MA Radio: After 30 Years, John O'Brien EXITS WAQY

John O'Brien

John O'Brien says he no longer works for WAQY 102.1 FM or its parent company, Saga Communications. The 62-year-old O’Brien sat at the helm of the show with co-host Mike Baxendale for 26 years, and more recently with producer Steve Nagle reports MassLive.com.

“I can tell you my leaving was not voluntary,” O’Brien said. “It’s disappointing because, after 30 years at the station, I would have liked to go out on my own terms.”

O’Brien’s image and references to the now-defunct morning show have been scrubbed from the company’s website. Baxendale declined to comment.

WAQY general manager David Oldread confirmed O’Brien no longer works for either entity, but would not comment further this week. The morning show has been renamed “The Rock 102 Morning Show.”

“We don’t comment on personnel issues for the privacy of our employees,” Oldread said.

But, O’Brien has never been a particularly private person. While the show had a somewhat bawdy edge — with public and political figures frequently in the crosshairs — O’Brien has also discussed on-air the failings of personal relationships, and struggles with cancer and mental health over the years, including bouts of depression. He was an early fan of medical marijuana before the topic became mainstream and trendy. Not much was off-limits.

O’Brien said his employment ended on Jan. 21 while he was in the midst of seeking mental health treatment, and after a medical leave. He said he had developed a somewhat fraught relationship with the parent company after several bouts with cancer, and seeking accommodations to record the show remotely from his second home in Florida during the winter months.

O’Brien, an Enfield, Connecticut, native, began working in broadcast when he was just 20. His first ambition was to be a police officer, but said his vision prevented him from doing that, so he turned to the airwaves, working for four stations in Springfield and Connecticut before joining WAQY three decades ago.

“What I expected when I was 20 was to move around the country to different markets, and I never expected to be a morning drive-time guy. But that’s how it ended up,” O’Brien said. “I never left.”