Tuesday evening on SportsRadio 94WIP, Rob Ellis had a major announcement regarding his future at the station.
"These are my last two hours at WIP," said Ellis, returning from commercial break around 8 p.m. "This is my last show."
Ellis carried on with the following, heartfelt message:
"I say this for a couple of different reasons. I want to keep people up to speed with what's happening. You know, and I've been quite honest with you, I'm not thrilled with some of the things that have gone down at the station in recent times.
I've spoken at length on the air about it. This is not to trash anybody, but this is just to say 'thanks' more than anything else to you, the listeners, and you, the fans of the station, you guys who call us, listen to us, stream us. Anyway you get us. Listen to the podcast, or whatever the case may be.
I just want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, 'thank you'.
I grew up in this town, as I mentioned earlier. I listened to this station as a kid. I go way back to the beginning of the station. I was nuts. I was seven, eight years old listening to sports talk because I loved it.
My career took me down the path of television for a long time, but I always, always had the idea in the back of my mind to at some point do sports talk radio. If I was going to do it, I wanted to do it in my city. I wanted to do it here. I didn't want to do it anywhere else, and I got the opportunity to do that.
Much like I say with the professional sports teams, if it's not for the fans, then we don't have a job, they don't have a job. Well, if it wasn't for you guys, and if it isn't for you guys, we don't have a job here at the station.
There wasn't a day that went down that I took that for granted. Every single day, every shift, it may have not been the best show in the world, but I tell you this: I put every ounce of effort I had into it. There was never a show where I didn't prepare, or I didn't try to do the best for you guys. In turn, I've been able to do a lot of great things, worked with a lot of great people. Had the ability to meet a lot of great people along the way, and it's been awesome. It is absolutely been a blast.
There's going to be a big announcement tomorrow as to where I'm headed. It's an opportunity that I'm really excited about, and I absolutely think it's going to be a great thing.
This is a perfect night for me to go out on. Because this is a classic, listener-caller interaction type of night. That's what we do. We're the ultimate interaction. I'll tee it up, I'll give you my take, you give me your take, and we'll go back-and-forth and we'll have fun with it. That's what it should be. It's just like if you sit around with your buddies.
I'm really, really grateful to everybody who's gotten to me to this point, because it's been awesome. You'll be seeing me, you'll be hearing me. Certainty. There's no question about that. This doesn't severe anything. It's been a lot of fun. It's been a blast. I will certainly appreciate that from the bottom of my heart."
Ellis held a variety of roles while at the station. Starting in 2010, he was the nightly host from 6:00-10:00 pm until he replaced Glen Macnow on the Afternoon Show with Anthony Gargano on January 3, 2014.
The Temple University alum was a part of the afternoon show up until this past February, when newcomer to the station, Josh Innes, partnered with returning Tony Bruno for a new look to the time slot. This subsequently sent Ellis back to the 6:00-10:00 pm shift.
Ellis, who grew up in Upper Darby, Pa, had been a member of the WIP family since joining in May of 2007. He is a married father of two, Bobby and Maddie, and he also coaches his son's tee-ball team.
Matt Rappa (@mattrappa) is a contributor to Philliedelphia.com
