Monica Pearson, since she retired as a TV anchor from Channel 2 Action News after 37 years in 2012, has dabbled in radio, subbing in at R&B stations Kiss 104.1 and Majic 107.5/97.5 a few times.
She is now going to do a regular radio show on Kiss from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday starting January 12, 2014.
UPDATE: 1/9/13, 11:16 a.m. I just spoke with Monica about what she hopes to do on her show. "I don't want this to be pigeonholed as any one type of show," she said. "I am trying to do something that shows another side of me that is fun but also entertaining. It's information without being public service programming."
The first topic on Sunday: a talk with an OB-GYN doctor. She'll take questions from folks about women's bodies and sexuality. The week after, she plans to do something related to Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. In other words, it will be a different topic each week, a blend of what an R&B music show and a talk show. "I will be expressing my opinions, which may upset some people. But I've reached an age where I don't care!"
She would like to eventually do a longer show but a two-hour program, she said, is a great way to break into this side of entertainment.
UPDATE #2: 1:13 p.m. Sunday, January 12: She is playing songs themed to love such as Whitney Houston's "You Give Good Love," Al Green's "Love and Happiness," Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up" and Tamar Braxton's "The One." In the segments I caught, she talked about hysterectomies and sex toys. When her former WSB-TV colleague John Bachman called in to say hi, Pearson asked a question for him: could Bachman increase the chances of getting a boy vs. a girl (since he has three girls.). Not really, the guest doctor she with her said.
Tony Kidd, Cox Media Group Atlanta Radio vice president of programming, said Pearson had a real interest in radio. She had done some radio during high school in Louisville, Ky., reading prayers on a religious program and doing voice-over openings for a deejay.
Kidd said he decided to give Pearson an open mic to "do what she does best." She'll tell stories, air some interviews and play music, some on the Kiss playlist, some her personal R&B favorites. In other words, she's being given more freedom than your typical radio host.
Last August, she told me radio was definitely on her radar and tries to stay current on pop culture. "I still watch '106 & Park,' " she said. She expressed a love for Usher and Mary J. Blige.
"This is an opportunity for people to see me in a different light," Pearson said in a press release. "After all, I consider myself the Madonna of broadcasting ̶ always changing."
Kiss 104.1 and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution are both part of Cox Media Group.
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