The Josh Innes Show - WIP Fired Anniversary

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Jilly brought to my attention that it has been 9 years since I got whacked at WIP. Here's a breakdown of how that happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, yeah, it was brought to my attention by Jilly, I guess two days ago. This would make sense then. Today's the 26th. So it was brought to my attention that nine years ago, I was fired by WIP. What a day it was. And I know I've told you guys this story before, but I'll tell it to you again. So when my boss got fired at the end of 2015, that's kind of when things really took a turn. Like, the last real big moment of success we had was the final book of 2015.

And if you recall that year, my numbers were actually elevated in the final stretch. The reason why I was able to beat Miss Nellie in that final one is because the Eagles played a Thanksgiving game. I guess it was against the Lions, I think. They played on Thanksgiving. I think it was – did they play the Lions on Thanksgiving or was it the Cowboys? I forgot who they played. But in 2015, they played a Thanksgiving game. And since that was on a Thursday, that helped elevate my numbers, like for the last go-round.

And that was the last time we won, because I got credit for that because it was during the week. But, I mean, you knew it was fake, but at least it kept us on top for a while. It's interesting. I go back to that era, and I can remember the way I felt every day going to work there. And everything felt like just the weight of the world was on. you. Like, everything was pressure. Everything was, oh, my God, I can't lose. Like, now I compare that, like the juxtaposition to where I am now, where my head is at. And in a way, I kind of miss it. I miss it being like life and death. And that's what it felt like. Because you talk so much

shit, because there were so many stories out there, because you had so many people who hated you, but you also had so many people that loved you. And that was kind of the big regret that I have, right? When we talk about that all the time, is my regret is that I didn't embrace more the people who love me. I believe this. I think there's two things that ended that. Two major factors. First off, let me play some commercials and we'll get into it. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement

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I wish I could spend all day with you instead. Uh, Dave, you're off mute. Hey, happens to the best of us. Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. The conjuring last rites. On September 5th.

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topped with toasted cookie crumble. It's a sweet summer twist on iced coffee. Your cold brew is ready at Starbucks. I think that there were two major factors. It may be more. But the first major fact that I think killed the show is that Tony left.

And the man just disappeared. One day I come to work, he's not there. And before that, there had been these stories about how Tony hated something that I did on the air and obviously somebody fed him that story the story to crossing broad could have been Tony's girlfriend who the fuck knows I know that they weren't happy that we weren't using all of his wacky drops and shit and looking back on and I guess I could have been like yeah let's just play his wacky drops but I guess I was trying to create something

different you know like my idea for what was going to be good there wasn't going to be what Tony had already done I was like let's do something on our own we'll play all these drops but let's like have them and have our own shit and not just me being plopped in because that's not what this show is. This is not the Tony Bruno show and then I'm plopped into it. It was an us thing and ultimately it was going to be a me thing when Tony decided to hang it up, whenever that would be. But the show came on like gangbusters and we're number one, I mean, out of the shoot. We beat Mike right out of the shoot and then like the next month we're number one and we go on this sick fucking tear where we're just dominant and it's fucking

wild. It's like a rocket ship and it just changes everything. And the first big thing that happened that killed that is when Tony left. And I come to work, they're like, listen, we got to get Tony back. People are all stressing out. Like, it was so weird because now I'm in this radio world, and there's no stress. Like, no one thinks this way anymore. No one's like it's life and death. Like, everything felt like life and death.

So when I come to work that day and Tony's not there, they're like, you need to call him. You need to get him back here. You need to convince him to come back. You need to get on the air and say, you know, Tony's not here, but we're trying to get him back. You need to calm this shit down, you know? Like now, it's just like you show up and nobody even gives a. fuck that you exist you know but like in philly in 2015 it felt like a life and death thing man like i imagine it doesn't feel that way in philly now but in 2015 it was a fucking war and everything

mattered every time you came to work there was this pressure everything you did was under the microscope i would talk with my boss about it all the time and he's like you got to handle yourself this way this way and this way and looking back on it i wish i would have handled myself in better ways in certain instances but you can't go back so you just got to stick with you know what you did and you got to accept what you did. But, like, I come to work that day. Tony's not coming back. And then he just ends up quitting.

