Just three months after joining Streetz 94.5 as an afternoon host, Mz Shyneka is being promoted to mornings, joining Yung Joc on the Morning Takeover.
“My initial thought was we were doing so well in mornings, we didn’t want to rock the boat,” said Steve Hegwood, who owns the hip-hop station. “But this is such a competitive market. I can’t believe there are seven urban morning shows. We think this is the strongest combination of our staff. It’s like a basketball team. Joc and Mz Shyneka gives us the best one-two punch.”
The revamped morning show starts Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Mz Shyneka, whose real name is Shyneka Richardson, worked at Hot 107.9 for about 20 years, mostly in afternoons. Hot laid her off last April. She said on social media that she was a victim of pandemic-related cutbacks at Urban One Atlanta, which owns Hot.
Streetz “got to see how strong my brand was with me being on by myself,” she said in a text.
Yung Joc — who had no radio experience at the time but was a popular figure on “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” and had several hip-hop hits under his belt — joined the morning show four years ago. Hegwood had lost the syndicated Breakfast Club to the then-new station 96.7/The Beat, which is now also on 105.3, and took a chance on Joc and Mo Quick.
The Morning Takeover, which went into syndication a year ago and also features stand-up comic Shawty Shawty, ended up doing very well among his target demographic of 18 to 34-year-olds and is now often in the top five in that demo on Streetz despite a signal that isn’t quite as strong as many as his rival stations.
Hegwood made some other moves as well. Su Solo, who replaced Mo Quick a year ago, will be moved from mornings to afternoons from 2-6 p.m., joining Ferrari Simmons, who was doing nights.
Fly Guy DC will stay at night from 6-10 p.m., and Jazzy McBee remains in middays.
Streetz is opting for this change as other stations in the market targeting Black listeners have been making moves as well.
And Headkrack’s new Atlanta-based syndicated morning show this month replaced Rickey Smiley’s morning show on Hot 107.9. Smiley has since moved to Classix 102.9, which got rid of Russ Parr’s syndicated show. (Headkrack used to be part of Smiley’s show.)
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