Radio briefs: National Radio Hall of Fame nominees, The Zone creator's new Hawks gig, Sam Hale

For Spoken Word, nominees include Sean Hannity (who worked at WGST back in the 1990s and is now on News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB), Jim Rome (formerly on 680/The Fan locally), Atlanta native Clark Howard (on WSB) and Dr. Laura Schlessinger (Sirius XM)

You need to text 36500 and their respective names, as in RYAN, STEVE, ELVIS, DELILAH, HANNITY, CLARK, ROME and DR. LAURA. Inductions are November 5. Voting ends August 26. Winners are announced August 31.

Neal Boortz, a retired Atlanta WSB talker, was inducted in 2009.

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Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

Andrew Saltzman

, part of the one-two team that made 790/The Zone a monster sports station during its heyday in the early to mid-2000s, is joining the Atlanta Hawks as chief revenue officer.

Previously, he had the same job at NFHS Network, a high school sports media and marketing company.

While at the Zone, he worked closely with the Hawks. "I'm really excited to have this opportunity," Saltzman said, especially since he will be reporting to CEO Steve Koonin,  a marketing genius in his own right. He is also thrilled to be working with new ownership.

The Hawks just came off their best season ever: "I've never seen a team with this much momentum and excitement in the 20 years I've been here.  My role is to come in and build on that success."

Saltzman in the 2000s hustled with Steak Shapiro to turn the Zone into the leading sports talk station in town. I recall both of them telling me they had pulled in $12 million in revenue around 2003 despite modest ratings. UPDATE: Saltzman said their best year was 2007 when the station pulled in an astounding $17 million in revenue. But an investment in St. Louis radio in the mid-2000s led to big losses and effectively forced them to sell Big League Broadcasting in 2010.

His Zone station is no longer what it was. After he left, the station continued to lose steam under Lincoln Financial ownership. Last year, Lincoln fired all local broadcasters and turned the Zone into an ESPN affiliate. In a few days, even that will be gone. WQXI will soon become a simulcast of Star 94 until new owners Entercom figure out what to do with the AM signal.

"We had a run as Big League Broadcasting from 1997 to 2010 that was Shangri-La. It was something that will never be accomplished again in a major market," Saltzman said. "It was a great run. We sold the company for a lot of money. I have nothing but great feelings for what we did. It was really much more than a radio station. Nobody personified work hard, play hard like 790. It was about the culture from the senior executives to the receptionist."

Now he'll be working closely with 92.9/The Game, the local Hawks radio affiliate. Ironically, the Game's arrival in 2012 hastened the Zone's demise.

"The market has two great sports stations," he said. "I'm just glad to be back in the fray."

I texted Shapiro. He called Saltzman "the single best sales guy in Atlanta I've ever seen. He is going to take things to the next level... Epic potential!"

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Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

Sam Hale

, a former jock at 790/WQXI-AM from 1962 to 1966 and co-founder of

, passed at age 78 August 4.  He had progressive heart disease, said co-founder

John Long

.

"I never met anyone who had a bad thing to say about Sam," Long said. "He had a heart as big as the world." He said he was extremely generous with friends and family.

Long and Hale worked together at WQXI when it was the top pop station in Atlanta (long before it became the Zone). Hale hosted mid-days. But Long said Hale felt pressure to make more money so he went into finance.

"He became quite proficient," Long said. "He won quite a few awards as an analyst."

After retiring in 2003, Hale and Long came up with the idea of putting together the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

"Sam always loved radio," Long said. "But disc jockeys at the time didn't make much money."

Although Long worked a lot of the logistics, Hale provided Long with a lot of support on the business and finance side creating and building the organization.

"He was the business, I was the brawn," Long said.