Posted by chicagomedia.org on January 02, 2009 at 08:29:30:
In Reply to: J-Niice & Julian: B96 announces Eddie & Jobo replacements posted by chicagomedia.org on December 31, 2008 at 07:58:26:
New CBS morning hosts
CBS Radio market manager Rod Zimmerman has decided to go with Jamar McNeil and Julian Nieh as the new morning drive team at WBBM-FM (96.3). The duo, who will start their new morning show next week, replace Eddie Volkman and Joe "Jobo" Bohannon, who were yanked off the air at the Top 40 outlet several weeks ago because Zimmerman said he wanted to take the station in a new direction.
But Zimmerman and many other radio managers also have been trying recently to cut overhead by taking high-priced names off the air and installing new talent that doesn't command the same big bucks. McNeil, known on air as "J Niice," had been doing an evening show at WBBM, before Zimmerman made him interim morning host after Eddie and Jobo were taken off the air.
Nieh is a relative newcomer to the local market, having arrived only last spring at WBBM from a job with a Clear Channel radio station in Miami. Of course, it's impossible to predict how much the new WBBM morning team will appeal to local radio listeners, but the station appears to be banking, in part at least, on the alliteration of "J Niice and Julian" to help the new duo gain some traction. We'll see.
(Lewis Lazare, Chicago Sun-Times)