Q99.7’s replacement for ‘The Bert Show’ is finally here
Four months after “The Bert Show” ended its quarter-century run on Atlanta radio, Q99.7 is bringing in a trio of out-of-town personalities it hopes can gel into a new hit show.
The Q Morning Crew show debuts Monday at 6 a.m. after several weeks of test runs.
“Atlanta is just one of those markets where it’s OK to not be from here initially,” said crew member Joe Breezy, who moved to Atlanta from Nashville and worked briefly in Atlanta in the early 2010s at the short-lived Groove 105.7 under his real name, David Armbrecht. “It’s a big city with a big heart.”
Brian Philips, Atlanta-based Cumulus Media’s chief content officer, launched “The Bert Show” in 2000 and hopes to replicate that success with this trio, comparing their chemistry to that of a “workplace comedy.”
Who are they?
Joe Breezy
Real name: David Joe Armbrecht
Hometown: San Jose, California
Current residence: Buckhead
Age: 46
Spouse: Danielle Breezy, chief meteorologist at WKRN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Nashville
Previous jobs: Most recently, he was host at pop station Mix 92.9 in Nashville and “Locals on 2″ segment on WKRN-TV. Before that, he worked at radio stations in San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix and Boston.
Before media: He was a certified EMT and said he spent time in a boy band but won’t say which one.
Daena “DK” Kramer
Age: early 40s
Hometown: Los Angeles
Current residence: Brookhaven
Prior jobs: Radio hosting jobs at stations in Houston, Las Vegas and San Francisco. She briefly worked with Alfonso Ribeiro on a syndicated music show focused on the 1990s. She has run an online retail shop the past five years in Las Vegas while taking care of ailing parents.
Pets: Rescue dogs Conan O’Brien and Peanut Butter Cup.
Cort Freeman
Age: 35
Hometown: Detroit
Current residence: Roswell
Prior jobs: Radio jobs in Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland and a stop at Comedy Central in Los Angeles.
Pet: English bulldog named Farley (as in Chris Farley)
Daena “DK” Kramer, who goes by DK because people frequently mispronounce her first name, has family in Atlanta and has been familiarizing herself with the rhythms of the city since moving in early February from Las Vegas
“I’ve been in different markets over the past 20 years, and nothing felt like home as quickly as Atlanta,” she said.
The third member of the team, Cort Freeman, hails from Detroit and has no strong ties to Atlanta but said he is entering the show with the goal to work as a team. “I love that we have this blank canvas we can paint on,” he said. “There is no expectations on what we’re doing.”
The Morning Crew is structured as three coequals, unlike The Bert Show, which was led by Bert Weiss, who retired last fall and recently got remarried.
Breezy, who is the only married cast member, will man the boards and introduce the team out of ad breaks and songs. Kramer will provide observational humor and strong opinions. Freeman, the show’s writer, sees himself as the wisecracking jokester and plans to generate plenty of online content, including man-on-the-street interviews and food challenges.
“We’re going to talk about trending tropics and compare and contrast the daily randomness of life,” Breezy said. “We are going to be the group chat you want to be in.”
Kramer sees Breezy as “responsible and kind and hardworking. He leads with joy. Cort is more subtle. He also eats carbs.” (Breezy, a workout fiend, was recently on the cover of “Nashville Fit” magazine with his wife.)
She said she will bring “sweetness and sass.”
Breezy said Kramer is close to her family and dogs and “has a bleeding heart.”
When Q100 (now Q99.7) formed in 2000, Weiss was hired to create its first morning show. Tapping into his past working for legendary Dallas morning show host Kidd Kraddick, Weiss focused on a reality TV dynamic among his cast members with a heavy dose of pop culture and relationship dynamics.
This was the period before social media was a thing and radio was more relevant in people’s lives. Management gave Weiss time to build his audience and he was able to connect with the station’s core audience of younger women. By 2005, he was dominating that demographic. For the next two decades, he remained at or near the top among 25-to-54-year-old women in Atlanta even as Weiss aged out of the demographic and his cast shifted.
But last fall, at age 57, Weiss decided it was time to step away from the mic and end his syndicated morning show, which was heard in 20 markets besides Atlanta.
While many other markets quickly filled the morning show slot, Q99.7 took its time.
For several months, the station has been playing only music in the mornings, effectively flushing out the audience that listened to The Bert Show, which played almost no music.
The new show will essentially have to build a fan base from scratch in an environment where potential listeners have wandered off to on-demand podcasts, Spotify and related streaming services. (The show will eventually be available on demand via podcast.)
The trio is well aware they have major shoes to fill.
“Nobody replaces ‘The Bert Show’,” said Breezy, who was once a program director at a Nashville station that carried the show. “He’s a living legend. He’s earned his retirement. It’s rare to leave radio like he did.”
Breezy said he is “excited to do something fresh and entrench ourselves in Atlanta. But we aren’t naive. We know the magnitude of the challenge. We’re ready to go!”
Kramer said she has no fear coming in: “Being scared isn’t the right attitude.”
Freeman joked: “I’m only scared of bees.”
“The Bert Show” members have since moved on. Moe Mitchell left the show in July and continues to do a podcast. Kristin Klingshirn stayed with Q99.7 and returned to the station in January co-hosting a show in the afternoons with Ethan Cole. Abby Murphy joined the morning team at Magic 94.9 in Tampa, Florida.
