00:00On the station, and I'm going to tell you that, and I really was hoping that I was going to say
00:05the ninth caller will get a pair of tickets for their kids who see Taylor Swift.
00:10But unfortunately, it is not that.
00:13On June 20th, I will have been on the air at MGK for 21 years.
00:20This year, I'm celebrating my 48th anniversary on the air.
00:24I've been here for 41 years here in Philadelphia, and 21 of those years here on MGK.
00:31And I'm going to have to tell you that today, I'm announcing my intentions to retire.
00:38And I will do that at the end of my contract on June 30th.
00:42I just feel it's time.
00:44I mean, I came to Philadelphia in 1982 being convinced by a friend of mine that I should take this job.
00:52And when I was offered the job, Charlie Kendall, who was the program director at that time,
00:57called me and said, you know, hey, I'm Charlie Kendall.
01:01I'm the program director of WOMR.
01:02We've got a 5.6 share in the marketplace, and we would like to have you be our new morning man.
01:09And I literally said to him, well, I should be able to get that down to a three in no time.
01:13And he goes, well, you are the wise ass.
01:15They say you are.
01:16And I said, well, I wouldn't be calling if I wasn't.
01:18But in all honesty, I have been blessed with a magical life and a career that's beyond my wildest imagination.
01:26And you people who are listening right now are the people I have to thank for this.
01:29I mean, you gave me everything that I have in my life.
01:33I mean, my schedule has caused me to miss a lot of stuff, a lot of family time.
01:39And, you know, it's time to pay them back for that.
01:43My family gave up a lot.
01:44I mean, there's a lot of games and dinners and events that I just wasn't around for because my schedule prevented me from doing that.
01:51My contract actually ended in December.
01:54And prior to that, you know, management and I agreed that it would probably be best for the station if I stayed six more months so that we could have some more time together.
02:03And something that you should know is there has been a running joke around here that started about 15 years ago when I was signing what I said was my last contract.
02:14I have signed that last contract four times.
02:19So it's time for that joke to end.
02:21I'm going to pack in as much fun as I possibly can in the course of the next seven and a half weeks.
02:27And I'm hoping for the biggest Veterans Radiothon that we have ever had.
02:33I am setting a goal higher than we've ever had.
02:36And I would love to make, I guess it would be what?
02:39Would it be 10?
02:40No, it would be one.
02:41What would be the percentage of Jalen Hurts' contract I'm looking for?
02:46Oh, it might be like a thousandth of it.
02:48Yeah, a thousandth of it.
02:49You want to try to make a quarter of a mil?
02:50Yeah, I want to break $250,000 this year.
02:53He's getting $255,000.
02:55Right, right.
02:55So I think that's like one thousandth of the percent of Jalen Hurts.
02:57One thousandth of that, okay.
02:59Which we should be able to do.
03:00Yeah, I know.
03:00He should donate that.
03:02He should donate that.
03:04Right.
03:04And as a matter of fact, speaking of Taylor Swift, we were asking this morning, there's something
03:08we've been trying to get a hold of for a while now, which is a Taylor Swift autographed guitar.
03:13And we've gone through, we've exhausted every angle that we possibly have.
03:17The promoters have helped us.
03:18Everybody has helped us.
03:19So if anybody has a way of getting us to get a guitar to Taylor Swift, we don't have to get backstage.
03:24We don't have to be there, right?
03:26We just need this guitar sign so we can have it for the Radiothon.
03:29Please let us know here in the studio.
03:32But I hope you will be here for as much of this as you possibly can be, because I cannot
03:37tell you enough how much you are the most important thing to me.
03:42You are coming in here every day.
03:45People have asked me over the years, why do you play so many games?
03:48Why do you always put all these listeners on the air?
03:50Because I love you folks.
03:52I love talking to people.
03:53My wife is always getting on me for, you will stop and talk to anybody.
03:57And it's the truth.
03:58I just like people, right?
04:01And getting you on the air and getting you as part of the show just means the world to
04:05me.
04:05So please, for the next few weeks, stay there with me.
04:08We're going to have a lot of fun.
04:09We'll do some flashback.
04:10We'll do some stuff together.
04:11But it's going to be a lot of fun until June 30th.
04:15And then I will have to say goodbye.
04:17So let's enjoy what we have now and love the Radio Radio.
