A report from Athlon Sports’ Richie Whitt says Dallas radio station 97.1 The Freak, which changed to a sports/hot talk format less than two years ago, will make a programming change due to low ratings. The report says an emergency meeting was held this morning with the staff and those present did not have positive feelings coming away from it.
One source told Whitt, “The staff is going to be let go,” while another said, “We all see the writing on the wall. It could all come down today.”
Whitt has now spoken with afternoon host Mike Rhyner and confirmed the 73-year-old and all other hosts have been let go. Speculation is the station will return to a rock format. Rhyner told Whitt, “…This thing didn’t end well, but I had a lot of fun along the way, and it rejuvenated me.”
97.1 The Freak launched on October 3, 2022, and Rhyner, a longtime host at Dallas sports radio station The Ticket was the first voice heard. Dallas has been a very successful market for sports stations and The Ticket was built on branching out outside of sports.
The Freak, owned by iHeartMedia, has been featuring a lineup of The Downbeat with Mike Sirois, Danny Balis and Kevin Turner from 6 a.m.-10 a.m. followed by The Ben and Skin Show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with Ben Rogers and Jeff ‘Skin’ Wade and The Speakeasy with Mike Rhyner, Jeff Cavanaugh and Julie Dobbs in afternoon drive.
The station is also home to the Dallas Mavericks who are getting set for Game 3 of their playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers later tonight.
Updated: The Ben & Skin show has posted the following message to their X account:
No formal announcements have been made by iHeartMedia. BSM will update this story as more information becomes available.
Good god was it awful. Way to completely kill off your rock audience, dirt channel.