WGST-AM Goes Local In Drive Time

640 WGST-AM (Atlanta), which has been going all syndicated talk on weekdays the past 15 months, is bringing back local talk radio to both mornings and late afternoons Monday through Friday starting tomorrow.

Rob Johnson

Rodney Ho at ajc.com reports, Rob Johnson, a talk show host from Modesto, has arrived in Atlanta and is scheduled to start his live, local show in the mornings. He was last on KMPH-AM/840 in Modesto. Based on Arbitron measurements, Modesto is the 113th largest market in the United States with 426,000 people ages 12 and up in the area.

Rusty Humphries, a producer for Steve & Vikki on Altanta's Star 94 back in the 1990s, became a popular syndicated talk show host with nearly 300 affiliates. He will be coming to Atlanta from Oregon to do his show from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. starting tomorrow. He will continue to syndicate his 9 p.m to midnight show.

“Some talkers are the iron men of the business,” said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers magazine, which tracks the talk radio world. “He’s one of them.”



Rusty Humphries

 Harrison is a fan. He said Humphries has “paid a lot of dues. He lost his wife. His father died in Vietnam. He became very overweight, then lost 100 pounds and now runs marathons. He’s done some very exciting overseas broadcasts from war zones. He’s risked his life interviewing terrorists in their terrorist camps in the Middle East.  Atlanta is going to be getting a pretty colorful guy.”

He’s conservative, Harrison added, but not angry. “He’s a creative, fun guy,” he said.

Talkers estimates that he has more than 2.75 million listeners and is in the top 20 among most popular talk show hosts in the country.

Humphries, in an interview Thursday, told Ho he is well aware of GST’s woes over the years. “There’s a definite signal problem,” he said. “Some very smart, good radio broadcasters have had tough times there. I’m not coming in expecting to be the savior. But I still believe in talk radio.”

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