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Georgia has its first “Dancing With the Stars” winner in Hines Ward, the second NFL player to win the mirror-trophy ball after Emmitt Smith.

“Starting this competition, I never thought I’d be in the finals,” Ward told host Tom Bergeron. The class act he is, he then thanked his dance partner Kym Johnson, the judges and fans.

While Pittsburgh held a big party for him, he also thanked the Bulldog Nation, too.

Ward may not have been as technically good a dancer as third-place finisher Chelsea Kane, but he combined heart, skill and determination into an unbeatable combo. His judges’ scores over two nights tied Chelsea with 89 out of 90. Runner-up Kirstie Alley had lower scores. Her fans helped her leapfrog Kane but not enough to beat Ward.

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By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV …

Continue reading Did Hines Ward win ‘Dancing With the Stars’? »

Producer Jake Cook sent me a link to a story that said Rusty Humphries, heard locally from 3 to 6 p.m., was detained in Egypt for reasons unknown.

Humphries is spending the week in the Mideast, including Jerusalem. Cook wrote me this:

Last I spoke to him, Rusty said that he and news anchor Jennifer Perry were headed to the Southern Israeli city of Eilat. Yesterday, he talked about crossing the border into Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to speak with some citizens of those countries.

He’s supposed to be doing his broadcast live from Jerusalem tomorrow afternoon at 3pm.

It sounds like Humphries was not supposed to be in Egypt!

UPDATE Wednesday, May 25, 4 p.m. EST: UPDATE (Wednesday, May 25, 4:09 p.m.) from Jake:

He made it back to Jerusalem and is broadcasting now until 6pm.

He told the story on the air. They were detained just over the border, interrogated for an hour and a half, forced to delete some digital pictures and audio, then eventually released.

He moved from Oregon …

Continue reading WGST’s Rusty Humphries detained in Egypt »

Clearly, when Project 9-6-1 ousted Klinger and Shaffee last week, they had a replacement in mind: Kidd Chris, a morning personality who contributes regularly to the Sirius’ Howard Stern morning show.

Chris (whose real name is Chris Foley) announced he had gotten the gig this morning on the Stern show today. Project 9-6-1’s program director and afternoon host Chris Williams tried to mess with mind moments ago on the phone by saying he, Chris Williams, was no longer at the station (and believe me, it takes very little to mess with my mind) but then said a press release is forthcoming.  He then sent me this finely detailed “press release” a few moments later:

Kidd Chris is coming to Project 9-6-1 Tuesday Morning at 7:30 a.m. xoxoxo Chris

7:30 a.m.? Just sent him a follow-up asking why so late.

Kidd Chris was last on a Portland rock station from 2009 until March of 2011 when his station changed format and he lost his job. He has been doing an Internet show since then.

Currently, …

Continue reading Howard Stern contributor Kidd Chris joining Project 9-6-1 »

Continue reading Video: pondering ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ ‘DWTS,’ ‘Idol’ »

Hines Ward doesn’t have the lithe physique of most dancers. But the Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver and University of Georgia graduate has spent the past three months commanding the “Dancing With the Stars” stage, whether it’s his slinky tango, sexy salsa or infectious jive.

His winning smile, sweet personality and no-holds-barred competitive spirit has helped him land in the finals of the popular ABC show.

Last week, the Atlanta resident answered a few emailed questions of mine in between rehearsals for this week’s finals.

Has this experience been what you expected?

I really didn’t know what to expect when I first signed up for this. I mean I had never danced before in my life and looking back on this experience I still can’t believe that I did all those dances and that I made it to the finals. My goal was to just not be the first one to be voted off. Now to be still standing while watching other great competitors go one by one, it’s a miracle. This show has been amazing …

Continue reading Hines Ward still doesn’t see himself as a dancer »

Cindy Simmons. CREDIT: Star 94

Star 94 morning host Cindy Simmons has had a rough year after recovering from breast cancer. But she had a big announcement this morning: her boyfriend Eric gave her an engagement ring this past weekend, two years after their first date.

“I’m just glad to have some good news,” she said on the air today. “I’m really happy. I can’t stop smiling!”

“He’s such a good man,” she added. “I didn’t sleep at all. I’m so tired and I don’t care. I just want to run laps around the building.”

