A social media backlash has led to a quick morning change at Cumulus AAA KFOG San Francisco.
Melanie Walker and Tony Longo who debuted along with Greg Gory on May 29 have both been replaced by “98.5/102.1 K-Fox” KUFX/KUZX middayer Tim Jeffreys. Gory will remain in the reconstituted morning alignment.
Longo, who received the bulk of the outrage for being a former “shock jock”, was known as “Twitch” at his previous stations. He will return to Cumulus’ “Z-Rock 103” WXZZ Lexington, KY where he was hosting mornings prior to moving to KFOG.
INSTANT INSIGHT: Two weeks is nowhere enough time for a morning show to find its legs. However, for a station to see that much backlash that quickly and respond to it shows it is listening to their audience. AAA is a different beast than most formats. The core audience has as much influence over the direction a station like KFOG takes as much as the programmers and airstaff. In a market like San Francisco where people are more likely to become activists over what they deem to be right or wrong Cumulus was right to quickly squash a backlash similar to what happened when 810 KGO shifted to primarily All-News in December.