By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, March 2, 2015
Steve McCoy shook off the rust Monday and returned to Atlanta FM radio for the first time in five years, courtesy of News Radio 106.7.
Instead of Vikki Locke, his long-time radio partner on Star 94 and B98.5, he was joined by Cheryl White on the new morning show. They shared their mutual love for "Star Trek" and White admitted she loves video games.
Stand-up legend Jeff Foxworthy, a neighbor and friend of McCoy's for more than two decades, joined the show for a bit, talking about his love of the Fabulous Fox Theatre (where he performs April 18), the durability of "You Might Be a Redneck" jokes and his doubts about technology.
Foxworthy's kids had told him they can "Google" anything. But he said there are plenty of life lessons you can't Google. So he has come up with the Facts of Life," a new line of jokes/observations. For instance, "you can have a wife with long, beautiful hair or you can be on time. You can't have both."
Not surprisingly, McCoy's day one on 106.7 had a few glitches, especially the first hour, with wrong clips coming on and clumsy hand offs.
Just before the 6 a.m. hour, a nervous McCoy accidentally called his co-host the 1970s era model/actress Cheryl Ladd and White laughed it off. "I kind of like that."
They had trouble at about 7:20 a.m. getting reporter Bob Costantini on the phone to talk about Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech and had to scrap it and try again 20 minutes later.
"We're going through the bugs," McCoy acknowledged a little after 8.
While journalist White asked most of the questions with Costantini later that hour and with reporter Steve Kastenbaum about the slain Russian Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, McCoy threw in a couple himself.
If anything, McCoy was just happy to be back on the air.
"I always got tired talking to the fish at Lake Lanier," McCoy said.
"You're such a part of this city," Foxworthy said. "You are this city. When you're not on the air, it's weird. It's not right."
He played clips from friends such as former Braves pitchers Phil Niekro and Tom Glavine and his Star 94 buddies Locke and Tom Sullivan. "Just wanted to say congratulations and I will be listening when I get up after 8 o'clock," said Locke, who voluntarily left radio in 2013.
Governor Nathan Deal called in at 8:30 a.m. to welcome McCoy back as well but also to talk about placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2016 to allow the state to take over failing schools and visiting Louisiana to look at an example of that.
While White was asking Deal questions, he accidentally called her Vikki, then quickly apologized. Steve made a quick departing joke about offering his duties as a valet for Deal given the raises his staff just got, a story the AJC recently broke.
"It's been fun. It's been hectic," McCoy said at the end of the show.
"Let's do it again tomorrow," White said.
On radio
The Steve McCoy and Cheryl White morning show, 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays, News Radio 106.7
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