So then we have to do, I think that was when we did a bit with me looking for a new co-host where we had a bunch of people on and tried out a bunch of different people that we knew we weren't going to hire, but it was a bit and whatever. And then eventually we went with Tank and Spike, and that show was doing well, too. And then, you know, Andy got fired. And that was kind of the death. You can't change the cast of a show that severely. Well, it was a twofold thing.

You couldn't change the cast of that show twice in nine months. Because first of all, it makes it look like I'm the problem. Like, oh, Josh is just running people off, which obviously wasn't true. But it seemed that way. So you can't change it from that standpoint. And then you mix in the fact that the guy who's the common denominator in all of it, me, was not happy being there and I was doing a bad job. Like, I was just an asshole, not to people necessarily.

Like, I never think I treated people poorly because I didn't. Maybe you could say, oh, you treated people like the Cuzz poorly. Well, the Cuzz was an asshole. But people in the building, I never treated them poorly. Despite what you might read, whatever. I'm a docile, nice guy. Like, I'm not an asshole to people, you know. I try to treat people very nice.

Not to say that I always have or I haven't made mistakes or I haven't been a dick before. But, like, I'm for the most part, a nice guy to people, and I treat people well. So that wouldn't be the case But I was just not happy I was already plotting to leave By that time I'd already Now keep in mind I talked with Houston

When my boss was still employed So this would have been Like they reached out to me And they're like hey interesting Coming back to Houston I'm like no I got this job Well then when they fired me of course I got back on the phone with Houston

And I had that job in five minutes And I'd also had opportunities You know when I got fired nine years ago I think Portland was a place That was super interested And I'm glad I didn't go there Because I would have been fired in five minutes in Portland. But like Portland, Memphis, a couple other places, like we're legitimately

interested. But so the first thing was Tony leaving in the show. Really, another killer was the show just being blown up twice. Like shows don't survive that. You know, like you find a show you like, then a guy leaves. Then you put the other guys back to another show together and it works and then those guys leave. It just, you know, that mixed with me not wanting to be there and doing a lot of bad content at times. Probably was a killer. Then in 2016, the Phillies are about as bad as they've ever been, and a lot of big shit is happening in sports. You know, Sam Hinky's getting fired. I remember vividly the day Sam Hinky got fired.

The Phillies are playing in the afternoon. And it's one of these lengthy pre-pitch clock games. The Phillies are way out of the race. That happened, what, in like August, May, or whenever it happened? June, July, whenever Sam Hinky got fired. And the Phillies are playing, and they're a bad baseball team. and nobody gives a shit. Like, their existence means absolutely nothing to everybody.

And I'm sitting there while Sam Hinky is getting fired and Missonelli's talking about it. We've got a shitty Phillies game on it. It was probably like a 9-0 baseball game. Like, it was pointless. And the game was lengthy. And then you've got to air the post-game show. And then you've got to do the 10th inning show. And it's like, we can't compete with this shit.

And I got suspended at one point in there. Like, it just, you knew inevitably it was all going to crash down. and it did. Our numbers were still not horrible when we were doing poorly, like compared to, you know, like the numbers you would get in some other cities. They were still decent numbers compared to the numbers that Fanatic gets. Our numbers were, like, today, the numbers were still pretty good. But, you know, like it just felt like every day just felt like the world was crumbling down upon you. And it just wasn't a fun time. Like, early on, it was fun because it's like, we're in a fucking ward. We're in this thing together. By the time the end came,

like, like, and I've told you guys this before. So I had. really done a bad job. Like I had undone everything positive that we had done and shit was in the toilet. And remember, they had offered, they wanted to talk about a new deal early in 2016. So it's not like they didn't want to keep me around at one point. But I think it just got bad. By the time you got to like, the time I got fired, things just got to a point where it was like, this is untenable. It can't be fixed, you know. I didn't know they were going to fire me that day, of course. I've never come to a station on a day and said, oh, they're firing me today. I've never had that sort of, you know, forethoughted to it. But I did, but like, you knew that things