He had Maggiano’s food set up on a table at a park in Brookhaven, gave Cindy’s five-year-old daughter Lily a gold cross necklace, then presented Cindy the big gift.

They are tentatively planning a wedding between Thanksgiving and Christmas later this year.

Simmons, 39, divorced a few years back so this would be her second marriage. Eric has never married.

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By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV …

Continue reading Star 94’s Cindy Simmons engaged to get married »

The "Idol" top 2 Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery. CREDIT: Fox

Three more days and the old-school broadcast network season is “over.” That means the season conclusions for several shows, including NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” Fox’s “Glee” and ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” on Tuesday and Fox’s “American Idol” on Wednesday.

ABC’s “The Bachelorette” Monday and Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” Thursday start their summer runs this week, too.

And bid farewell forever to Fox’s “The Chicago Code” Monday, NBC’s “Law & Order: Los Angeles” Thursday and CBS”s “Criminal Minds: Suspicious Behavior” Wednesday as well.

MONDAY

“Dancing With the Stars” 8 p.m. ABC — The final three vie for the mirror-ball trophy. UGA grad Hines Ward still has a shot!
“House” 8 p.m. Fox (seventh season finale) — An eighth season is coming but word is it may be the last. Is a performance artist actually sick or doing something for art’s sake?
“The Bachelorette” 9 p.m. ABC (seventh season …

Continue reading TV best bets with season finales of ‘American Idol,’ ‘The Biggest Loser,’ ‘Dancing With the Stars’ »

John Rich CREDIT: NBC

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John Rich, the Nashville country producer and singer, lassoed the fourth season of “Celebrity Apprentice” with hard work, focus and leadership.

Donald Trump picked Rich over deaf Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin.

In the end, Rich raised more than $1 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Both played the game smart. Matlin raised $1 million on one challenge, more than anybody ever has, for the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Rich focused not just on raising money but coming up with creative ideas and winning two challenges for his charity as project manager before the finale.

Rich in that last challenge seemed to have his act together consistently in terms of leadership skills vs. Marlee. But Marlee’s presentation went off with virtually no hitches. Rich started his Def Leppard presentation 20 minutes early. Awkward! He filled …

Continue reading Who won ‘Celebrity Apprentice’? Marlee Matlin or John Rich? »

Klinger. CREDIT: Rodney Ho

Shaffee and Klinger were only together for a few months, but Project 9-6-1 decided to dump them. The morning show appears to be gone. They are no longer on the rock station’s website.

I’ve texted messaged both Klinger and Chris Williams, the program director, for possible explanation and will update if I get them. (My computer with Shaffee’s number on it is down with some malware problem so I’m using my wife’s computer. I’ll try to track him down once I get this fixed.)

Project’s morning numbers have generally lagged behind the rest of the station. The station, which morphed in late 2006 from being called 96rock and is now what is known in the business as an “active rock” station, created its first morning show back in the fall of 2007 with Giant Brian Carothers and Shaffee. Carothers lasted two years. Shaffee paired with El Jefe for a year before Klinger came along from Florida.

The station overall is doing well, landing at No. 4 last month among 18 …

Continue reading Project 9-6-1 dumps morning show of Shaffee and Klinger »

Rob Redding

Rush Limbaugh is the king of talk radio, with 20 million weekly listeners. WAOK’s night-time host Rob Redding isn’t normally on his radar screen.

But Redding managed to do so after interviewing Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Redding asked Steele about a skit in which a Limbaugh staffer “reintepreted” his criticism of Pres. Obama’s immigration speech in Ebonics. You can listen to it here:

“I thought it was highly inappropriate,” Steele told Redding. “It is stupid. It’s not something that furthers the conversation.”

When Limbaugh heard about this, he got a wee upset.

The full transcript is here.

In what may be a first, we have a formal complaint lodged against the Official Obama Criticizer, Bo Snerdley. Bo Snerdley was recently utilized on this program last week as the Official Obama Criticizer, and it was as though it had happened for the first time. Now, we’ve been featuring the Official Obama Criticizer for close to a …

Continue reading WAOK’s Rob Redding gets Rush Limbaugh’s attention »