BREAKING NEWS: Live 105.3 Fires Russ Martin, Changes Name, Plays College Fight Songs

If you're a fan of Ben & Skin and you, like me, are wondering WTF?, I've got some clues about Live 105.3 FM going all college fight song this afternoon. Apparently it's called "stunting", a traditional radio ploy used by stations in advance of a major programming change. In other words,...

By Richie Whitt

December 8, 2008

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If you're a fan of Ben & Skin and you, like me, are wondering WTF?, I've got some clues about Live 105.3 FM going all college fight song this afternoon.

Apparently it's called "stunting", a traditional radio ploy used by stations in advance of a major programming change. In other words, as predicted, Live 105.3 is about to jump into the sports talk radio game as the re-named and re-formatted, "The Fan".

(Update: B&S will be on the air at 3 to expound on all this.)

Details are flying in as I type. None of it yet confirmed by the station, but several radio sources are telling me that indeed:

Russ Martin has been fired.

If you're a devout listener you sorta heard this coming. The station recently changed its logo to include "Live Sports" and in recent weeks aired live pro and college football games, including both the SEC and Big 12 Conference Championship Games last Saturday.

The switch to sports - which I hear will also mean the dumping of the 7-10 p.m. Tom Leykis show and the creation of at least two new sports shows - paves the way for parent company CBS to use Live 105.3 as its 100,000-watt, strong-signaled bargaining chip when it attempts to steal the Dallas Cowboys away from The Ticket after this season.

Stay tuned. - Richie Whitt

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