John Lund, creative director Tony Rhein and board operator/producer Danny Dunn were also laid off on Wednesday, KNBR morning show host Brian Murphy confirmed at the beginning of the "Murph and Markus" show on Thursday.

Murphy, who is now the longest-tenured host remaining at KNBR, described the reasoning for the departures as "cruel, corporate money reasons and no other reason." He and co-host Markus Boucher also gave an extended ode to his departing colleagues to start Thursday's show.

"We're hurting as much as you guys or more, because these are our friends, these are our colleagues," Murphy said. "We're as frustrated as everybody else. We're as dumbfounded as everybody else ... All we can do is have our little show. Until our key card stops working — which, based on all the comments I read on Twitter, could be tomorrow for me."

Tolbert will have a farewell show on Thursday — something Murphy quipped was a sign that Cumulus was "learning from its mistakes" after they did not allow Murphy's longtime morning show co-host Paul McCaffrey have a farewell show when the company laid him off last year.

In 2011, Barbieri disclosed to KNBR and the public that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2005. On April 11, 2012, the 66-year-old Barbieri was let go by KNBR. KNBR's parent company, Cumulus Media, said he "refused to honor some of the most basic terms of his contract". Barbieri's legal team cited age discrimination and disability discrimination in the termination. In 2013, he settled with Cumulus for an undisclosed amount, reportedly over $1 million.