Before announcing that The Bill Michaels Show would be replaced by The Big Show starting on Monday, Jan. 11 — a show hosted by Steve "Sparky" Fifer and former Green Bay Packers players LeRoy Butler and Gary Ellerson — Joe praised Bill’s legacy.

“Believe me, when the news came, it was definitely a shock. Nobody saw this coming,” he said. “But I gotta say … You know, I remember when Bill took over this, and this really was his vision. He wanted to create a statewide sports network. Because, honestly, it’s never been done. We have syndicated networks all over the country but never a localized product. And that was Bill’s dream when he came over to Entercom. So, he put this thing together.”

He continued: “At the very beginning, when The Bill Michaels Show launched, we only had a couple of affiliates, and they were familiar with Bill. They were familiar with his brand on the Packers Radio Network. … And we’ve gone from just a couple of affiliates here, to now, nine years later, we have 16. … It’s hard for a radio show to go on for as long as it has, and nine years has been a really good run. And believe me, I would love to go even longer, but this was Bill’s decision, and you have to respect that.”

On Twitter, one user speculated that Bill was let go from WSSP. For his part, however, Bill tweeted a brief update, writing, “Thank you all. Hang in there. I’ll be around. Keep following, and we’ll do this all together.”