Star 94 does its latest shuffle, with afternoon show Cindy & Ray moving to mornings today. The syndicated Ryan Seacrest show, which had been airing from noon to 3 p.m. for a few weeks will now move to Cindy & Ray’s former slot. With Tripp West gone, who will replace him in the mid-day slot is up in the air.

The first interviews are at 6:40 a.m. with a gal Deanna Hamilton who received $80,000 instead of $8 on her debit card from East Andrews from a bartender named Danny. She gave it right back so the bar gave her a big thank you party last Friday. Danny came into the studio wearing a T-shirt, “80 Grand Dan.”

Part of the incentive for listeners: the show is giving away $1,000 by calling out someone’s name and they have to call back. (Not coincidentally, rivals the Bert Show over on Q100 is doing its own very similar $1,000 giveaway.)

I missed the 5:30 a.m. opener, catching the show at 5:40 a.m. and listened until 7:40 a.m. The pair don’t really reference the move from that …

Continue reading 3/23: Cindy & Ray debut today on Star 94, Ryan Seacrest moves to late afternoon slot »

The men finally won a challenge and Donald Trump fired the female team’s manager Claudia Jordan. Claudia who? She’s some model who opened suitcases on “Deal or No Deal.” (NBC synergy!)

The result: former NBA star Dennis Rodman remains another week. You can see why the producers…errr..Trump kept him around last week despite the fact he’s surly, unproductive and unpredictable.

Early on in episode four, Rodman got angry with country singer Clint Black, who criticized his inability to be a team player. Then he cursed Black out and walked out. Reality show gold!

“Notice he got in the face of the smallest guy,” Jesse James said later to Black.

“I’m tired of holding his hand,” said project manager Brian McKnight. “There’s nothing we can do to rein him in.”

“I almost got on a chair and decked him,” the diminutive Black joked.

Oh, yah. There was a challenge: launching a cel phone. McKnight (”This isn’t a democracy. This is a dictatorship”) led the task. He created the music and sang. …

Continue reading 3/23: Morning Mash with Celebrity Apprentice recap, Obama/Leno ratings, Wes Moss »

Sigh… I thought I could get through this week without writing about Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” But these women can’t help themselves.

Kim Zolciak was supposed to make a “special appearance” at an event Saturday in which attendees donate gently used shoes for a charity she started to help battered women. But Zolciak reneged, flying to the Bahamas this morning instead.

“Kim has gone out of town for some mental R&R,” said Cori Davenport, her good friend and co-founder of Shoes for Shattered Hearts, which she and Zolciak started last year. “She’s going to make it up to Monkee’s,” the shoe store hosting the event.

At 2 p.m. EST, I called the hotel where Zolciak is staying in the Bahamas and got a confirmation from the front desk that she was there. As of Friday afternoon, Zolciak had not directly contacted Jaci Shiendling, who came up with the idea and is organizing the event, about her change of schedule. This is the foundation’s first official event.

“It’s a …

Continue reading 3/20: Kim Zolciak is skipping out on a charity event – for her own charity »

A recent CBS poll has Rush Limbaugh at a 19 percent favorability rating, though 47% of Republicans like him. Overall, 40 percent gave him an unfavorable rating. 41 percent were noncommittal.

-I’m interviewing Jimmy Fallon Saturday. The new talk show host is in Atlanta to host an Alliance Theatre fundraising gala that evening. Is there anything you’d like me to ask him? Email me at rho@ajc.com.

-I finally got a hold of Rick Caffey, who oversees WAOK-AM, and the deal with Al Sharpton and Warren Ballentine has not been finalized yet. He said to check in again Monday. I’m sure the fact they dumped Rob Wilson and Rick Joyner already means it’s just a question of ironing out the contractual details.

-Obama disrupting the TV schedules AGAIN is annoying the broadcast networks, who lose millions of dollars each time he does it and disrupts viewing patterns.

-Carolyn Hennesy, author and star on “General Hospital,” is touring through Atlanta to celebrate the release of the third …

Continue reading 3/20: Morning Mash with Warren Ballentine & Al Sharpton update, Jimmy Fallon, Rush Limbaugh »

CREDIT: Gerald Herbert/AP

For the first time ever, a sitting president sat down for an interview on a late-night chat show: “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”

Leno was not expected to be terribly tough on Barack Obama and he wasn’t. The conversation was congenial on both sides. This was not exactly Jim Cramer-Jon Stewart.

“I think Kevin [Eubanks] looks good in a suit,” Obama said as opener. “He could be Secret Service.”

He mused about how limiting it can be being President in terms of where he can do, what he can do, how big his motorcade is (”the caboose, the dogsled, the submarine.”). Leno opened with his first semi-serious question and it was a softball: “So much scrutiny. Is it fair to judge so quickly?”

