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It is not often in the radio business where hosts get to do a last show, at least not one where everyone knows you have been let go. However, it is also not very often where one person works for the same sports radio station for more than 25 years. Such was the case for KNBR afternoon host Tom Tolbert today.
Earlier this week Tolbert confirmed reports that he would no longer be hosting with Adam Copeland from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. but that he would have a final show today. And he went out with a bang. Tolbert said he didn’t want to have a “wake” for his last show and would prefer a “party.” Tolbert and Copeland had an All-Star guest list which included Kyle Shanahan, Steve Kerr and Steve Young.
As the final show began, Tolbert had played a joke on the crew and told them he wasn’t going to come in and would join remotely. He then sent a text saying he was having technical difficulties before he walked in the studio to surprise everyone.
“I got you mother…didn’t I? I got him, one last time,” Tolbert said and then explained how he had set it all up and that he was hiding in the back for 10 minutes before coming in.
“Here we are, ready for the last show,” Tolbert said. The two hosts then talked about how hot it was in the studio and Tolbert said, “I don’t work here anymore. I’ll break that thermometer today and walk right out. I’ll take a shoe to it.”
Tolbert said he wanted to do things differently and wanted to thank everyone early in the show rather than wait for the end. He said, “I flipped the script here and [want to] thank everybody at the beginning. Just get it out of the way. Then we can have some beers and just hang out and enjoy the guests and have some laughs and we can reminisce a little bit if we want to.”
Tolbert started by thanking Tony Salvador who ran the station when it was owned by Susquehanna. Tolbert said, “that’s when it felt like it was kind of like WKRP in a sense. It was just different radio back then. And he was the man.”
Tolbert talked about current Program Director Mike Hohler and mentioned how much he has been a part of the station since Tolbert has been there. Hohler started out running the board and has been promoted a few times. Knowing when people let go, some want to blame local management, Tolbert made sure to say how good of a guy he thinks Hohler is and added, “I hope nobody blames anybody here. There’s no one to blame. Runs end at certain times, they just do. I had 28 years of entertaining people, 28 years.”
Lastly, Tolbert added, “I want to thank the listeners for allowing me to do this.”
From producers to his previous co-hosts, others in management, people who have done other things for the show behind the scenes, to his current group including Copeland, Tolbert said, “it’s been an incredible couple years here.”
As Tolbert wrapped up the first segment he said, “I know there’s probably people that I’m forgetting, but those are the people, I didn’t write anything down because, well, I don’t do that. But I did want to remember some of the people that were important to me showing up to work and having a good time every day. So that’s it. I wanted to get rid of that. Get rid of that early, move on, and let’s go. Let’s do it. Here we go.”
