Chris Hassel, a Muscatine native who worked at WHO Channel 13 from 2007-12, was let go by ESPN on Wednesday as part of a massive company-wide layoffs.

Hassel was as an achor at ESPN and was entering his fifth year based in Bristol, Conn.

Hassel shared his departure Wednesday afternoon on Twitter.

"Debate is over. Losing your iPhone is worse than losing your job," one of Hassel's tweets read. "If I lost my iPhone, how could I post about how I lost my job today?"

"In all seriousness. Don't feel bad for me," a second tweet read. "I'll be OK. I'm just going to miss all the great people I worked with. My last day is (Thursday)."

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A third tweet from Hassel said he was "grateful for all the opportunities I had in my 4+ years at ESPN."

"Many great people lost their jobs today. But many greats remain," the tweet said.

Hassel wrote in a text message to the Register that he's been receiving an "outpouring" of support from Iowans he knows and many he's never met. Ames native Harrison Barnes of the Dallas Mavericks even reached out to him, Hassel wrote.

"(It)'s really cool that I've heard from just as many people as I did when I got the job at ESPN," Hassel wrote.

Hassel also joined "The Murph and Andy Show" on 1460 KXnO, co-hosted by current WHO staffers Keith Murphy and Andy Fales, on Wednesday afternoon. It airs from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Hassel worked with Murphy and Fales during his time in Des Moines.

He became emotional during the interview, where he talked about missing "the people who I won't get to work with anymore."

"I don't have hard feelings about it. I know it's not personal," Hassel explained. "And I really think this is going to allow me to have the dream I've had since the get-go: I've always wanted to do play-by-play."

Hassel's final ESPN duty will be calling Game 3 of the NBA D-League championship series between the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and 905 Raptors on Thursday night.

RELATED: ESPN layoffs include on-air and digital personalities

The ESPN cuts are expected to number around 100 as the cable sports giant deals with a decline in subscribers combined with paying billions per year in rights fees for professional and college sports, per a story by USA TODAY. Disney’s cable networks division saw an 11 percent drop in operating income driven by a decline in ad and subscriber revenue at ESPN, Disney announced in its most recent quarterly report in February.

ESPN president John Skipper said in a memo to ESPN staffers that "a necessary component of managing change involves constantly evaluating how we best utilize all of our resources, and that sometimes involves difficult decisions.

“ ... These decisions impact talented people who have done great work for our company. I would like to thank all of them for their efforts and their many contributions to ESPN.”

Other well-known ESPN staffers laid off Wednesday included NFL reporter Ed Werder, NFL analyst Trent Dilfer, MLB writer Jayson Stark, college basketball writer Dana O'Neil and "SportsCenter" anchor Jay Crawford. Another Iowan, college basketball writer Eamonn Brennan, was also let go. He worked as a college basketball writer for 7 1/2 years, per his LinkedIn profile.

"It's a changing landscape, and that's the bottom line," Hassel said on "The Murph and Andy Show."

"And the bottom line sucks today."

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