Hugh's side piece and cheap ass nikka stories are much needed brehWe need the Stews back.
Huge Douglas just ain't bright
Atlanta brehs, 790 the Zone fired every damn body this morning :wow:
- Thread starter Born2BKing
- Start date
bigmanharris
Coli Gangsta
I've never in life listened to sports radio. Never heard any of these stations unless I listened to the game on the radio. If I did start who would y'all recommend?
daemonova
hit it, & I didn't go Erykah Badu crazy, #yallmad
The 790/The Zone reunion at Stats April 13, 2017 included Nick Cellini, Andrew Saltzman, Brandon “HomeTeam” Leak, Steak Shapiro, Chris Cotter, Mike Bell, Chris Dimino and Matt Chernoff. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com
This was originally posted on Friday, April 14, 2017 by Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Like alternative rock station 99X in the 1990s, sports talk station 790/The Zone was a special entity in Atlanta in the 2000s. It was a rarity in the post-deregulation era: a true mom-and-pop operation where the emphasis was on pop.
Testosterone ran hot and heavy and hustle was the name of the game. Stephen “Steak” Shapiro and Andrew Saltzman leased the 790AM signal in 1997, believing Atlanta needed a brash, in-your-fact sports talk station targeting men who watched “The Man Show,” cherished their Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues and subscribed to Maxim.
For its entire run, the station drew relatively modest ratings but when the going was good, Steak and Andrew’s sales staff and talk hosts generated outsized revenues, hitting $12 million, $13 million a year. They were the only station to brag about their revenue numbers to me. They were politically incorrect in ways that would be unacceptable in this day and age outside of the White House.
But after the owners invested way too much money in a couple of St. Louis sports talk stations, watched the economy implode and saw their gamble go up in smoke, they had to cede their Zone assets to owners Lincoln Financial in 2010. Lincoln, a buttoned-down insurance company, sucked the life out of the station and failed to find the Zone an FM home when AM listeners were disappearing. When CBS debuted FM sports talk at 92.9, the nails were in the coffin for the Zone, which stumbled its way into oblivion. By 2015, it was officially dead.
Saltzman moved on to become chief revenue officer at the Atlanta Hawks. Shapiro moved to his erstwhile rival 680/The Fan as just a host, not an owner, while building his own food-oriented video production company Bread & Butter and local media show Atlanta Eats.(Read my 2016 profile of Shapiro here.)
Both of them wanted to honor the station they began two decades ago. With a quick Facebook note, they were able to draw more than 100 of the former staffers at Stats (which the Zone used to co-own) downtown for free booze and a festive reunion that ran late into Thursday night.
Chris Cotter, who flew in from his ESPN job in Connecticut, joined Mike Bell (now at the Game), Chris Dimino (now at the Fan) and Matt Chernoff (also at the Fan). CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com
Here’s a messy unedited Facebook Live video of the “ceremony” that featured sound issues with a special video and random talks and speeches by folks like Brandon “HomeTeam” Leak, Mitch Evans and Chris Cotter.
There were no shows. Doug and Ryan Stewart of The 2 Live Stews, Beau Bock, producer Matt Edgar and Chuck Oliver (who doesn’t like reunions) were notably absent. Bock, in a text, said he didn’t know about it until 6 p.m. last night but left on less-than-happy terms. (It’s complicated.) They were all featured in the video created specially for the occasion, using old footage from years’ gone by.
Chris Dimino hits the mic. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com
Steak Shapiro and Andrew Saltzman, the reason 790/The Zone existed. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com
“You worked at the Zone, you drank the Kool Aid,” said Evans, who had to change his working name from Shapiro because that was Steak’s last name, when he joined the station. “You lived it.” He knew Steak from college in Tulane. He knew Cotter from Wheeler High School in Marietta and introduced him to the Zone, first in sales, then on air. He called Steak and Andrew “the hardest working guys I’ve met in my life.”
He worked there for years
Born2BKing
Veteran
92.9 The game morning show been having me rolling lately. Hugh Douglas is a funny ass dude.
daemonova
hit it, & I didn't go Erykah Badu crazy, #yallmad
Mark Zinno was the Game’s evening host from 6 to 10 p.m. until a few days ago. CREDIT: CBS
This was originally posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 by Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
After 92.9/The Game’s most stable on-air period in its four-plus year history, the sports talk station took Mark Zinno off the air last week.
His face has also been wiped off the website. No official replacement has been named. Why was he cut?
Three sources with direct ties who knew about the story told me that Zinno aired a repeat of an earlier hour of his show at 2 a.m. after a playoff game last week without permission from the bosses. This was the pretext to drop him.
Zinno, who joined the station three years ago from Baltimore as evening host, has not acknowledged his departure on social media.
AVXL
Laughing at you n*ggaz like “ha ha ha”
Doug Stewart (From 2 Live Stews) is/was on 92.9 tonight and last night as a possible replacement for Zinno
Good fukk zinno.. Might need to comfort Wendy 
I was cuaght off guard, thought I had the wrong channel when I heard Doug on Friday night.
92.9 hiring him is long overdue. They'd be stupid not to have him on (personally thought the Stews shouldve had the Midday slot, but I like Kamla/Michaels.
Good fukk zinno.. Might need to comfort Wendy
daemonova
hit it, & I didn't go Erykah Badu crazy, #yallmad
Christopher Rude is off 93.7/680 The Fan after 15 years. CREDIT: Facebook profile page
This was posted on Friday, August 18, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Sports talk station 680 and 93.7/The Fan has decided to part ways with Christopher Rude after 15 years as the morning host.
Chris Dimino and Nick Cellini will remain with a new name to be unveiled next month, according to David dikkey, who runs the station. The show for many years was called the Rude Awakening, even after Dimino and Cellini joined the show following their departures from the now defunct 790/The Zone.
“I did not renew his contract,” dikkey texted me this morning. “Chris [Rude] did a great job for us and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”
He feels Dimino and Cellini “can do a great morning show by themselves. You don’t necessarily need a third cast member in the room with them. Simple as that.”
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Rude’s agent Norm Schrutt confirmed the news and plans to have lunch with Rude today. He suspects Rude would like to get back into rock radio. Rude worked for many years at 96rock before joining the Fan, coming to Atlanta in the late 1980s. He found a way to transition from rock to sports and survived an impressively long period of time.
Schrutt said the station treated Rude well, even when he suffered throat cancer in 2010.
Jamie Dukes, who worked with Rude from 2002 to 2005 on the Rude Awakening, said it appears dikkey wanted the 790/The Zone morning show on 680. (Steak Shapiro is on from 9 to noon so it’s more like two-thirds of the Zone morning show.)
“Everyone ages out of the system,” said Dukes, who worked for three years at 92.9/The Game as well. “All three are great broadcasters, good friends of mine. I can see why David would make that turn because Chris and Nick are so comfortable together. There’s the economics, too. I know Rude was the highest paid guy over there. There’s a multitude of factors. One thing I do know: David dikkey is a brilliant guy. He’s doing what’s in the best interests of the station.”
Dukes said Rude was his mentor as a broadcaster. “He’s a brilliant man. He taught me everything from how to endorse a client to timing to humor to when to interject.”
AVXL
Laughing at you n*ggaz like “ha ha ha”
Rude was kinda unnecessary on his own show besides a little comic relief. I like Rude because he played devils advocate but he didn't really move the conversation forward. Nick & Chris are more than enough for the morning