FOOTY LEAVES Y-100

The losses just keep coming.

AllAccess reports today that...

Mornings at CLEAR CHANNEL Top 40 WHYI (Y100)/MIAMI will be in for a major change as 32 year veteran FOOTY calls it quits, telling his audience of his decision this morning according to the MIAMI HERALD.

FOOTY (aka JOHN KROSS) will wrap it up on FRIDAY, MAY 5th, and will rebroadcast some "best of" features all week long. FOOTY will continue to oversee his charity, "Here's Help," even though he's retiring from mornings. For more on FOOTY's Farewell, just click here.

Meanwhile, no word on a replacement for FOOTY, yet. And, Y100 also has a PD opening to announce soon, too.

The Miami Herald quoted Footy this morning:

``What else could I possibly do in radio? he told reporter Brian Andrews. I'm not going to satellite cause I ain't moving and nobody wants to syndicate a guy from Miami. So this is it, you're stuck with me!''

This comes on the heels of Kenny Walker leaving the station, which spurred debate as to whether or not Footy would stay or go. Some, myself included, surmised that veterans such as Walker and Kross were not happy with the direction the station has been headed in recent years. Walker, on one hand, was fired. Footy, on the other hand (as far as I can find), is retiring by choice.

I know the press releases and interviews will all say that it's an amicable parting, but Kross is, quite possibly, the Top 40 jock with the most longetivity on the continent to date, and having seen all the changes going on at Y, one has to consider the idea that he's sick of the corporate BS. The station has pretty much been run into the ground. Frickin' Big 106 (oh, excuse me Mr. Mays... "Big 105.9") is beating them 12+! It's crazy to assume that, being the veteran he is, Footy hasn't taken that, among many other changes, into consideration in his decision to leave.

You can find out everything you want to know about Footy's last day over at the South Florida Radio Pages by clicking here.

Radio Veteran Sign-Off List 2006 (to date):

Kenny Walker

Phil Hendrie

Footy

I'm going to go bury my head in a pillow and cry now.