Philly Radio: Valerie Knight EXITS As Format Change Looms At WISX

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, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer, is also undergoing a format change.

“Alas, the Breeze has blown — and so has ‘The Valerie Knight Show,’” Knight told The Inquirer.

106.1 is simulcasting broadcasts from its sister station, Q102. A representative for iHeartMedia, the owner of both stations, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

“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 initially launched in Nov. 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.”