At 6:50 a.m. Friday in the Fish 104.7 studios on Peachtree Road in Buckhead, morning host Taylor Scott read a social media post by a former Atlanta radio host complimenting her and her co-host for spending the past month being grateful, not bitter, as the storied Christian pop station ended its nearly 25-year run on Atlanta FM airwaves.
Scott began choking up, her voice cracking: “We wanted to do our listeners right because you guys have been the best listeners in the whole world.”
Co-host Kevin Avery added: “They trusted us to say goodbye.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Indeed, Fish’s parent company, Salem Media, gave the staff of Fish 104.7 an entire month to say goodbye — with Friday being the final day for Atlanta’s first major FM commercial Christian pop station radio station. Over the years, the Fish garnered loyal listeners, strong ratings and happy advertisers.
But Salem was saddled with debt and decided to take the $80 million offer from a Franklin, Tennessee, nonprofit group, The Education Media Foundation, to buy its seven Fish music stations nationwide. Starting Saturday, 104.7 will become Air1, a syndicated worship music format out of Nashville.
“I never thought this would happen,” said Mike Blakemore, the station’s program director for 17 years. “Both their Dallas and Atlanta Fish stations were making a lot of money.”
Avery and Scott, the first two employees at Fish when the station went on air in October 2000, were thrilled they were able to give their listeners an extended send-off. This included a farewell party last Saturday that drew so many Fish fans at Mount Paran Church, the duo spent more than four hours sharing stories and taking photos.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
More than 40 Fish employees are going to be out of work come Monday. Many of them, along with alums, gathered Thursday night one more time at a favorite meeting spot, the aptly named Atlanta Fish Market.
“We had our first client kickoff event there in 2000,” said Allen Power, who hired Avery and Scott when the station launched. He is now president of Salem’s broadcast media division and attended the Thursday night party. “I told them that if someone were going to write a book about the history of Atlanta radio, the Fish would be a big chapter.”
He said when he hired Avery as program director and morning host, they talked about how Christian stations were perceived at the time to be less professional than secular stations. Salem aimed to change that with its Fish stations, seeking to match the quality of the sound, look and presentation of B98.5 and Star 94, two stations chasing the same 25-to-54 female demographic.
“I’m a man of faith,” Power said. “I can tell you there’s a spiritual component to the success of the Fish. But our goal was always to produce excellent radio every day.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
A testament to the station’s culture was the fact so many of its staff has been there 15 to 25 years. Parks Stamper, a midday host for the Fish for 21 years until she retired in 2022, flew in from Fort Myers Beach, Florida, just to attend the Atlanta Fish Market party.
Since the announcement Dec. 30, “we heard so much from listeners who felt like they were losing friends they had grown up with,” Stamper said. “The local presence of the Fish was real. We developed friendships with our listeners we’ll treasure forever. One of my listeners picked me up from the airport and took me to that party. We became true friends after a phone call I answered at the station.”
The elaborate farewell Salem gave the Fish is a relatively rare occurrence in the radio business. Once venerable Atlanta stations like 96 Rock and oldies Fox 97 ended their runs with zero fanfare and no on-air acknowledgment.
“I’ve been on five different radio stations in Atlanta and we didn’t get to say goodbye at any of them,” said Spiff Carner, part of the once popular Randy & Spiff morning show on now defunct ration stations Fox, Cool 105.7, Lite 94.9, 640/WGST and True Oldies 106.7.
Traditional radio has been buffeted by changing habits as more listeners opt for podcasts and streaming services for their music and audio entertainment. Roddy Freeman, a media buyer in Atlanta for more than 30 years, said digital advertising has taken a big bite out of radio revenue and large radio stations like Salem are weighed down by debt.
The Fish, he noted as a media buyer, “provided a unique means of reaching a somewhat exclusive, high quality audience.”
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Butch Miller, owner of Milton Martin Honda in Gainesville, called the Fish “the single best advertising vehicle I’ve ever used. They are genuinely nice people who are nice to others.” After his son died at age 14, he recalled standing in the vestibule of his church and seeing Scott show up.
“They are part of the fabric of this region,” Miller said. “When you pull a key thread like that, it leaves a major hole.”
On their final show on the Fish, Avery and Scott took calls from fans and friends including Scott’s best friend, Cindy Simmons, a former radio host on rival Star 94. They played one more joke from a kid via their daily segment “Junior Joker.” Scott did one more World of Food news segment.
Avery cried reading a letter from his kids. Scott talked about the sadness she felt not being able to bear children but how she found her life “so full and blessed despite it thanks to all my nieces and nephews.” She asked people who have run away from God to listen to the words of an inspirational song by Apollo LTD, “Soul Worth Saving.”
After a tearful on-air goodbye at 10 a.m., Avery hugged Scott and producer Griff Adkins, who has worked at the station since high school. “That was really hard,” Scott said.
Tom Sullivan, a former Star 94 host for 30 years and friends of Scott, said he spent all day Friday listening to the station and cried when he heard that 10 a.m. farewell. “When I was let go by Star, I wasn’t as upset as I am now,” he said. “The Fish touched my soul from the beginning. It’s like family member leaving me. It’s a void. And I loved when they changed to Christmas every year. It was so joyous.”
Even with the challenging media environment, Avery and Scott hope to stay together as a team somewhere else on radio, confident their brand could translate even on a different format like country or pop.
“Our show is really that versatile,” Avery said, noting their appeal is less about Bible verses and more about being authentic about their lives, whether it’s Avery’s sobriety from alcohol addiction or Scott’s love of food.
For now, they will enjoy the break before hunting for another home. On Monday, Avery said he won’t be waking up at 3 a.m. “My wife and I will have a Starbucks date, take advantage of the free refills and read all day,” he said.
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