Jon Marks left 94 WIP a couple of weeks ago, but planned to continue his weekly national shift with CBS Sports Radio, which is owned by Audacy.

That will no longer be happening.

Why?

On his new Youtube show, Jon explained that Audacy was unhappy with comments he made on our show, Crossing Broadcast, about the company’s looming bankruptcy:

“Almost immediately I heard from Audacy, that they were very unhappy at the corporate level, regarding that line, and the interview that I did with you. At the time I was doing the national shifts on the weekend with CBS Sports Radio. I am no longer doing CBS Sports Radio because I was terminated by the company following the interview with you…. I wanted to be honest and candid about it. I didn’t rip the company. I wasn’t killing the company. I was very fair and spoke very highly of everybody that worked at WIP, and I wasn’t blaming Audacy (like) it was their fault, I was just talking about the financials of being in the radio business today…” 

Obviously I felt terrible when Jon told me this, because my first thought was “oh shit, is this my fault?” But Jon was very candid on our show and made it clear that nothing was off limits. He spoke openly about the company’s financial struggles, which, lo and behold – culminated in a bankruptcy filing 10 days after the interview. So if anything, Jon was just telling everybody exactly what was going to happen.

I understand why Audacy was sensitive about that, but anybody who listened to our interview knows that Jon didn’t criticize anybody. He didn’t throw anybody under the bus. He didn’t say “fuck you, fuck you, you’re cool, and fuck you I’m out,” like Scarface from the seminal 1998 film, Half Baked. It wasn’t some scorched Earth diatribe. He was honest about his situation and the corporate folks responded the way corporate folks usually do. I was bummed when Jon told me about this, but not surprised.

Regardless, Jon is on the outside now and can do whatever he wants to do. He’s his own boss. Cast aside the shackles of corporate media! Serenity now!