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Tedd Webb, co-host of top morning radio show, ready for retirement

 
JAMES BORCHUCK  |  Times Radio personality Tedd Webb, left, talks with Jack Harris, right, during a break in the AM970 WFLA broadcast Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018.  After a 54-year career, Tuesday marked Webb's last official day on the air.  He is retiring for health reasons but will be back occasionally as a guest host.
JAMES BORCHUCK | Times Radio personality Tedd Webb, left, talks with Jack Harris, right, during a break in the AM970 WFLA broadcast Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. After a 54-year career, Tuesday marked Webb's last official day on the air. He is retiring for health reasons but will be back occasionally as a guest host.
Published Jan. 30, 2018

TAMPA — It is a little after 8 a.m. and Jack Harris just brought up a favorite target of his radio show co-host — Barack Obama.

But as Harris derisively refers to the former president as "Osama bin Laden," Tedd Webb refrains from chiming in with his usual rant. Instead, he just nods, smiles and murmurs a few words of agreement.

"A friend of mine says I haven't been funny for months," Webb told the Tampa Bay Times during a break. "He's right, you know. Part of it is physical. But it's also emotional because this day was coming — my last in this studio."

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Radio host calling it quits after five decades

Officially, Webb, a staple of Tampa radio airwaves since 1963, has another day as a morning show host before retirement begins, but the Wednesday show will be more of a party than a regular morning broadcast of the venerable AM Tampa Bay program.

Open to the public, the Wednesday show will be held inside iHeartRadio's Gold & Diamond Source Theatre rather than the intimate studio of News Radio 970 WFLA-AM, and will feature some news but a whole lot of send-off to Webb. Old friends will pop in and fans will bid farewell.

It will be emotional, Webb said. But Tuesday's final broadcast from the tight quarters he has called a second-home for three decades brought finality to a career that already had spanned a number of radio stations and formats before he settled in at WFLA in 1983.

"It feels real," said Webb, 69. "But I am ready."

That's a different attitude than when he announced his retirement in September. He wasn't ready then, disheartened and angry that his congestive heart failure and diabetes made it impossible to carry on.

"When you are not clicking at 110 percent, it is time to retire," said Webb, a West Tampa native whose real name is Henry Ruiz. "I've accepted that I can't do this anymore."

Webb and his co-hosts Harris and Aaron Jacobson did their best to make Tuesday's show a typical one — like all those that have kept it the consistent favorite of AM radio audiences in the local market.

They talked politics. The story of the day was Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians announcing the retirement of their Chief Wahoo logo. The conservative hosts railed against political correctness and wondered how long it would be until the Washington Redskins changed their name.

Still, it was impossible to ignore Webb's wind-down. Nearly every caller mentioned it.

"He is the most beloved man," said Harris, 76, who has co-hosted with Webb for 32 years. "If I write an autobiography, I'll title it 'Where's Tedd' because that's the first question people ask when they see me."

Calls from adoring fans began two weeks ago, 29-year-old co-host Jacobson said.

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"There is no way to replace Tedd," he said. "I feel like a member of my family is moving out."

Still, while Webb's days as a regular morning host may be over, he won't go radio silent.

From home, he will continue to pre-record his two-minute Webb's World commentaries airing on AM Tampa Bay every Wednesday.

And twice a week he will be back in the studio alongside David Graham to co-host the hour-long financial program The Opening Bell heard noon on weekdays on WHNZ-AM 1250.

What's more, when Harris is on vacation, Webb may fill-in.

Around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, Webb's friend Jim McVay, 63-year-old president of the Outback Bowl, stopped by the studio with his son John McVay, 36.

"This feels like the real last day," McVay told Webb during a commercial break. "I had to come today."

He arrived with a present — the game ball from the 2018 Outback Bowl — and memories. Nearly three decades ago, McVay recalled, he was a guest on Webb's Channel-28 Sports Rap television show.

Unknown to McVay, Webb held a whoopee cushion and when the camera panned to McVay, Webb squeezed it and blamed the flatulent sound on his guest.

"Oh, Tedd," McVay said between laughs, embracing Webb. "What are we going to do without you?"

Contact Paul Guzzo at pguzzo@tampabay.com, Follow @PGuzzoTimes.