Josh Klingler announced this morning on 610 Sports in Kansas City that he will be leaving the Fescoe in the Morning show after a 14-and-a-half-year partnership with host Bob Fescoe. The pair debuted together on January 3, 2010. Klingler was part of the station the day it launched as a sports station and said he is the last person remaining from that initial group.
Klingler said he told station Brand Manager Steven Spector a few weeks ago and then let Fescoe and other staffers know about his decision.
“I am retiring,” Klingler said. “Not a joke. I am retiring from daily radio. I have been doing this for 30 years.”
Klingler is also a part of the Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network broadcasts where he serves as the pregame host and sideline reporter. Klingler will continue with those duties and said that while he can see contributing for the station in some way moving forward, he does not plan to be a regular fill in or do much of anything else in radio.
Klingler said he pretty much decided this at the end of football season. “My contract is up at the end of the month. They wanted me back…But, this is it for me in daily radio. I am ready to do something different. If I was going to do radio I was going to do it with [Bob] and I would do it [at 610 Sports]…I have ran the race. I have done 30 years of radio from lower level to moving our way up here.”
Klingler said he noticed himself getting in to work later and later. “Getting up at 4 in the morning is not easy. My get in to work time has been gradually getting later and later and there is no other show I would want to do or no other thing I want to do in media. I’ve just decided that’s it for me.”
Klingler said he will be staying on for about another month. “We don’t have a plan other than we are going to do what we do. We will have fun for a few more weeks.” Klingler noted Fescoe would be taking a vacation soon but said, “We will come back and put a bow on it and then I will hang up and listen.”
In wrapping up his feelings about his decision, Klingler said, “I am not sad about it. I’m ready. You don’t know what you’re going to do but you feel good about what you’re not going to do.”
When the show hit 14 years in January, Fescoe had said, “14 years is an eternity in radio. I’m lucky to have the best co-host in America alongside me in Josh Klingler.”
