Pure college football moves 790 the Zone's meter

It's Monday morning, and there's plenty of needling to do.

Wes Durham and Tony Barnhart, co-hosts of 790 the Zone's "Barnhart and Durham Show," have knowledge to share, but they first have targets to tweak.

There's TCU coach Gary Patterson, who had just spent two days of his bye week on air with ESPN pleading his case for his Horned Frogs to stay in the BCS championship game chase.

"I've never seen a college coach spend 48 hours as the focal point of one network's coverage," said Durham, the voice of Georgia Tech and the Falcons, exaggerating slightly.

Miami's day-glow orange uniforms, worn in its loss to Virginia Tech, drew howls.

"It looked like the Pottstown Firebirds [a late 1960s minor-league football team], that's what I thought," said Barnhart, author of AJC.com's "Mr. College Football" blog and host of his own CBS College Sports Network show.

Entertaining, engaging and stocked with college football wisdom, Durham and Barnhart's late-morning show has taken off in its first season as a four-times weekly show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The show's success speaks to their appeal and the insatiable appetite for college football in what some like to call the sport's capital city.

"I think there's no one more relevant to speaking about college football than Wes and Tony," said Chick-fil-A Bowl president Gary Stokan, Atlanta's pre-eminent college football poobah and an occasional guest.

The resumes back it up. Barnhart has covered football since 1976, working at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1984 to 2008. His connections have helped land guests such as SEC commissioner Mike Slive, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. Durham has been the voice of the Yellow Jackets since 1995. He has an almost eerie knack for recalling scores and names and a style on the air with both guests and callers, not to mention Barnhart, that is both self-deprecating and confident.

"I've never seen anyone who makes radio look so easy as Wes," said 790 station manager Neal Maziar.

When former 790 midday co-host Brandon Adams decided over the summer to leave radio to go back to school, Maziar's first choice for a new show was Barnhart and Durham. The two, who have known each other and often worked together since 1995, already hosted a Thursday college football show with Chris Dimino.

Maziar said he is aware of only one other daily show dedicated to college football -- hosted by Mobile Press-Register columnist Paul Finebaum -- but believed the Atlanta market would take to it.

"The footprint of college football in this town is well-established," Maziar said. "Supporting a college football talk show 12 months a year is not a problem."

Barnhart and Durham aren't quite ready to commit to that strict a format -- both know college basketball plenty, as well -- but the numbers so far bear Maziar out. The show averaged 82,400 listeners weekly in the October rating period, sixth in the station's sought-after men's 25-54 demographic and ahead of rival 680 the Fan's offering, ESPN national host Colin Cowherd and the first hour of Matt Chernoff and Chuck Oliver's show. In October 2009, 790's numbers for the 10 a.m-1 p.m. slot, when Adams hosted with Jeff Woolverton, were 45,000 and 19th.

Barnhart and Durham are contracted to do their show through the bowl season, and are working with Lincoln Financial Media, which owns 790, to extend the agreement.

Both had to work around their schedules to make the show happen -- they don't have a Tuesday show because of prior commitments -- but want to continue.

Said Barnhart, "Wes and I have always wanted to do this."