In what has become an all-too-expected scenario in the radio business in recent months, Clear Channel eliminated 1850 jobs yesterday — 9 percent of its total workforce.

Here in Chicago, those layoffs included WNUA-FM’s Rick O’Dell, who had spent nearly 20 years at the radio station. Most recently, he’d been hosting the 9a-2p shift, as well as filling the music director and program director roles.

The Trib’s Phil Rosenthal has the dirty details:

O’Dell had updated his page on the WNUA Web site and was pre-taping the final hour of what would have been today’s broadcast ostensibly so he could attend a scheduled staff meeting to discuss the cuts when he was asked to see Tony Coles, his direct boss.

It was only when O’Dell saw a human resources representative bringing Coles a stack of envelopes, which turned out to be termination packets, that he began to realize what was happening. Coles told him he would be escorted from the building.

“In 20 years of working there, there’s a lot of stuff, but I put as much as I could in my gym bag,” O’Dell said.”This poor guy who works in the mailroom at Clear Channel has been given the job all day long of escorting all the people who’ve been laid off to the elevator and seeing them off.”

In a memo to employees, Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays wrote:

Today, we had the unpleasant task of bringing our Outdoor and Radio businesses’ staffing in line with these challenging economic conditions. In doing so, we enter 2009 as a solid company and in the most competitive position possible.

We have thought carefully and at some length about the steps we need to take as a company to succeed during this unprecedented downturn. As a result, we have eliminated approximately 1,850 positions across Corporate, Outdoor and Radio. While a significant portion of these positions represent a realignment in our sales departments, the positions span all departments and represent approximately 9% of the total Clear Channel Communications workforce.

One of the things that has kept Clear Channel strong throughout our history is a willingness to deal with difficult situations in an immediate way — to make the tough decisions today in order to secure a strong future. It is this trait that has gone furthest in enabling us to weather many difficult downturns in our 37-year history. It always requires clarity, collaboration and courage.

Please know that these have been difficult decisions — yet necessary ones. We will miss those who are departing — even as we renew our shared commitment to success among all of us who will stay.

More details have emerged from around the country about the nature of the firings, most of which were not handled with the dignity and respect deserving of so many loyal and talented employees.

Tom Taylor has put together a comprehensive account over at Radio-Info.com that’s worth reading. Here are some of the highlights:

But after the laid-off staffers in many markets got the news, they were commonly asked to leave the building immediately and to return this weekend to pick up their personal stuff. In at least one major-market case, it was done more coldly. Fired staffers were told their stuff would be shipped to them and they shouldn’t stop to say goodbye to co-workers as they were escorted from the building. Their questions weren’t answered by the managers doing the layoffs, and the report I got was “the people were treated like they were second-class citizens.” And then there’s the report out of Tucson – that management stationed a police officer outside the building to watch, as people were shown out of the facility and into the parking lot …