Atlanta Radio: Morning Host Scotty K OUT At WWPW

Scotty Kay

Top 40 WWPW Power 96.1 AM, on the heels of its best month ever in ratings since its launch in 2012, has dumped its two-year-old morning show featuring Scotty K and Riley Couture, along with producer Bret Mega. Couture will stay on in some different configuration for now.

But, according to Rodney Ho at The Atlanta Constitution, why is a different story. He's been covering radio in this market for 15 years and there has been a fair share of head-scratching moves. This one qualifies as one – at least from Ho's purview. The only semi-logical theory is Power will focus on music in the mornings in response to changes at other pop stations in town, including the pending arrival of Jeff Dauler and Jenn Hobby on Star 94 March 3.

Schaflander confirmed that Riley is staying with the station in mornings for now but didn’t confirm whether she will be there long term. (She was on by herself Friday and didn’t reference Scotty K at all because IHeartMedia tends to do it that way.)

Power as a whole is on a roll. Its audience has been growing steadily the past two years and last month, it beat B98.5 and Q100 in overall audience, finishing fourth with a 5.7 share, its strongest performance to date. It almost beat Q100 25-54 and won 18-34 handily among the four pop stations with a 7.8 share.

And the morning show – which has been very aggressive on social media targeting millennials – has been a key to its success. The show finished fifth place last month overall, according to Nielsen Audio ratings data. Among 18 to 34 year olds, Scotty K and Riley finished second with an 8.5 share behind only the Bert Show on Q100 (9.7), beating Ryan Cameron and Wanda Smith on V-103 (8.2) and Rickey Smiley on Hot 107.9 (7.4).