Valerie Knight out at 106.1 The Breeze as the station undergoes a format change
Knight says she's been fired seven times over her 35 year radio career in Philly.
Valerie Knight is out at 106.1 The Breeze, the longtime radio host told fans in videos posted to social media on Tuesday. The station, she added, is also undergoing a format change.
“Alas, the Breeze has blown — and so has ‘The Valerie Knight Show,’” Knight told The Inquirer.
» READ MORE: 106.1 The Breeze reformats as Rumba 106.1
106.1 is simulcasting broadcasts from its sister station, Q102. A representative for iHeartMedia, the owner of both stations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
News of her termination came Monday afternoon, Knight said. That marked the seventh time she was let go from a station in her 30-plus-year career, with Knight seeing this latest one as “a business decision.”
In 2016, she was axed after 15 years from 98.1 WOGL, where she cohosted the popular morning show “The Breakfast Club.” Knight joined 106.1 as an on-air host in January 2019, hosting “The Valerie Knight Show” from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Prior to that, her run in radio included stints at Sunny 104.5 and Q102 in addition to 106.1 and WOGL.
“It’s radio — it’s what I signed up for,” Knight told The Inquirer. “I think in the past several months, the handwriting was on the wall. I wasn’t shocked on Monday.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what format 106.1 will take up next. The Breeze launched in November 2018 after the station made a format change from Real 106.1 WISX, which featured throwback hip-hop programming. With a tagline of “Philly’s relaxing favorites,” the Breeze focused on “relaxing adult contemporary music” like Whitney Houston, Chicago, and Air Supply, iHeartMedia said in a 2018 release.
As for what’s next for Knight, that also isn’t immediately clear.She said it could be retirement — maybe. But the “lure of the microphone,” as she put it, is strong.
“I’ve been around a while. I’m older and wiser, and I had been tooling with the idea of retiring,” she said. “Am I ready to hang up my headphones? I don’t know. I think I am. Someone’s got to call me and offer me a job first.”
Knight added that since announcing her departure from 106.1, she has received an outpouring of support from fans and longtime listeners. That, she said, has been a boon for her in the wake of her termination.
“It’s funny, when people die, everyone talks about how great they were,” she said. “I am lucky enough to see all these wonderful things people are saying, and that is such a bolster for me. When you are in that studio, you don’t realize how much you touch people until they write to you.”