Six months after being let go by SportsTalk 790 KBME in Houston, Josh Innes launched two daily podcasts on Monday, one centered on Philadelphia sports and the other Houston-based.
The free agent radio host’s most recent tenure on terrestrial airwaves ended in March, after nearly two years in morning drive on iHeartMedia’s SportsTalk 790 in Houston. It was the second tenure in Houston for Innes, who also had a stint on WIP in Philadelphia.
Joined by his fiance Jilly, Innes aired both podcasts back to back, with plans to release daily episodes lasting between 45 minutes and one hour for each city. During his Houston podcast, Innes detailed some of the drama that led to his departure from SportsTalk 790 in March, including his antics causing the station getting kicked off radio row at the Super Bowl in 2018.
According to Innes, his relationship with the station started to fracture even before the Super Bowl incident. Innes specifically pointed to 2017, when his 790 colleague, Adam Clanton allegedly shared a picture of Josh wearing a Russell Westbrook t-shirt. Josh didn’t get along with the radio station’s broadcast partner, the Houston Rockets, and being shown supporting a rival player didn’t help to improve the relationship. Clanton, who Josh referred to as a “horrid human being,” was later fired and then rehired by SportsTalk 790 and currently serves as the station’s afternoon host.
Ultimately Josh’s departure from KBME was fueled by finances. When he was initially let go in March, Innes pointed to budgeting reasons as to why he parted ways with the station, but during his recent podcast, the radio host claimed one of their top salespeople refused to sell his show. “790 doesn’t care about ratings, they care about revenue and sales,” Josh said, noting that he couldn’t help the station make money if there were salespeople who didn’t like him.
“I did everything they asked me to do, that is a fact,” Innes said, adding that he went on plenty of sales calls. “People probably think I was some insubordinate asshole there, I did what they asked me to do.”
Innes agreed it might not have been the best idea to go after co-workers at the station, but that’s how he does his show. According to Innes, he doesn’t think 790 paid attention to the type of host they hired when they brought him back to Houston a few years ago. The station saw his ratings success at previous stops and weren’t concerned about the approach he took to the airwaves every day. In the end, it was that same unfiltered, cutthroat approach that led to a broken relationship and his feeling of being “unwanted” by the station.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.