WSB Radio morning host Scott Slade announced today that he will be stepping down after 32 years at the post.
“This is my decision,” he said.
Slade doesn’t plan to entirely step away from the station but wasn’t specific about what he will do next. WSB, in a press release, said, “Slade plans to create something new for the 101-year-old station that reflects his passion for listeners and the community.”
“I look forward to sleeping in, spending more time with my family, taking up scuba diving and flying my plane,” he said.
WSB didn’t announce who his replacement is just yet.
“I’ve always considered him the smartest and most well-prepared man in the room,” said Mike McKay, long-time morning traffic reporter for WSB radio and occasional fill-in host for Slade.
Slade, 68, joined WSB in 1984 and took over mornings in 1991. He has been the longest-running morning host in Atlanta radio and helped keep WSB’s morning ratings consistently at or near the top over the past three-plus decades.
He was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame this year and was previously inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2008. He was also nominated for the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2019.
Slade, an Atlanta native and Georgia State University graduate, also launched the WSB Radio annual Care-a-Thon for the AFLAC Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in 2000, raising tens of millions of dollars to fight children’s cancer and blood disorders.
Mark Alewine, former overnight host at WSB who worked with him for 24 years, said Slade was a professional, low-key man with no discernible ego. “Despite his popularity and his celebrity,” Alewine said, “he never let it go to his head. He was always a very humble man who enjoyed passing along the success and accolades of the morning show to his colleagues at WSB... There will never be another Scott Slade.”
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