At 1:57 p.m. Oct. 24, the final song for Dave FM was Big Star’s “Thank You Friends.”
Thank you, friends
Wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you
I’m so grateful for all the things you helped me do
Apropos and sweet.
Margot Smith, Dave’s music director for its entire eight-year lifespan, will remain on sports talk 92.9/The Game as a producer. So she put the music mix together to the very end. In her mind, the final day of live jocks on Sept. 29 was really the last day with Butch Walker’s “ATL” the final song. She didn’t do anything special for the final hours today of the playlist though you could (over) read into some of the song titles she chose: “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty. “With or Without You” by U2, “Dance Away” by Roxy Music, “Is There a Ghost” by Band of Horses, “Save Me” by Aimee Mann, Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Avett Brothers “Live and Die.”
CBS Radio chose to kill off Dave in a most unusual way. Almost all radio station formats die like a mob hit. Unforeseen, (often) no warning, no goodbye, buried as if they never existed. CBS announced Dave’s departure in late July and gave it three long months for the station to die. It was like the station was given three months to live, which gave the staff time to say goodbye, up to the final live jock day on 9/29 (picked on purpose). For the past month, the station has been on life support, just music and ads, no jocks. Overall, it was a classy, satisfying departure, however sad. This was the type of funeral every station wishes it could get.
Dave was named as such to be your friend. And though too many of Dave’s buddies (as in, listeners) went away, causing his demise, he was a good friend while he lasted. Thanks for the memories.
Options for adult rock fans on the FM dial in Atlanta are pretty thin. A few of the groups heard on 92.9 are heard elsewhere but not in the mix that Dave had it and many groups will more or less disappear from the airwaves including Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers. Even if adult rock (or adult alternative as it’s called in radio land) comes back to Atlanta, it may do so on an HD2 station in stripped down form or on a weak translator signal that doesn’t reach very far. Besides your own music collection, if you have access to your smartphone music and can hook it into your car stereo system, you could access plenty of adult rock stations around the country. Or if you have Sirius/XM, the closest equivalent is the Spectrum.
So we must move forward. 92.9 lives on now as a sports talk station.
After a rather sentimental launch speech about how we became sports fans, 92.9/The Game began at 2 p.m. “It’s more than a sports station. It’s sports entertainment in the same passion you have for the game is in each and every one of us as well. Are you ready, Atlanta? Are you ready for the Game? Sports radio 92.9/The Game.”
The first voice up was Carl Dukes, last heard in Houston. He introduced his team, former Pittsburgh Steeler Kordell Stewart and Rachel Baribeau.
Dukes is the lead guy and he helped shepherd in a bunch of the other staff members. Weekend folks such as Ryan Klesko, Sam Mitchell, Chuck Smith (who was on V-103 at one point many years ago), Dennis Scott and Bob Neal. He brought in the morning show, which is Rick Kamla, Randy Cross and C.J. Simpson.
The emphasis is how the talk station won’t just be about sports but also about life and entertainment. I’m sure, though, that in reality, they will still stick heavily with sports.
First big name guest was the Hawks’ forward Josh Smith at 3:40 p.m.
