By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Mark Arum, the long-time traffic reporter for Channel 2 Action News, was saddened when A Tribe Called Quest rapper Phife Dawg died of complications from diabetes earlier today.
So he inserted - Easter egg style - lyrics from the band into his traffic reports this morning.
"They were the soundtrack of my youth," the 42 year old texted me this evening before his night show on News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB.
He spent his two-hour show from 10 p.m. to midnight highlighting the legendary hip-hop singer.
"One of the big influencers of my life," Arum said on his show.
Later, Mashable and Buzzfeed, the arbiters of "viral," picked it up as well.
Arum, who sleeps during the day, woke up Wednesday to a hundred texts about the video.
He said the only thing he said that didn't quite tie in with traffic was "Do-dat-do-dat-do-do-dat-dat-dat" but he did it anyway. The bosses clearly didn't mind.
WSB-TV even offered up this video compilation and it went viral:
"That was the dopest things I've ever seen on local news," said one of his fans on the radio.
WSB-TV, WSB radio and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution are all part of Cox Media Group.
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