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Last week, iHeartMedia let go of several people in sports radio and included among those layoffs were members of Tampa sports radio station 95.3 WDAE. Jay Recher, who had been with the station since 2014 was one of those let go along with his partner Zac Blobner and producer James Donlon. Recher also served as the Assistant Program Director to PD John Mamola who iHeartMedia also layed off.
Recher took to his YouTube page to announce he will be launching a new podcast and will have plenty of content available for Tampa sports fans. Recher said he wanted to jump on, initially, to address what happened, his future and more. Recher said he would start the podcast daily on YouTube after the first of the year.
“Man, it feels good to be on with you, and if you’re watching on any of the social media platforms, I do appreciate it…If you know me, you know I’ve been trying to build this YouTube channel for the last couple of months, and with me no longer being at 95.3 WDAE and at iHeart, this will be my main source of getting all of my information out to you.”
Recher then went on to thank everyone who has reached out to him both in the market and outside of it. “It has been overwhelming, the amount of support and the love that I’ve gotten, not just in the Tampa Bay area, but abroad,” he said. “It is extremely humbling to know that when something like this happens, that there’s so many people that actually give a crap about your well-being and kind of what the future holds.
“So again, thank you to everybody that’s reached out, but I want to be very, very clear about this. I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me. I don’t want anybody to feel bad for me. I don’t want anybody to look down on me or anything like that. I am not asking for any type of sympathy whatsoever. I appreciate the well wishes, but this is not a setback. This isn’t me getting knocked down, this is just time for a pivot.”
Recher went on to talk about his 10 years with the company and said he had not only been on the sports station but had helped out wherever he was needed. He said he doesn’t regret anything he did while with the station and said he will still support those still there.
“I don’t hold any ill will towards WDAE or iHeart, not one bit,” he said. “I still want everybody to go out there and support Pat and Aaron in the morning…I still want everybody to support Tom Krasniqi and Chris Mathis in the afternoon. That is what is important to our community. You have to support local.
Recher went on to talk about how different people will handle what has happened in different ways. For him, it is about sticking to what he knows and what he does best.
“When things like this happen, you can kind of take your ball and go home., you can kind of lick your wounds,” Recher said. “And I know a lot of people, and I appreciate everybody that said, ‘go take some time off, go on the beach or do whatever’. That’s not my style. Just because I don’t work at WDAE anymore doesn’t mean that I’m gonna stop. The grind does not stop for me…I cannot stop doing what I’ve been doing the last 10 years. I will continuously go out there and cover sports here in the Tampa Bay area. I am not going anywhere.
“Just because I don’t have an iHeart logo or a WDAE logo on my shirt, doesn’t mean that this train is going to stop. I told you, the wheels are in motion. They’ve never stopped.”
