Philips Hanging Up His Headphones

Putting an exclamation point on broadcast career that spans nearly 50 years in Central Florida, the last 25 of that in afternoon drive at iHeartMedia FM Talk WTKS (Real Radio 104.1)/Orlando, market icon Jim Philips this week announced his plans to retire, effective in January of 2018. “I’m not retiring from life, I’m just retiring from this business,” Philips told the Orlando Sentinel, “Everything I can do on the air I’ve done,” he said with his customary bluntness. “Everything.” Philips said he had been thinking about retirement for a while — he will turn 70 in November — and met with management on Tuesday about his decision. He said he couldn’t think of a topic that he hasn’t discussed on the air over the past three decades.

Philips has been in Central Florida since 1972, starting as a news reporter — and later, News Director of the former WKIS-AM, and has done afternoons at WTKS since 1992, the year before the station adopted Walter Sabo‘s “Real Radio” identity. Philips told the Sentinel he doesn’t plan to leave the area after his retirement, although he said he would like to try and get away for several months after leaving Real Radio. Looking ahead to his impending departure, Philips, citing his “Irish stoicism,” remarked, “I don’t want a roast, and I don’t want a going-away party.” He said he doesn’t want attention because it makes him uncomfortable.

RAMP reached out to Jack Bradshaw, PD of Real Radio 104.1, who remarked of Philips, “Jim has been the patriarch of Orlando’s Real Radio 104.1 FM as host of the Philips Phile heard afternoons on WTKS for the past 25 years. To say he leaves big shoes to fill is a gross understatement.”