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Friday, February 13, 2009
2/13: Steve Harvey, Michael Baisden moves to 107.5 Monday with simulcast at 97.5, Praise going to 102.5
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steve Harvey and Michael Baisden will move to 107.5 on Monday, with a simulcast on 97.5 as Majik. SiMan Silas Alexander will continue to do nights, but now on 107.5/97.5. The simulcast officially begins at 10 p.m. Sunday evening. On Majik, mid-days will be jockless for now with an emphasis on more music, according to market manager Tim Davies.
107.5 skews northeast while 97.5 skews southwest. There is definitely overlap in town but will cover metro Atlanta overall fairly well combined.
Gospel station 97.5 moves to 102.5. The 102.5 is relatvely weak but reaches that target African American audience.
The hope is that 107.5, with its younger mix of R&B, can eventually throttle Kiss 104.1, which was the No. 1 station in town in December. Both Harvey and Baisden are enormously popular in the African American community and Tom Joyner at Kiss has an aging audience. (Ironically, Radio One, which operates all three stations, owns Tom Joyner’s show but the show as grandfathered in at Kiss, owned by Cox.)
This means only three formats (including Hot 107.9) over four signals instead of four over four. But management thinks it won’t lose much (if anything) moving Praise to 102.5 while gaining more overall in revenue between 97.5 and 107.5 combined (although it’s unlikely the single format alone over two signals will exceed the other two in ratings separately.)
Davies said the ratings at Grown Folks 102.5 took a dip middays when Warren Ballentine and Al Sharpton were on. So both are out.
Tosha Johnson is protesting the move with a group fighting to get them back on air.
She is gathering a group to do some protesting outside Radio One’s offices in downtown Atlanta Monday from 8 to 4 p.m.
She also has a petition online to ask Radio One to return Ballentine and Sharpton to the air.
Johnson is also asking people to protest management via the following:
Call, write, fax; Grown Folks Radio 102.5, 101 Marietta St. 12th Floor, Atlanta, GA 30303, Office General Info: 404-765-9750 ask for Derek Harper, Office General Fax: 404-688-7686, General Manager: Tim Davies
