Friends of Georgia Radio recently inducted their first class of Georgia Radio Legends including WABE-FM’s Lois Reitzes, Georgia Bulldogs broadcaster Neil “Hondo” Williamson and WSB news reporter Sandra Parrish.
The event, led by TV and radio historian and tech expert Richard Warner, drew more than 200 radio people to the Metropolitan Club in Alpharetta and featured comic Jeff Foxworthy as the host.
The other inductees were Bob Houghton, who runs the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, and former radio executive Charles Giddens. The group also gave away four scholarships to college broadcast students.
The Friends of Georgia Radio, a newly formed group, effectively replaces the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame, which last inducted radio veterans in 2019.
John Long, a retired radio executive who ran that operation for the past 15 years, decided to stop inducting people and didn’t pass the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame name on to the new organization. (Long, in an email, claims the Friends of Georgia Radio “stole material” from his website he “devoted 15 years to researching and spent thousands of dollars building and promoting a highly successful non-profit project which accumulated over 800 members.” Long said the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame is “still in business and will be developing future features.”)
Long donated his website to Georgia State University as well as radio-related memorabilia. Warner said his group gleaned info from GSU and plenty of material on their own, some of which overlapped with the original Georgia Radio Hall of Fame website.
“As I built up the website, I never looked at the Georgia Radio of Fame website intentionally,” Warner said. “This makes me sad because we are just trying to do good stuff like John did. There is no competition whatsoever and only the best energy for John.”
The Friends of Georgia Radio automatically inducted the 150-plus people who are already in the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame into the Friends of Georgia Radio Legends group.
Among those who attended: former Fox 97 hosts Spiff Carner, J.J. Jackson and John Wetherbee; former WABE and Peach host Steve Goss; WABE morning host Lisa Rayam; WSB evening hosts MalaniKai Massey and Shelley Wynter; former Star 94 news director Rob Stadler; Atlanta Hawks play-by-play broadcaster Steve Holman; and former V-103 morning host Mike Roberts.
Foxworthy, who lives in Brookhaven, did this hosting gig simply because he loves radio. He recalled while “serving time” in Los Angeles, he built up his name by waking up early and calling 10 to 15 radio station morning shows across the nation. “I don’t know the history of radio,” he said, “but to me, the difference between TV and radio is relationships. There’s this thing within radio, an authenticity. They listen to you every day and you become their trusted friend.”
Radio promotion, he noted, helped sell tickets to his shows. “Without you all,” he said, “I’d probably be drywalling.”
Credit: RODNEY HO
Credit: RODNEY HO
Credit: RODE
Credit: RODE
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
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Credit: EXH
Credit: EXH
The Claude Monet Experience is coming to the brand new Exhibition Hub Arts Center in Doraville starting Oct. 15.
The experience, which will be open Wednesdays through Sundays, will showcase 300 of Monet’s Impressionist paintings and sketches using state-of-the-art video mapping technology.
This arts center is located at 5660 Buford Highway next to the Buford Highway Farmers Market.
Tickets, starting at $33, will be available at monetexpo.com/atlanta/.
Exhibition Hub, a Belgium-based company which uses Atlanta as its American headquarters, is the same company that ran the wildly popular Van Gogh Experience at Pullman Yards last year. A new version of that experience will return at a later date to the new arts center.
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Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
The folks who created the “Save the Video Store” immersive concept this past spring in Marietta are going to Underground Atlanta next month for a horror-themed romp.
It will be more “Scream” and “Scary Movie” than “Saw” or “Blair Witch Project,” said organizer Erin Stegeman, with the time frame around the late 1990s and early 2000s. The show will lampoon films ranging from “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “The Ring” to “Final Destination” and “Shaun of the Dead.”
“Everything will be bigger and campier and louder,” Stegeman said, with all new games, more stunts and more technical components.
Tickets start at $39 with shows starting Sept. 16 and available at mymoviebuster.com.
Underground Atlanta is currently largely empty so “it’s super creepy and haunted in the best way,” she noted. (The Banksy exhibit last year was held at the former indoor mall.)
Stegeman has a background in horror movies as a producer and actor when she worked in Los Angeles. She said the original show went well enough for them to do it again. After this show, she hopes to create a Christmas-themed show.
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