Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2007 > July > 20
Friday, July 20, 2007
7/20: Ramona out at Hot 107.9 (UPDATED)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Long-time mid-day jock Ramona DeBreaux is no longer at Hot 107.9. Hot just let her go Thursday, no explanation given beyond the standard “we want to go in a different direction” routine. Her name has been wiped off the Web site though her page hasn’t yet been completely eliminated.
Above is her photo off her myspace page.
I got a hold of her Friday afternoon (though her boss Wayne Brown hadn’t gotten back to me as of 5 p.m. Friday). She’s been at the station since the beginning in 1995, first doing overnights, helping out Ryan Cameron a bit as morning co-host in the late 1990s, then mid-day gal the past seven-plus years.
Amazingly, on a top 10 station in a top 10 market, DeBreaux did not have a contract until last year. Although she wouldn’t say how much she had been paid over the years, she admitted she was probably underpaid compared to other jocks in town. She only got a contract when another station she wouldn’t name wooed her. (My guess is it was V-103) To justify the fact Hot kept her around with no contract for so long, she said enjoyed the experience of learning radio, that Hot enabled her to do all sorts of amazing things like fly to London to interview people at Live 8 like Bono and attend both the Republican and Democratic conventions. “It wasn’t about the money,” she said, on why she turned down other opportunities at higher pay. “Just give me a fair salary.”
And she felt some level of loyalty to Hot for helping her get her start.
“There were definitely individuals who made a lot of positive things happen for me,” she said, including Mary Catherine Sneed, former Radio One COO who started Hot 107.9 12 years ago and hired her. (Sneed left more than a year ago.)
DeBreaux didn’t have a clue the firing was coming. She said her ratings have been solid, outperforming mornings and afternoons.
“I didn’t feel burnt out,” she said. “It seemed like second nature for me. It became philanthropy for me. Wow! I can help people get past a lot of problems. That really became a big thing for me.”
She’s done voice work, self-published a relationships book and has some TV deals cooking. DeBreaux overall sounded very upbeat, not upset at all. “For me,” she said brightly, “the skies the limit!”
