Veteran talk show host Kim “The Kimmer” Peterson is returning to Atlanta radio full time with a new weekday afternoon show on Xtra 106.3/1230 AM starting June 5.
“The Kimmer is a radio veteran,” said David Dickey, who started the talk station two years ago with mostly syndicated product and a local morning show. “He knows what he’s doing.”
The Kimmer previously worked news at WSB radio but his biggest impact came as a popular afternoon talk-show host on WGST-AM from 1992 to 2006 until that format was dumped. He retired for many years but came back in 2013 on All News 106.7, which eventually became Talk 106.7. He lasted six years until Cumulus sold 106.7 to a Christian broadcaster who turned it into a Christian pop station.
Dickey’s current Xtra’s morning show features Tug Cowart, Scott “Rhino” Rheinhold and Carlos Medina. The show will add an hour June 5 and go from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.
“We continue to slowly make strategic moves and investment to build out and localize the brand,” Dickey said. “This is the beauty of being local and private. We aren’t answering to Wall Street or shareholders.”
The Kimmer has been providing free weekly commentary on the morning show in recent months and does his own podcast. For a time, Xtra was airing an hour of his podcasts on Saturdays.
But he was surprised and happy that Dickey wanted him full time again. And Dickey was fine with his producer Flounder and sidekick Pete Davis joining him from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
“I never thought in a million years I’d be back doing this again,” the Kimmer said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I do need the money. There are no Rembrandts in my basement. But this should be fun. I know who I am and where I’ve been.”
The U.S. Marine veteran said he has committed for at least six months with Xtra to see how it goes.
“I’m 77 years old and I read at an 80-year-old level,” he said. “So give me a little respect, pal!”
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