A few months shy of his 50th anniversary on Cincinnati radio, Chris O'Brien, as well as his wife Janeen Coyle, are hanging up their headphones.
The popular couple of WGRR-FM's Married with Microphones morning show announced Monday they will retire on Friday, Dec. 22.
"We've decided to unplug the headphones and flip off the mic switch for the last time at year's end," Coyle posted on Facebook about 9 a.m. Monday.
"It's about time to sleep in," said O'Brien, who turned 72 in June.
They have co-hosted the WGRR-FM (103.5) morning show since 1995. The name "Married with Microphones" came from the Enquirer headline on my story about them starting to work together for the first time in October 1995. Tempo section copyeditor Lisa Sullivan, wife of sports columnist Tim Sullivan, wrote the headline.
"If it wasn't for her, we'd be doing the Janeen & Chris Show. We owe her!" Coyle told me Monday.
They decided to retire earlier this year, as O'Brien marked his 60th anniversary in radio and approached his 72nd birthday in June. O'Brien started with his own 30-minute show as a high school junior on a little AM station in his hometown of Florence, S.C. He debuted in Cincinnati on March 4, 1974, doing afternoons on WKRQ-FM as part of Randy Michaels' popular Q102 team, which included Pat Barry, Jim Fox and Mark Sebastian. He left for Chicago briefly (1977-79), then returned to co-host the hugely popular Q Morning Zoo in 1979 with Fox, Jim "Squirrel" Stadtmiller and news anchor Scott Shively.
Coyle, a Greenhills native, joined Q102 in 1979. They married in 1985, but didn't work together until WGRR.
She started in radio as a University of Cincinnati freshman on campus station WFIB. She first worked at Covington's tiny WCLU-AM, then WKRQ-FM, WKRC-AM and WLW-AM. She was co-hosting WKRC-AM mornings with Jerry Thomas in 1995 until joining WGRR-FM.
Their station has been No. 2 in the Nielsen radio ratings most of this year. So why retire now?
Winning the Marconi Award last year for best large-market radio personality of the year from the National Association of Broadcasters wasn't a consideration, O'Brien told me Monday morning.
"Retirement maybe was in the back of our mind (a year ago), but we didn't really start thinking about it more until earlier this year," he said.
"When people used to ask me years ago when I was going to retire, I thought maybe at 70. Things were continuing to go well, and I just wasn't quite ready yet. But as I approached 72 (in June), we started talking about it. And of course, Janeen is much younger than I am.
"Much younger!" Coyle injected.
O'Brien continued: "She's not qualified for Social Security yet, but I am. So we just came to the decision that it was about time after all these years, and in June we told Keith," meaning their boss Keith Mitchell. He's WGRR-FM program director and operations director for the Cincinnati Cumulus stations.
They told their bosses in June, and all agreed to announce the news a couple of months before their last show.
The couple, who live in Mason, credit their longevity to their loyal listeners "who have been so great to us," O'Brien said.
"The greatest compliment we have continually received is 'you sound just like us!' Thank you for letting us tell our stories and for making us a part of your family," O'Brien said.
Coyle, who calls Cincinnati "the best radio market in the USA," said she's been blessed to work 45 years in her hometown.
"We cannot even begin to thank you, our listeners, for your loyalty…many of you following us since our Q102 days of the '70s and '80s," Coyle said on Facebook.
Coyle said she's always thinking about the listener, "whether I'm talking to them on the phone, out in public or in my mind's eye. I focus on that one person as they drive to work or fix a cup of coffee in their kitchen, to bring a laugh, a smile, or a memory."
Mitchell praised the husband-and-wife morning team as "part of the fabric of Cincinnati, waking us up with laughter every morning. But their reach goes beyond the radio with their charity efforts and work in the community. SPCA Cincinnati, Disabled American Veterans and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are just three of the numerous charities they have worked with to draw attention and much needed funding … They will always be remembered for their impact on Cincinnati radio."
Jon Laing, Cumulus Cincinnati vice president and market manager, said in a media release that "aside from their obvious chemistry, (Chris and Janeen) are both incredibly talented professionals and I'm honored to have had the opportunity to work with them. The Married with Microphones morning show is a radio tradition known and loved by many in this town, and it's one of the unique things that makes Cincinnati the hometown of all hometowns."
Coyle and O'Brien told me they look forward to trips across the U.S. to see national parks, to explore Europe, and revisit Liverpool, England.
"We enjoy traveling, and now we can go pretty much when we want to," O'Brien says. "I think one of the first stops will be spring training, without having to work for a change. Because we were always sending stuff back to the station."
When I asked Mitchell if his priority for a new morning team was someone known to Cincinnati or the best entertainer he replied: "Hopefully both."
Coyle ended her Facebook post these words:
"We'll miss you, but we're not done yet. Our last show will be Friday, December 22nd. Feel free to buy me a going away Christmas gift."
