This was posted Wednesday, May 17, 2017 by Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV talk blog
The "news" part of News Radio 106.7 continues to shrink.
Earlier this month, the station cut news director Jackie Howard and morning co host Cheryl White resigned. Howard, who came from the now defunct CNN Radio, was one of the original on-air hosts when the station launched as All News 106.7 in 2012. White, who worked at "Good Day Atlanta" as a traffic anchor from 2006 to 2012, joined the station in 2013. Morning producer and reporter Michael Jones also lost his job.
For a time, White was the afternoon host with Greg Black. (Thus, they were amusingly dubbed Black and White.) She then moved to mornings.
CNN Headline News veteran Chuck Roberts, reporter Drew Nelson, host Cheryl Castro and former Star 94 newsman Rob Stadler are among the survivors on the news staff.
106.7 debuted in April, 2012 as the city's only all-news station, but Atlanta has never been able to sustain that type of format for long. (Other efforts in the past have foundered as well.). In October, 2013, 18 months later, the station plucked Kim "The Kimmer" Peterson from retirement and he quickly became the station's biggest draw. Management added a late morning show companion with Michael Graham in 2014 but that show only lasted two years without a lot of traction and Graham left in a flurry of verbal bullets quixotically directed at the Kimmer. His replacement last year Shannon Burke quickly found his footing and gave the station a one-two ratings punch during the mid day.
News Radio 106.7 also tried former Star 94 star Steve McCoy for a few months in 2015 as a morning host, but he tried to recycle an old Donald Trump interview as new and that sealed his fate .His former Star colleague Stadler took over soon after.
Over the past two years, the station has been steadily trimming news staff, including former news director Greg Tantum, former host Greg Black and John Lisk. Earlier this year, the station added another local host Brian Joyce for the afternoon drive time, leaving the only news show on the station during morning drive.
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