By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, October 3, 2016
Tim Rhodes was a fixture on 96rock in its waning years, doing sports updates with the Regular Guys, hosting mid-days and pairing briefly with "Southside" Steve Rickman on an afternoon show before Clear Channel pulled the plug a decade ago.
Since then, he has been focused on a job he did before he joined the now defunct rock station: DJ at the Cheetah nightclub.
Rhodes, 52, has been working in strip clubs for more than 30 years including the infamous Scores in New York, which Howard Stern regularly attended and promoted in the 1990s. While Rhodes loves radio, he said it just doesn't pay the way it used to.
"I make so much more doing this," he said. "The money in radio nowadays is not worth it. And I'm not good enough to do mornings, where people are still getting paid decent money." (After 96rock, he worked briefly at a rock station in Athens before that format changed.)
He said strip club DJing is a balance between picking good music and being a good host.
"We talk on the mic all night long," Rhodes said. "A lot of regular DJs can't make the transition. We communicate with the crowd, sell what's going on whether it's alcohol or food or the girls or just having a good time."
The Cheetah, he said, plays a mix of dance and rock until 11 p.m., then switches to EDM. "It's such a mixed crowd now," he said. "A lot of female customers like a regular nightclub."
To keep his hand in radio (in a sense), Rhodes co-hosts two different podcasts on the side: Strip Club Radio and Rock and Rehab. 'It gives me a chance to play radio and do my radio thing," he said.
He said they've nabbed a few celebrity guests including Diamond Dallas Page, Flo Rida and Dallas Austin. Topics include: "Weird Customer Fetishes," "Millennials Don't Tip!" and "Plastic Surgery." (Check it out here.)
Rhodes said he has been sober from alcohol for 10 years, which is why he does the rehab show. He said one day, he just stopped, with no help from any 12-step program or rehab. "I was just tired of being hung over," he said. "I decided to stay sober a week. That turned into a month, then a year. Now it's 10 years."
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