aren't going well. And you also knew that, you know, my deal was coming up soon because my deal was going to be up at the end of 2016, I believe. So my plan was to get big numbers in the fall, like reinvent myself, and then get the fuck out of Dodge and end on a high note. That was the plan. And maybe they knew that. And so they fired me. I don't know exactly why. I'll ask Spike one day like why that day why you chose that day to fire me but um so i had had a conversation with my former boss andy and he and i sat down at a Starbucks and he laid out a plan remember he worked in politics and shit so we laid out kind of a strategy for how i was going to get the people back in the fall we did this in early august and i still have a i have that list somewhere

but it had like a list of like 10 things i think i've read it on the podcast before. But it was just different shit that I was going to do to kind of try to reinvent, be a happier guy, do, you know, talk about how much you love Philly, kind of suck people back into it. You know, do some politicking, right? And that was kind of the plan. And I was gung-ho about that. We were ready to go. Then, well, actually, I know why they fired me that day, now that I think about this, because I posted the picture of Al Jolson. That gave them their out. That was their for cause that they fired me for. It was the Al Jolson picture. But even that, I didn't think it was the case, because I had posted that before.

and I think I told that to them in the meeting. I was like, you know, I've posted that picture before and you guys didn't give a shit. Why do you give a shit about it now? And it was not in an offensive manner. I wasn't wearing blackface, right? But so then I get to work, and my office was next to spikes. Now, mind you, I'd also done some overly dramatic shit.

Like, I took all my shit off the wall at one point. My wall was covered with posters. Like, I had a nightmare on Elm Street 3 poster. I had a damn Yankees poster. I had NWO posters. Brittany Spears posters. I went to eBay and just bought a shitload of posters. So they were all over the wall.

But what ended up happening was I took all the shit off the wall early in 2016. Totally fucking passive aggressive dickhead piece of shit move. Like I shouldn't. Again, you look back on it. You're like, what the fuck are you doing, you dib shit? But I did that. So, and then Spike brings me into the office. And I'm sitting down in there.

And then they bring in this lady that's the HR lady. I'm like, oh, boy, I'm getting whacked. And I don't even remember what I asked. I just know that, yeah, we're firing you. It's with cause. And we need the truck that you're driving. I'm like, all right, here's the keys to it. And then I walked home, which was like five miles or something.

I forgot how far actually it was. But I walked from Old City, Philadelphia to Manny Young. And then, like, within seconds, it's all over the news. It's like the biggest story in town and it's everywhere. But, yeah, it was weird. And that was the first time I had been fired. Like people think I was fired at 610. I wasn't. I left for another job. Wouldn't be the first time or the last time, rather, I got fired. But now, Jim thought we were getting fired when we got fired at 790. Now, it wasn't a case where he knew it before that day. But then when they said, hey, can you guys come to the office and like bring everybody to the office, you know, 10 minutes before 10 o'clock, Jim was like, hey, I think we're getting fired. And we did. And the Casey one was really a surprise. Not that I got. fired. But like that day I came to work, I'd just gone to pop belly and got my sandwich

and I was walking in and the worst thing. So I'm walking up the stairs to go to work and Mark Close, who's a guy that's been there forever, usually there to fill in, was walking down the stairs. And he's like, hey, brother, how you doing, man? I'm like, hey, doing pretty good. And I go, that's all he says. I go up, sit at my desk. Scott walks in, doesn't say anything to me. I go, hey, what's up, dude? He doesn't say a fucking word. Marty comes in, tells me to to the office. I see the people sitting in there, so I know I'm getting fired. And I'm like, that son of a bitch, Mark Close knew I was getting fired. That's why he's up here to fill in for me today. So you walked by me knowing that you were going to be on the air today because there's

no other reason for you to be here. You son of a bitch, you could have warned me. But anyway, all right, more to come.