iHeartMedia Toledo management announced Wednesday that it was replacing its top-rated drive-time Morning Rush show on WVKS-FM, 92.5 (KISS-FM) with Detroit’s Mojo in the Morning on WKQI-FM, 95.5.
Mojo in the Morning, featuring on-air personalities Mojo, Spike, and Shannon, debuts on WVKS on June 19 and will continue to broadcast live from 5 to 10 a.m. from its Detroit studio.
Only Meaghan Mick, part of the Morning Rush crew along with Eric Chase and Demetrius Nicodemus, will join the Mojo team to provide local news and entertainment, as well as commentary with a humorous bent.
“We always do our best to ensure that we’re meeting our listeners’ needs and providing them with the best and most relevant content,” said Scott Sands, senior vice president of programming for iHeartMedia Toledo. “Occasionally, this means that we need to make some changes and offer other programming. Mojo in the Morning continues to be the leading morning show in Detroit with a very passionate and loyal fan base, and we believe it will resonate well with our Toledo listeners.”
Sands said that Phillipe Taylor and Ijonte Hall from the Morning Rush “will continue with our stations in various capacities, and that Mick ”will also continue to host her midday country show on 103.7 [W]CKY.”
Chase and Nicodemus, however, are no longer part of WVKS as of Wednesday. “We appreciate all of their contributions during their time with us and wish them well.”
In the first month of local radio’s spring ratings book from Nielsen Co., The Morning Rush was No. 1 in the all-important 25-54 demographic. Their final broadcast was Wednesday morning. On Thursday morning, WVKS broadcast all-music, no-talk in their absence.
The abrupt change caught Denise Morrow off guard. The 43-year-old Toledoan has listened to The Morning Rush show since she moved back to the city seven years ago.
“I always have my bathroom radio dial set to it,” Morrow said. “I liked the dynamic within the group. They’re not all the same, they definitely had different points of views, and I liked hearing the different perspectives as well as the listeners calling in.”
But she won’t be tuning in to Mojo in the Morning.
“They’re not from here and Mojo in the Morning does not participate in local things that are going on,” Morrow said. The show’s hosts are “not your neighbors, they don't know what’s going on in Toledo. They’re not doing advertising with our local businesses that we’ve become familiar with.
“And quite honestly, those are local jobs that were supported by this community.”
Contact Kirk Baird at kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.
First Published June 9, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
