do whatever it is you're going to do. Your time will come. That's my mindset. I don't need your fucking pity. I haven't gotten one word from any of these people who fired me in St. Louis. Not one. And that's okay with me. You know who reached out to me and by the way, it's fine to reach out behind the scenes. Here's why I don't like the public thing,

like the liking of the post or the commenting on the post. To me, you're doing that so you can kind of absolve yourself from anything you can people will see that and they go wow what a classy guy that they commented on you being fired no i don't want your fucking public display of sadness for me while you're still employed at the radio station that just fired me you know what i would prefer i'd prefer you send me a little message and say hey man look i love you i'm sorry that that happened it sucks i get it um what you were great whatever i don't need you publicly doing shit because publicly doing shit is trying to draw attention to yourself and i'm not here for that shit. And look, to a degree, I have to give some form of respect to the people I work for there. They fired me and never talked to my ass again. Not once. The big boss there called me one time after I got fired, and I missed the call, and I never got a return call. I never heard from the guy that hired me, and I only heard from one of the PDs there because he was like, hey, if you need some audio, I'll get some audio, which was nice. I never heard from anybody else there. Some of the salespeople I did, but for the most part, like, whatever.

Actually, I take that back. I got a text from John Eulid, who was very nice. It was just a bad situation there. But when you talk about, you know, like getting fired, I hate the person who's still employed at your radio station that hearts your post or comments like, oh my God, my heart hurts for you. I'm so sad. Fuck you. Enjoy your fucking job. The Reaper's coming for you at one point, too. so eat a dick that would be my viewpoint on that i hate that when i see that shit text me call me whatever but don't publicly sit there and blow me on here so all these people because i guarantee all the people commenting are like oh this is so sad what is this radio station doing people who comment on that that still work at the station want to comment so the people won't attack them

when they still have a job see what i'm saying anyway more to come