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The #1 Morning Man In Detroit Is Taking On A New Shift At WJR
I know we have some Windsor, London and Detroit members here who certainly know the name Paul W. Smith. He's been the morning voice of giant WJR-AM since 1996 and leads the ratings in the city.
But on June 20th, that ends for good, as he moves from his old 6-9AM slot to noon-2PM on the "Great Voice of the Great Lakes." Smith has been with WJR for 27 years and has been doing mornings since Motown legend J.P. McCarthy passed away.
But he never liked getting up early for his shift and now he won't have to. The move means he'll be staying with the station, agreeing to a five-year contract extension. His show has been #1 in its timeslot since he started and this is a big change at the legendary 50K outlet.
Current afternoon host Guy Gordon will move to mornings.
WJR is shaking up its lineup, and Paul W. Smith is impacted
- RadioAaron
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Re: The #1 Morning Man In Detroit Is Taking On A New Shift At WJR
Not sure where this "#1" comes from. Nowhere even close. If he were #1 they wouldn't be shuffling him into the broom closet.
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Re: The #1 Morning Man In Detroit Is Taking On A New Shift At WJR
RadioAaron wrote:
Not sure where this "#1" comes from. Nowhere even close. If he were #1 they wouldn't be shuffling him into the broom closet.
From Wikipedia, for whatever it's worth:
"Smith has hosted the current program on WJR since 1996, taking over following the death of the legendary J.P. McCarthy. His morning show has been consistently rated as the number-one radio program in metro Detroit."
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Re: The #1 Morning Man In Detroit Is Taking On A New Shift At WJR
According to an interview he gave WDIV-TV, Smith insists the idea for the change was his, and that he's simply getting older and tired of having to be up at 4 AM every morning. I get the impression from what he says in the interview (although he doesn't explicitly state it) that it was either this or consider retirement.
Interesting that he does the show from his home studio. Looks like a nice comfy set-up, so at least getting up at 4 AM doesn't involve much travel - except maybe downstairs!
WJR’s Paul W. Smith chats about his new show timeslot after working mornings for 27 years
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