Bill Squire, Mary Santora Let Go From Alan Cox Show as iHeartRadio Completes Wave of Layoffs

Comedian Bill Squire in an undated photo. Credit: Mike Toomey

Bill Squire, Cleveland’s bearded, raucous flannel-wearing comedian, will no longer be joining Alan Cox on his regular radio show.

In an announcement this morning on Instagram, Squire said he was the victim of a company-wide layoff by iHeartRadio, the owner of 100.7 WMMS, where the 42-year-old comedian has worked since 2013.

“It’s just a bummer,” Squire said, forlorn, in a video posted to his Instagram Monday morning.

“The bosses called me, and said, ‘Hey, there’s nothing we can do about this. This isn’t performance-based. This isn’t anything you did wrong,’” he said. “’It’s just a move that the company is making. And you are collateral damage basically.’”

“It’s one of those things where you want to leave on your own terms and they kind of didn’t allow that to happen,” Squire said in a phone call with Scene. “You know, it’s radio, so you kind of always have that in the back of your mind — things aren’t what they used to be.”

Mary Santora, who just a few weeks ago announced she would be leaving the show at the end of the year, was also laid off.

“I, too, was let go from iHeart[Media] this morning due to restructuring,” she said in an Instagram post. “They say it came down from a corporate level and had nothing to do with our ratings, performance, etc…I have no answers.”

Squire reiterated that he was a part of a mass let-go of “over 100 people” at the New York-based radio behemoth, which makes it the largest round of layoffs since January 2020. Only six radio personalities—in Washington, D.C.; Tampa; Raleigh, N.C.; Des Moines, Iowa; Dayton and Cleveland—have publicly announced their layoffs as of Monday afternoon, according to Radio Insight.

Since August, when iHeartRadio met with creditor groups to talk about restructuring its debt, there have been hints that the company might be inching away from the highly localized structure that seems to have kept the radio business energetic.

Which it has been for years, even as print media and even pay TV face the ever-present Rubik’s Cube of how to turn around lingering budget deficits. Last August, iHeartMedia’s advertisement revenue, typically bolstered by political campaigns, dropped roughly a quarter from what it was four years prior.

Alan Cox did not respond to an email for comment Monday. Scene reached out to an iHeartRadio representative at its Cincinnati, who declined to speak at length. “No comment here,” he said.

Squire, who’s made a name for himself via routine local comedy gigs, said his departure as Alan Cox’s right-hand man led to an immediate restructuring of his own brand. He said he’s amped up energy for his upcoming Chrismakwanzakah show December 28 at the Agora, to be held with comedian Mary Santora, and a recording release of 2023’s Christmas show beforehand.

And Squire said he’s geared as ever to grow Cleveland’s scene, from open mic nights at Brother’s Lounge and the Hi and Dry, to his podcast, Cleveland America.

“I’ve done really well in this area, and, you know, I think I keep that going as a producer of shows and a performer,” he said.

“Because we need some people that have been around a while to run shows here, to do shows here, to make sure that we have a quality scene.”