Joseph “JoBo” Colborn, who was one-half of the high-decibel “Eddie & JoBo” morning show that garnered high ratings and no shortage of controversy during more than two decades on the air on Chicago’s WBBM-FM and later on WJMK-FM, died on Monday. He was 70.

Colborn’s death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Stephenson County Coroner’s office. No cause was given. Colborn had been a longtime resident of Freeport, Illinois, and previously had lived in Streeterville and prior to that, in Wheeling.

With his longtime air partner Ed Volkman, Colborn carved out a successful niche on the Top 40 WBBM-FM, also known as B-96, appealing to a youthful demographic. The duo aired features like “Confession Wednesday” from callers and a segment called “No Panties Thursday,” in which they encouraged listeners to dispense with underwear. At the same time, they were enthusiastic fundraisers and community figures for various causes, such as holding a 76-hour fundraising marathon in 1992 to raise money to benefit Schiller School on the North Side and asking listeners in 1993 to exchange their guns for B-96 merchandise or tickets to sporting events.

“JoBo was the most talented person I ever worked with,” said Karen Hand, a former B-96 morning news anchor. “He could do anything. He could be an announcer, he was also a music director, he could do play-by-play — he could have done any format.”

Born in 1955, Colborn was the son of a school administrator father and grew up in Ottawa, Illinois. He got his start in radio hosting evenings on WROK-AM in Rockford, using the air name “Joe James.” He later had stops at stations in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania; Little Rock, Arkansas and Milwaukee before landing as a morning DJ at WGCL-FM in Cleveland in late 1982, using the air name “Joe Bohannon.”

In late 1984, WBBM-FM hired Colborn as an afternoon jock. He later shifted to evenings at the station and then, in 1988, a station shakeup occurred. Management removed Volkman’s sidekick and replaced him with Colborn, with the two as morning hosts.

Psycic Irene Hughes, from left, Eddie Volkman and Joe “JoBo” Colborn talk to callers during the “Eddie & JoBo” morning show on B96 on July 15, 1992. (Eduardo Contreras/Chicago Tribune)

At the outset, the duo ranked 10th in mornings in Chicago, behind such broadcast luminaries as Bob Collins, Jonathon Brandmeier, Doug Banks and Robert Murphy. They moved up to fifth in the morning ratings by 1992 and fourth by 1994.

“Those guys were cutting edge,” said Todd Cavanah, the station’s former program director. “They were a little wild, but I think about Eddie and JoBo, and JoBo in particular is a huge reason why radio is so popular in Chicago. They did a lot of cutting-edge content. And of course you have your ups and downs, but they had a huge following and did a lot of things that were different, and I think they will live forever in this market.”

One of the most controversial moments in the pair’s career occurred in 1993, when Chicago TV news anchor Joan Esposito filed an $8 million defamation lawsuit against WBBM-FM and against Colborn personally for broadcasting a false rumor suggesting that the father of her unborn child was a member of the Chicago Bulls. The rumor spread like wildfire around Chicago in the summer of 1993.

WBBM-FM parent CBS Radio and Colborn settled the lawsuit in 1994 with a $1 million payment to Esposito, plus a massive public apology in the form of newspaper ads in Chicago newspapers. Terms of the deal were supposed to be confidential, but Colborn and Volkman shared details of the settlement with a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, and WBBM-FM fired the pair in May 1994 over that unauthorized disclosure.

Morning radio personalities Joe “JoBo” Colborn, left, and Eddie Volkman, right, talk to guests in the studio during a Friday morning show at B96/WBBM-FM on April 5, 2002. (Heather Stone/Chicago Tribune)

After that, Colborn and Volkman surfaced in Philadelphia less than six months later, cohosting a morning show on WIOQ-FM. They didn’t last long in their new environment. Volkman quit in August 1995, and Colborn exited in January 1996.

In January 1997, Colborn and Volkman returned to B-96, initially sharing the morning shift with Frankie “Hollywood” Rodriguez. The two soon grew morning ratings at the station, ranking in third place in mornings in 2000. By 2002, bosses at rival station WKSC-FM began trying to woo the duo. That spurred WBBM-FM to re-sign the pair for another seven years, at more than $1.5 million a year each.

“B96 is in my heart, my mind and my soul,” Colborn told the Tribune in 2002.

Hand said that one aspect of Colborn and Volkman was that they weren’t really viewed as shock jocks, per se.

“Eddie and JoBo were a little bit like (the characters on the TV show) ‘Leave it to Beaver,’” she said. “Eddie was the Beaver, and JoBo was Eddie Haskell, and everybody loved Eddie Haskell. He could get into any mischief, and anything could be blamed on him, and that was lovable.”

In interviews with the Chicago Sun-Times in 2004, Colborn openly discussed his battle with alcoholism and his recovery.

In late 2008, Colborn and Volkman were taken off the air several months before their contracts were set to expire, with CBS Radio Chicago’s market manager telling reporters that he wanted to take WBBM-FM’s morning drive show in a different direction.

B96 disc jockeys Eddie Volkman, left, and Joe “JoBo” Colborn return to the airwaves after being off the air in a contract dispute, July 23, 2002. The radio personalities did their show from Navy Pier. (Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune)

In 2010, the duo returned to Chicago’s airwaves on a two-hour talk show each Saturday evening on WLS-AM. The following year, they joined WJMK-FM, where they broadcasted mornings until the end of 2012.

Today, Volkman hosts mornings on WSSR-FM, a Joliet station. However, in recent years, Colborn and Volkman had reunited to host an annual 1980s-themed music event at the Rosemont Theatre that was put on by promoter Tony Bitoy.

“Oh my god, the crowd loved (Colborn and Volkman),” Bitoy said. “They ad libbed between acts and did old routines. They were as much a draw as the acts were.”

Colborn and Volkman were also longtime TV pitchmen for United Auto Insurance.

Information on survivors was not immediately available.

Services are pending.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/joe-jobo-colborn-obituary/