Atlanta Radio: 680 The Fan Inks Deal With Steak Shapiro

Steak Shapiro

Steak Shapiro has been hired by Dickey Broadcasting as co-host of The Front Row on sports WCNN 680 AM The Fan.  He replaces Ray Mariner; however, co-hosts Sandra Golden and Brian Finneran remain.

He starts January 2 for 9am to 12noon.

Shapiro was fired from The Fan’s ‘Mayhem In The A.M.’ morning show at crosstown Sports WQXI 790 The Zone earlier in 2013 for a comedy bit making fun of former New Orlando Saints play Steve Gleason.  Gleason also suffers from ALS. His co-host at The Zone, Chris Dimino, is also at The Fan.

680/The Fan's president and GM David Dickey wrote, “I am excited to have Steak back on the Fan.  He is one of the best-known and most-talented sports personalities in the country.  Steak will become an important part of what is already the region’s biggest and most-experienced sports-talk line-up."

Media blogger Rodney Ho at accessatlanta.com believes Shapiro should be able to bring in sponsorship dollars for the Fan, which is now competing heavily with year old WZGC 92.9 FM The Game, the upstart with the bigger signal.

Shapiro had job offers from both 92.9 The Game and the Fan. In an exclusive interview, Shapiro declined to address the Game's offer but said the Fan's deal was appealing to him for several reasons.

Indeed, he was thrilled that Dickey was supportive of him growing his Atlanta Eats operation, which includes a TV show, a radio show and a digital presence. Plus, he has a production company and is working on a prime-time series for the Food Network, according to Ho.

"They want me to be the biggest star I can be as possible," Shapiro said. Plus, he can cross-promote Atlanta Eats on other stations in the same building including All News 106.7, the Bert Show over at Q100 and the Regular Guys at Rock 100.5.  Cumulus also owns magazines that could use Atlanta Eats content such as Jezebel. (The Fan is owned by Dickey Broadcasting, which has some common ownership with Cumulus Media, which runs hundreds of radio stations including All News, Q100 and Rock 100.5)

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