Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2007 > October > 17
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
10/17: New Star 94 morning show
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just a couple of weeks after announcing Steve & Vikki’s departure date of November 2, Star 94 has found a new replacement, a trio from Indianapolis called Marco, Shannon and Mikey.
ABOVE: On the left is stunt guy Superphat Mikey, middle is Shannon and right is Marco.
They come from WNOU-FM/Radio Now 93.1, a station that changed formats a week ago, leaving the threesome high and dry. The name of the new Star show is not known yet but in Indianapolis, they were called the Morning Mess. Here’s info about them.. And there are plenty of youtube videos featuring them. Here’s a good one to start with..
Mark Kanov, Star 94’s general manager, said since Vikki Locke announced she was leaving at the end of the year for health reasons, the station has been on the hunt for a replacement for her and Steve McCoy. He liked the trio from Indianapolis but they were under contract with Radio Now until May 2008 so he wasn’t sure he’d be able to nab them. Then Emmis Communications (which owns the signal) dumped Radio Now for news/talk. Kanov swooped in and grabbed Mikey, Shannon and Marco as quickly as possible.
Kanov said he will bring them in December 1 under contract but won’t start them on air until January 2, 2008. In the interim, he will give them a grand tour of Atlanta, have them meet with advertisers and even force them to drive down I-75, 400 and I-85 during rush hour to get a feel for what a lot of Star’s listeners have to go through. “I want them to experience what Atlanta experiences,” he said. “I want them to know what Buckhead is about. I want them to know what Midtown is about.” He also wants them ready on air to pronounced local cities and streets and towns correctly.
The future of Rob Stadler, Shannon Holly and Tom Sullivan is unclear. “We’ll figure it out in the next couple of days,” Kanov said.
“Change is always a little bit stressful,” he noted. “Some people embrace change. Some people don’t. We’re really excited about it. This is a young team. It’s going to put some new energy and life into the radio station and Atlanta radio.”
All of them are relatively young, 30 and under. None are married.
Star will air a best-of Steve & Vikki in November but hasn’t decided how it’s going to deal with December.
The top 40 station Marco, Mikey and Shannon were on before it changed formats actually looks like it had good ratings. The only numbers I have are 12-plus but the station was fifth overall in the spring.
Apparently, they regularly did that classic radio bit “War of the Roses,” which Q100’s the Bert Show used to do years ago in which the station, pretending to be a florist, offers to send free flowers to whoever the target wants. If he sends it to his wife or girlfriend, all is good but if he sends it to his mistress or some lady on the side, the fireworks go off! (That bit, which Bert Weiss freely admitted was not his original idea, did give his show traction early on but like any gimmick, it got old.)
10/17: New Dallas Austin “Drumline” reality show on Peachtree TV
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dallas Austin is leveraging his successful 2002 film “Drumline” into a reality series featuring the prestigious Southwest DeKalb High School Marching Panthers band for Peachtree TV. The eight-episode show starts November 20.
This show will be the first original series for Peachtree TV, which launched October 1 and effectively replaced TBS for folks with rabbit ears. The series will start with band camp and run through the fall football season.
“I’m excited that Southwest DeKalb is going to get this shot,” Austin said Wednesday. “They deserve the recognition.”
The show will be dubbed “Dallas Austin’s Drumline: SWD.” The 300-member band was featured in “Drumline,” which starred Nick Cannon and was Austin produced in 2002. According to imdb.com, the film, which focused on a cocky drummer recruited to a fictional Atlanta college to join the band, grossed a respectable $56.4 million with a budget estimated to be $20 million.
But Austin said 20th Century Fox, the film company, refused to do a full-budget sequel, so it never got off the ground.
Later, Austin said he thought about doing a marching band competition show, but when he saw MTV’s “Two a Days,” a documentary-style program about high school football players, he decided reality would be a better route.
The well-connected Austin got cooperation from Don Roberts, music coordinator for DeKalb schools who helped choreograph the film sequences, and Vernon Jones, DeKalb County’s chief executive.
Austin said he’s wanted to work with Turner Broadcasting for years because it’s based in Atlanta. When he ran into Turner consultant Ryan Glover, he told him about the concept of “Drumline,” and there was instant interest.
Peachtree TV general manager Jonathan Katz said Austin and the station hammered out a deal in a mere 48 hours after seeing the trailer Austin already had created. “We believe it’s a fantastic opportunity to work with Dallas Austin and bring Atlanta viewers a network quality production about a truly amazing local high school band,” Katz said.
