By RODNEY OH/rho@ajc.com, filed January 5, 2011
New 640/WGST-AM afternoon host Rusty Humphries bestowed day one of his first afternoon show on WGST Monday with Suzanne Somers and his first guest Kim "The Kimmer" Peterson.
He wanted to honor "The Kimmer," who was at WGST from 1992 to 2006 but never got to say goodbye.
Last week, I wrote an advancer to alert people of the interview. In it, I wrote this:
The Kimmer, now retired, said he was a bit skeptical when he got the call from Humphries. "I'm a cynic," he said."Would this be Mike Wallace with a hidden camera?" But ultimately, he figured Humphries was a sincerely nice guy and agreed to do it. (The managers who got rid of the Kimmer in 2006 are long gone, too, and the new ones had no objection.)
Humphries mentioned the "Wallace" portion to the Kimmer, which inexplicably set him off:
That slimy little squeezebox. Little twit. Such a little twit. I guarantee he did that on purpose... I said I'm flattered. Snotty little twit. You want to bitch slap him!
The Kimmer hadn't actually read my blog item. He just presumed I misquoted him when in fact, I didn't. I later called the Kimmer and told him that he said to me his initial thought was that this might be a "60 Minutes"-style ambush but it was quickly alleviated by Rusty's kind, sincere desire to honor him. The Kimmer's memory: he thought he told me that Rusty was not doing a Wallace-type attack.
Either way, the intent was the same. So alas, it was much ado about nothing. But it's always amusing to hear him fulminate - even if I'm the target.
The interview, the Kimmer said yesterday to me, "made me miss the business. He seems like a nice guy."
Rusty, before letting the Kimmer off the phone Monday, threw in the Kimmer's famous departing line: "I gotta go. You're killlin' me!"
Peterson would love to be back on the air and get the old team back together again (Jim Gossett, Pete Davis, Wayne "No Offense") so if anybody with a radio job opening needs his phone number, I have it.
Rusty replaces syndicated host Dave Ramsey, who is joining AM750 and now 95.5FM News/Talk WSB from midnight to 3 a.m. starting Monday, January 10.
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By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog
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