“We are going through a difficult time,” Obama said. “I welcome the challenge. I ran for President because I know we needed big changes. I do think in Washington, it’s a little bit like ‘American Idol.’ Except everyone is Simon Cowell… that’s what makes this a …

Continue reading 3/20: Pres. Obama on Jay Leno »

Linda Wertheimer at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens March 17 for WABE-FM. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Linda Wertheimer, the veteran NPR correspondent heard locally on 90.1/WABE-FM, came into town Tuesday evening for a special event with sponsors and donors at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. She was stately and low key, just what you expect from an NPR journalist. General Manager John Weatherford brought her in to help herald the arrival of Denis O’Hayer as the new afternoon news guy and the noon show called City Cafe, which started last month with quirky feature stories amid classical music.

An admiring crowd nibbling on shrimp po’boys and sipping white wine mingled with Wertheimer, afternoon host John Lemley and O’Hayer, who recently joined WABE-FM from WXIA-TV.

Continue reading 3/19: Morning Mash with NPR’s Linda Wertheimer in Atlanta for WABE-FM, minority representation on TV »

I’ve been working on other stuff today so here I am, so late that it’s now afternoon mash time:

-I spoke with Rob Wilson, who was cut earlier this week after more than seven years doing a financial show for WAOK-AM. He chalked up his departure (and that of short-timer Rick Joyner) purely “to the bottom line.”

“This station is not productive,” he said. “Revenue is down.”

He’s disappointed he can no longer educate the African-American community on financial literacy, especially during this time of economic crisis. But he’s not harboring bitterness. “I had seven fortunate years,” he said. “And it was more of a blessing for me than they realized.” He said he will continue to do workshops and financial literacy conferences.

I’m still awaiting a callback from his boss Rick Caffey to confirm that Warren Ballentine and Al Sharpton are replacing him and Joyner.

-Carol Blackmon is currently subbing in mid-days on the new Majic 107.5. Tim Davies, her boss, said she is doing that …

Continue reading 3/18: Afternoon Mash with Rob Wilson post WAOK-AM, new mid-day host soon on Majic 107.5 »

The film “I Love You Man” comes out Friday starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, who plays Marshall on “How I Met Your Mother.” I interviewed him, mostly focusing on the film. But I asked him a couple of TV-related questions:

Q: How’s it going with [former Atlantan] Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders [on “How I Met Your Mother”] and their simultaneous pregnancies?
A: They’re both so happy and so excited. Alyson is done for the season. We shot a bunch of stuff for her in advance.
Q: How are some ways they’re hiding their stomachs?
A: They’ve been hiding my stomach for four seasons. They’re used to it!
Q: How long before your character Marshall and Lily actually have kids?
A: I don’t know. It’s very interesting they haven’t written it in thus far. They’ll probably put it off as long as they can. It gets tricky having a kid on a show. Kids are only allowed to work for a certain number of hours and slows everything.

Here’s a trailer to the film, which was pretty funny. And if you …

Continue reading 3/17: Morning Mash with Jason Segel interview, Warren Ballentine & Al Sharpton on WAOK-AM, SciFi Channel changing name »

This looked like a challenge tailor made for the women: selling wedding dresses. Sure, Dennis Rodman has worn a wedding dress but that didn’t mean he was much help. In fact, he claimed sickness and didn’t even show up for the challenge.

The men didn’t decorate their store very well. The women did. UGA alum Herschel Walker helped the team raise $63K. His thoughts on team leader Tom Green: “I would not put him on my A team.” The women sold $103,000 worth of dresses. Killed the guys — again. Jesse and Brian both said Tom and Dennis should be cut. In the end, Donald Trump dropped Tom for a poor performance. Somehow, Dennis survived — surely, for entertainment purposes. And the promos show him going a bit Hulk-like next week.

And for the third week in a row, Atlanta’s Tionne “T Boz” Watkins was a complete non entity.

-Self cross promotion alert: I do a weekly TV tips story. It’s over here, in case you missed it..

-I am doing a “Whatever happened to Bill Tush” item and went to …

Continue reading 3/16: Monday Morning Mash with Celebrity Apprentice recap, Jeff Foxworthy, Steve Barnes, Don Imus, Ludlow Porch »

Here’s the summer schedule NBC plans with debut dates with my comments. What’ unusual is the schedule includes three scripted dramas. Scripted shows in the summer in recent years have tended to tank on broadcast TV though cable has had more luck (e.g. “Burn Notice” on USA Network.)

Much of this maneuvering has been done to help Conan O’Brien, who takes over June 1 at 11:35 p.m. on “The Tonight Show.” The season finale of “Medium” will air at 10 p.m. on the day of Conan’s debut. The last episode of the year for “Law & Order: SVU” will air the next day. And the last original episode from original “Law & Order” will air Wednesday.

June 1: I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! at 8p (They’re bringing THIS back? Scary!)
June 4: The Listener at 10p (We have the Mentalist on CBS. We have extra observant obsessive compulsive Monk on USA Network. We have a dude who can discern liars in Fox’s “Lie to Me.” We have a gal who sees premonitions in dreams in “Medium.” Now we have a …

Continue reading 3/13: Weekend Mash with NBC summer sked, George Clooney on “E.R.,” Rene Miller, Zone promotion, Brett Martin »