Bay Area sports station KNBR parted ways with several staffers this week including morning show co-host Paul McCaffrey. The departures took many in sports media by surprise, including 95.7 The Game morning host Bonta Hill.

Hill, who worked at KNBR on the Murph and Mac show, felt obligated to discuss McCaffrey’s exit on The Morning Roast on Thursday, offering his condolences.

“Whenever I worked with him on that morning show as a board op or producer, I always left with a smile on my face,” Hill said. “They made me laugh, they treated me right, they taught me the ropes. And when you have an 18-year run together, that is legendary. Legendary.”

“Morning radio, that’s what we grew up on, and he was a pioneer,” Bonta added.

Bonta Hill shared that Mac was one of his favorite people at the station, and that he did and continues to look up to him.

“I just feel bad, man. Christmas is around the corner, and people are losing their jobs,” Hill said. “You never want to see that. You never want to see that, but Paulie Mac, Murph, those guys are one of one. They are. They truly are man.”

“Murph and Mac is the combo in this market in terms of longevity, excellence, what they symbolized with that Giants run and how we gravitated towards them,” co-host Joe Shasky chipped in. “All of my sports radio love came through those guys’ love for each other. And you could feel it.”

95.7 The Game brand manager Matt Nahigian echoed the sentiments from Hill during a video commentary on X. He said despite the two stations being fierce competitors, there’s a mutual respect between leadership, talent and staff.

“I think it’s important to point out that the stations compete against each other hardcore,” Nahigian said. “We want to beat each other every month in the ratings and the whole bit. But all of us for the most part get along really well.”

“KNBR didn’t gloat and celebrate when we made changes in March, and we won’t do that either,” he added. “Onward and upward. Great run by Paulie Mac, Murph and Mac.”

Saturday marks the end of an era for CBS. The SEC championship game between Alabama and Georgia will be the final conference game on CBS before it takes over as one of the Big Ten’s media partners next year. Longtime color commentator Gary Danielson joined Stoney and Jansen on 97.1 The Ticket on Thursday ahead of Michigan’s appearance in the Big Ten championship, and Gary said it was hard to believe the SEC adventure was coming to an end.

“I started this gig in announcing in 1990 and then started at CBS in 2006, and this is it,” Danielson said.

Gary Danielson was asked if he would be a part of the new Big Ten broadcast crew alongside Brad Nessler, and he joked that it hadn’t been set in stone just yet.

“I have a contract, I guess they don’t have to use me,” he said. “I think they have to pay me. I’ll have to check it out one more time to make sure.”

Danielson did get a taste of some Big Ten broadcasting this season, though. He was on the call for three different games featuring Big Ten teams. He called UNLV/Michigan, Ohio State/Indiana and Penn State/Iowa.

Michigan is playing Iowa in the Big Ten title game on Saturday, and so Danielson thought it was nice that even though he didn’t get a full slate of Big Ten games to broadcast, he still was able to familiarize himself with the conference’s perennial powers.

“We saw the three best teams and Iowa,” Danielson said. “So that’s very interesting.”

Late Wednesday, it was unveiled that KNBR had undergone a series of cost-cutting measures that eliminated the jobs of morning co-host Paul McCaffrey and evening host F.P. Santangelo. KNBR midday host Greg Papa reflected on the changes Thursday morning.

To open Papa and Lund, Greg Papa took the opportunity to address the elephant in the room.

“With Murph and Mac, and Pauly, I’ve been on with them every Friday since I started working with the Niners in 2019, and we hardly ever talked football,” Papa said. “It was always about other things and coming to the studio and getting to know them. Murph, I’ve known forever, going back to the A’s days. These are rough times. Things change. Look at what’s going on with the RSNs in the country. Certainly, terrestrial radio is feeling the brunt of it for a number of factors.”

John Lund agreed, calling McCaffrey “one of my favorites”.

Fill-in host Deiter Kurtenbach hosted the morning show Thursday in place of Brian Murphy. Papa joked that the fill-in host needed a better understanding of radio if he’s going to have the job full-time.

“For Deiter, if you’re going to be on in the morning, you gotta get on the clock better. We can’t start at 10:08 AM. You get a false start right away.”

It is unclear what Murphy’s role with KNBR will be going forward. The station has removed him from its website, and he has yet to comment publicly about his future. Kurtenbach said this morning he would host the morning timeslot for the remainder of the week.