Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2008 > December > 22
Monday, December 22, 2008
12/22: Biggest radio stories of the year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m on vacation so it’s a good time to review the biggest stories of the year in Atlanta radio:
In general, risks did not pay off in Atlanta radio this year as listeners preferred the tried and true.
Two new morning shows came — and went - in a matter of months while other fresh faces struggled to find fans.
But veteran morning shows the Regular Guys and Steve & Vikki found new lives on new stations.
Two long-time stations — 99X and Eagle 106.7 — disappeared from the airwaves, while oldies made a modest comeback.
And cost cutting was rampant as dozens of radio people on air and off lost their jobs.
Here are major stories from the year in radio:
— Into the sunset. On Leap Day, new owners Citadel killed country station Eagle 106.7 and canned a good portion of Kicks 101.5 staff. Eagle been the older cousin of Kicks for many years, but Citadel decided to bring back oldies, which had been absent from Atlanta’s airwaves for three years. This also gave Spiff Carner (right), half of the old Randy & Spiff team, a chance to crack jokes again for a living.
— Is three times a charm? Atlanta-based Cumulus Media took aging rock station 99X off the FM dial in January after 15-plus years, replacing it with a broader rock format (Rock 100.5) anchored by the testosterone-laden Regular Guys featuring Larry Wachs, Eric Von Haessler and “Southside” Steve Rickman. The team lost its job twice at the now-defuncct 96rock. So far, they remain happily employed, with most of their old audience to boot.
— Comfort food never gets old. After six months off the air, family-frienldy Steve & Vikki segued seamlessly from Star 94 to B98.5 in July with strong ratings to boot.
— What would Mr. T say? R&B/hip-hop station Hot 107.9 in October dumped its four-year-old “A Team” in favor of a lower-cost syndicated alternative starring comic Rickey Smiley.
— Zakk who? Cledus T dud. Zakk Tyler and Cledus T. Judd (right), we hardly knew ya. Zakk arrived from Chicago in January and proceeded to leave so little impact, hardly anybody cared when he was canned eight months later. 94.9/The Bull had high hopes for local boy Judd, giving the parody singer plenty of TV and billboard ads, but most country fans stuck with Kicks and he was out in November.
— Q100’s the underdog no more. With the move to the stronger 99.7 signal, Q100 solidified its dominance over Star 94 in ratings, thanks primarily to its award-winning Bert Show. Star, in the meantime, has found no footing with the Morning Mess, the much younger sounding replacement for Steve & Vikki.
— Whither Porsche? Porsche Foxx (right), whose most famous line is “let your haters be your motivators,” lost her mid-day gig at V-103 right before Thanksgiving. That was less than 18 months after being given a second chance by V-103 management. She first lost her job in 2005 after a DUI. It’s unclear what happened this time around.
— Zoned out. The Fan plucked two former mainstay talk show hosts from the Zone — Matt Chernoff and Chuck Oliver. The Zone, in the meantime, banked on a new afternoon show starring Mike Bell and David Pollack.
— Charity continues. Kicks in February raised $752K for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, up slightly from 2007. WSB-AM pulled in $1.2 million for the AFLAC Cancer Center, about the same as the previous two years. Star 94 raised $825,000 for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, down from $1.2 million in 2007.
— The future is not here. Satellite radio went from being the Next Big Thing in 2002-03 to the Next Big Thud in 2008 as XM and Sirius merged amid increasing debt, a low stock price and slowing growth in subscribers. The next bet is wireless Internet radio — in the car.
— Rest in Peace: Hugh “Baby” Jarrett, former Elvis backup singer and long-time Atlanta radio DJ, passed in June; Fred Powers (right), WGCL-TV reporter, died of cancer in June; Mike Kavanagh, former WSB-AM news reporter, passed suddenly in December.
