The immensely popular Ramona DeBreaux has been officially named the new mid-day host of V-103, taking over for Egypt Sherrod.
If this sounds like deja vu, it is.
"She won the job," said General Manager Rick Caffey. "She knows the audience. She knows the community. Internally, it was pretty easy because she's kind of a fan favorite around here."
DeBreaux replaced Elle Duncan in early 2011 as mid-day host and I wrote a story about her gig then. DeBreaux did well, pulling in solid ratings for the next year.
Then in a surprise move in 2012, program director Reggie Rouse plucked HGTV host Egypt Sherrod from New York City to take over mid-days, pushing DeBreaux out.
DeBreaux, ever the team player, kept her mouth shut and stayed at the station to do traffic and fill-in work, as she had before. Last summer, I spoke with her and she kept an optimistic view on life.
In the meantime, Sherrod's ratings disappointed with mid-day numbers far weaker than the rest of the station. Atlantans just didn't take to her. Sherrod decided to leave in December after 21 months.
DeBreaux slid back in and now that a couple of months have passed, management has made it official. She'll be the mid-day host for what I anticipate will be a long period of time. And given how many different people have had the slot over the years (Osei, Porsha Foxx, Magic Man, Elle Duncan, et. al), V-103 would love to have a little stability there.
Her publicist is putting together a press release with comments from DeBreaux. I'll update this when I get it.
In the January Nielsen Audio ratings, V-103 was No. 1 overall but No. 6 in mid-days. The station ranked No. 2 among 25 to 54 year olds and 18 to 34 year olds mid-days.
In an effort to fix morning show ratings woes, V-103 in January also brought back Wanda Smith to join Ryan Cameron's show. The early results are promising. In January ratings, the first ones with Smith, the show ranked No. 2 overall behind only 95.5FM and AM750 News/Talk WSB. The morning show kept its No. 1 dominance among 25 to 54 year olds and regained the No. 1 slot from Rickey Smiley on Hot 107.9 among 18 to 34 year olds.
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