Buck Belue, a host at sports talk 680/93.7 The Fan for more than 24 years, has been moved from mornings to evenings on weekdays and has also been given a Saturday morning talk show.
Belue ― who partnered with John Kincade for nearly two decades until the latter was cut in 2020 during the pandemic ― most recently had a one-hour daily show at 10 a.m. The Fan decided to move him this week to a two-hour evening show at 6 p.m., with an additional program 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays.
Scott McFarlane, operations manager for The Fan, said Belue will be paired with different co-hosts for his show during the year depending on the season. For now, he will work with Barrett Sallee, the new pregame and postgame Atlanta Braves host who was hired last month.
“It’ll keep things fresh having different personalities in the studio,” Belue said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Belue will forever be known as the quarterback who led the University of Georgia to a national championship in 1980 and has become a reliable mainstay at The Fan. And at age 65, he is not ready to call it a day.
“I just love this job,” he said. “I love the people I’m working for. I love being in Atlanta.”
Since The Fan airs Atlanta Braves games, Belue will not always be on during the baseball season. “I crunched the numbers,” he said. “I’ll be off 36% of the time through the fall,” he said. But his Saturday show will be a constant.
Belue said he enjoyed working for two decades with Kincade, who moved to a sports talk station in his hometown of Philadelphia after he was let go by The Fan. “We were initially paired as North vs. the South,” he said. The contrast worked for a market like Atlanta, which has a mix of locals and Northern expats. For years, he’d tease Kincade about his obsession with Philly sports teams on and off the air.
After Kincade left, Belue was paired with fellow former UGA quarterback Hutson Mason, then went solo, using the engineer in the studio as his sounding board.
His new hours give him more time to improve his golf swing and his handicap, which is a respectable 8. “I get to play as much golf as I want!” he said.
Credit: Courtesy of Chubb Rock
Credit: Courtesy of Chubb Rock
Chubb Rock joins OG 97.9
Atlanta hip-hop legend Chubb Rock’s syndicated afternoon show finally gets hometown love, joining classic hip-hop station OG 97.9.
The station, which debuted in 2014, had already run Rock’s syndicated weekend show for several years. He is now on from 3-7 p.m. weekdays. Until this month, OG 97.9 has been largely a jukebox on weekdays, with Cumulus unwilling to invest much money into a station on a weaker signal compared to rivals on more powerful stations like 96.1/The Beat, Majic 107.5/97.5 and Hot 107.9.
Rock said he’s excited that Cumulus is willing to invest in OG 97.9, which will debut its first OG Fest at the Ville in Fayetteville on July 26. Rock will host the event, which features Trina, Trillville, D4L, 69 Boyz and Pastor Troy. Tickets for $45 are available at freshtix.com.
“We’re a David among Goliaths,” Rock told the AJC on Thursday. “We’re a small station, but we’re focused and we’re going to be a part of Atlanta. You won’t be able to shake us!”
Best known for the 1991 hit rap song “Treat’ Em Right,” Rock has spent more than 20 years juggling radio and touring.
Rock came to Atlanta in 2012 and spent six years hosting an afternoon with veteran Atlanta host Silas “SiMan Baby” Alexander on R&B station Majic.
In 2018, they began a syndicated afternoon show until Alexander died in 2022 of pancreatic cancer. Rock had to revamp the show without Alexander, and it’s now on 18 stations nationwide. (His separate weekend show is on more than 50 stations.)
“I consider Atlanta my home now,” said Rock, who grew up and lived for many years in New York City. “The city embraced me. I do a lot with schools. We’re going to work with community groups. That’s what SiMan taught me. He was the king of the community.”
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