Joe Colburn, one-half of B96’s “Eddie & JoBo” duo, dies at 70
Was part of a duo that entertained Chicago radio listeners for nearly two decades
Chicago radio fans are mourning the loss of Joe Colburn, better known as “JoBo” to listeners of the Eddie & JoBo show on Top 40/CHR powerhouse WBBM-FM/B96, who died Monday morning in his home in Freeport, Ill., some one hundred miles west of Chicago and in the Rockford metro area. He was 70 years old. The cause of death is unknown, pending an autopsy.
Known on-air as Joe Bohannon, Colburn started at WROK-AM in Rockford and arrived at B96 in 1984 from WGCL-FM in Cleveland. Colburn was slotted in afternoons and late nights until 1988, when he was paired with morning personality Eddie Volkman (replacing Mike Elston) and news anchor Karen Hand and was renamed The Eddie & JoBoShow.
The duo’s morning success coincided with the station’s rise in the 1990s as Chicago’s most dominant contemporary hits radio station, at a time when the format was flagging. While they had some risque features such as “Confessions Wednesdays” and “No Panties Thursdays”, they were also known for their community work, such as broadcasting from Cabrini-Green in 1992 shortly after seven-year-old Dantrell Davis was killed, a gun-buyback event a year later, and later during the show’s run, a fundraiser for a Chicago cop who was shot and paralyzed from the waist down.
Eddie & JoBo were in hot water after being sued by TV news personality Joan Espoito over a false rumor that she fathered a child with a Chicago Bulls player. After settling with her and making a public apology, both were fired from the station in 1994, a year after another well-known local radio duo, Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, broke up. After their departure, B96’s ratings began to slide as their new morning show with T.J. and Wild Bill flopped with audiences.
After a short stint at WIQQ-FM Philadelphia, the duo returned to B96 in January 1997, alongside Frankie “Hollywood” Rodriguez. According to Wikipedia, the show aired with a delay to filter out any inappropriate content that could be said on the air due to the Esposito lawsuit (this practice was later discontinued.) B96 once again found its groove in the ratings and by 2000, ranked third in morning drive, as the station finished at the top of the Chicago ratings for the first time.
In 2002, upstart rival WKSC-FM tried to lure Eddie & JoBo away from B96. In an unusual move, the station yanked them off the air for two months as a negotiation tactic. The duo agreed to a new, seven-year deal paying them $1.5 million each – the last of the big-money deals in radio as consolidation and cost-cutting took hold in radio in the years after. The station added Erica Cobb to the duo in 2006 as part of an effort to maintain its female appeal, but really did nothing to enchance the show. With declining ratings in the key demos and a year left on their contract, B96 decided to part ways with all three in November 2008, ending a nearly two-decade run at the station as B96 – which had long lost the Top 40 radio crown to WKSC – has not had a successful morning show on the same level as Eddie & JoBo since.
The duo reunited at WJMK-FM in 2011 when they had the K-Hits format, but were dropped by the station in December 2012. A new morning show at WLS-FM featuring the duo never materialized after Colburn dropped out at the last minute, ending their radio relationship. However, the duo still did commercials for a local auto insurance company and reunited on B96 in April 2024 to promote a freestyle music event at the Rosemont Theater.
Volkman currently hosts a morning show on suburban adult contemporary WSSR-FM. He told WGN-TV Monday: “I only got the news from his family when I got home from work today,” he told the outlet. “I am devastated and an emotional wreck. They are investigating and will have more to tell us [Tuesday]. Heaven gained a golden voice today.”
Funeral services for Colburn are pending.