Atlanta Radio: Morning Personality Moby Hangs-Up His Headphones

Moby during his final show

At his suburban Atlanta studio, Moby during his final show of his long radio career took dozens of farewell calls from fans wishing him good luck in retirement.

“I am surprised I am this far along on the show and haven’t felt emotional,” he told one of those callers at 9:12 a.m. “I feel good!”

According to Rodney Ho at ajc.com, Moby (real name: James Carney) played some of his parody songs from the past. His final song: a parody of a George Strait song “I Hate Everything” dubbed “I Ate Everything.” “Let’s end funny!” he said.

But the emotions eventually flooded in. At about 9:48 a.m., though, as his wife Mary Beth started tearing up, so did Moby. And he brought out the Kleenex in the final moments as he thanked his fans (“I’m grateful for all of you”) and said “Yeah baby!” one more time.

“I thank you for your allegiance and the loan of your ears the last several years,” he said. “May God be good to you and your family.”

Among the stations he was on before he retired after nearly five decades doing radio, he was heard on WTSH 107.1 FM in Rome GA, plus stations in Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas and Missouri.

For many, Moby is a distant memory from his Kicks 101.5 days, going back 14 years. But for the past 12 years, the Crossville, Tenn. native has been doing his own syndicated show that has been heard over the years in small towns all over America, including Rome and Athens. He decided recently that it was time to close shop.

He said when he lost WNGC-FM in Athens in 2015, the economics no longer worked. And it didn’t help when South 107.1 reduced its signal from 100,000 watts to 6,000, reducing his reach even more.


One philosophy he always followed: be provocative, be real, be himself. He was a larger-than-life figure and he wanted people to react strongly to him, be it devotion or hatred. That was the Howard Stern approach as well. When I asked him earlier in the morning what his last song might be, he said, Frank Sinatra‘s “My Way.” It’s not a strategy many radio personalities on music stations take anymore and it’s not what management embraces.