Posted Friday, March 16, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Scott Lindy Friday lost his gig as program director at country station Kicks 101.5.
This is the third time over the last decade he has relinquished a job as a program director at an Atlanta radio station. He previously ran rival country station 94.9/The Bull and pop station Star 94.1.
Lindy lasted three years at Kicks, which is owned by Atlanta-based Cumulus Media. Before he arrived, the Bull had been beating Kicks handily but Lindy was able to make Kicks more competitive at times. He rejuggled the line up, moving Dallas McCade to mid-days from mornings and giving her the music director title, hiring a new afternoon host Scott Gaines and moving Ali Mac with Cadillac Jack. (An experiment bringing C.J. Lusk in last year as part of the morning show did not work out at all.)
Kicks, the establishment brand in town, draws a much older audience than the Bull despite a very similar playlist. Lindy was unable to change that dynamic.
Interestingly, Lindy first came to Atlanta in 2008 as program director on the new Bull and he injected the station with energy and boosted its ratings to become competitive with Kicks. But he was booted in 2010, no explanation given.
He joined Star a month later and ratings there rebounded for a time. But he lost Ray Mariner as a morning host (again, no public explanation over that sudden departure) and Power 96.1 came along and took away some of the pop audience. He made several jock changes but nothing quite worked and he lost that job in 2015.
A few months later, he landed the job as program director at Kicks. He was also a corporate program director for Cumulus Media.
Lindy and his former boss Sean Shannon did not return texts for comment.
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