Friday will be the last time Birmingham hears Matt McClearin. The JOX 94.5 midday host announced on Wednesday that his final show on the station will be Friday.
“You never know how I am going to react,” he said. “Friday, I have a feeling I am going to be very emotional.”
McClearin is ending his second run at Jox. He hosted the station’s night show from 2013 until 2016. He worked at the now-defunct ESPN 103.3 in Dallas before returning to Birmingham in 2021.
“When I had the chance to come back here a couple of years ago, I lit up, man. When when the suit, [program director] Ryan Haney called me and said, ‘Hey, would you ever want to come back to Birmingham?’. That was the first thing he asked me. I said, ‘Hell yeah, dude. I never wanted to leave.’ I was stoked that I had the opportunity to be able to come back and do these last couple of years here.”
Haney and other bosses at Cumulus Birmingham have been supportive of McClearin’s decision. McClearin says that is the reason he is getting the chance to say goodbye to his audience.
“I’m grateful that Cumulus and Jox are allowing me the opportunity to where on Friday, I’m not going to show up at 1:45 or 1:55 on Friday. I’m not like, ‘Well, double birds, I’m out.’ I get an opportunity to spend the next three days saying goodbye to you guys.”
He told the audience that there are more details to the move that he cannot reveal right now. He says some news should be available next week. When it is, he hopes people will understand his decision.
“This is something that, quite honestly, I didn’t think, even two years, obviously not two years ago, but even a year ago, even three months ago, I never imagined that I would walk away from Jox.”
