Successfully launching a new morning show is probably the toughest thing to do in radio. Even if the audience didn’t like the old show, it’s incredibly difficult. If the audience liked or, even worse, loved the old show, the task becomes a much steeper mountain to climb.
That’s where the team at Cumulus’ Top 40 WWWQ/Atlanta found themselves when Bert Weiss, host of The Bert Show, retired after twenty-five years anchoring mornings on the station. His last show aired in October 2025.
Since then, the station has been playing music in the morning while assembling a new show capable of meeting the challenge. Almost exactly five months later, Joe Breezy, Daena “DK” Kramer, and Cort Freeman hit the air as the Q Morning Crew.
Collectively, the three bring a lot of radio experience to this new endeavor.
Breezy had recently been music director and afternoon host at Midwest Communications AC WJXA/Nashville and has been on the air in Atlanta before. Kramer has been off the air for some time but previously hosted mornings in Houston, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Freeman most recently served as a producer for Dave & Chuck the Freak in mornings at Beasley Rock WRIF/Detroit.
While that collective experience is helpful, it doesn’t guarantee success.
However, certain factors can push the odds in a new show’s favor, and this team has several—starting with motivation.
“A lot of morning shows I’ve seen, it’s the driver that has the motivation. Or it’s the producer that’s the hard worker,” says Kramer. “In this case, all three of us are working our asses off. There’s not one element of slack off to be had.”
Another early advantage the team has is strong chemistry, even though the trio had never worked together previously.
“When we initially met online for a vibe check, we hit it off instantly,” said Breezy. “It was like we knew each other for a million years. We had the same vision, sense of humor, and the same strategy about what we would do in this unique situation.”
Although they get along well, they are those little differences which provide contrast between personalities. Freeman believes that each talent assists the others with any topic providing a unique perspective for the listener.
While high marks for ambition and camaraderie are encouraging, successful shows also need a clear vision. For Kramer, that starts with understanding the demographics of the station’s target audience.
“Typically Top 40 stations are looking for a twenty-something female that goes to festivals and clubs,” Kramer says. “Now, almost all radio listening is thirty-plus. The Bert Show’s core was thirty to fifty year old women.”
For Breezy, the shared vision centers on hitting the right topics to engage the audience.
“We like to say our tagline is that we are the group chat that you actually want to be in. Because we are talking about things you are already discussing with your friends,” notes Breezy.
When the trio was formed, before hitting the airwaves in Atlanta there were demo sessions. Even though the program was apart in different locations around the country, they began holding Zoom calls where everyone came prepared with content.
“We would read through topics and news stories like we were on the air,” says Kramer. “Then we started practicing right away. We didn’t want to wait until everyone got in the building to do that. When we finally got together. we saw there was a big difference between being on Zoom and doing actual mock shows in a real studio. That’s when it felt like we were really cooking. We could fine tune what the dynamics were going to be.”
And while things were busy leading up to the launch—with photoshoots and videos to film—the team continued practicing.
“We still fit in at least two or three hours every day doing content together,” says Breezy. “Then we’d spend an hour or two after that with (Program Director Patrick Davis) discussing how it sounds.”
The team says Davis, along with Vice President/Market Manager Justin Schaflander and Chief Content Officer Brian Phillips, were instrumental in putting the show together and helping them reach this point.
Since they’ve hit the air in Atlanta, things have been going well. However, with anything new there is still some trepidation.
“In my experience with other new shows you often see just as much hate as positivity. The haters are louder than the people that want to praise you,” says Kramer. “I don’t know if it’s because they had five months of no morning show, but we haven’t seen any hate. Of course, I’m still just waiting for that phone call to come.”
They’ve also committed to making the show as local as possible. They included a special segment in the six o’clock hour engaging listeners who are up early with them. The program also added Kramer’s Around the A, which features news and stories about what’s happening in town.
“This is live and local radio,” says Breezy. “When we’re asking for perspectives or sharing ours it’s about the city that people are choosing to live in. Atlanta is a big city, but it’s got such a big heart. People love being from Atlanta.”
While that all sounds positive, it doesn’t mean there haven’t been bobbles. For Breezy, who’s behind the board, the challenge is technical execution.
“We can have this great break, but if I hit the wrong button, that just went out the window,” explained Breezy.
For Kramer, the challenge is getting back into the everyday flow.
“I’ve disappointed myself a few times by not being as prepared as I should be,” she says. “I haven’t established a daily routine that’s consistent. That’s made finding my rhythm a little tougher than I remember.”
Freeman faces a different challenge coming from a rock morning show.
“The number one rule of comedy is know your audience,” he says. “A joke that would really be fire on Dave and Chuck the Freak could get me fired from here. It’s a different filter for my brain to make sure that I’m expressing the right stuff to our listeners.”
And like any show replacing a legend on a station with a large audience, these early shows include the added challenge. How to sound unique and distinct from The Bert Show without straying too far from what the audience expects.
“We appreciate the magnitude of following The Bert Show but we just go in every day being ourselves,” says Breezy. “It isn’t necessarily about comparing anything to the past. It’s more like, ‘hey, let’s be the best versions of ourselves.’”
Or as Freeman explains it, “People love that flavor, but we’re baking our own cake.”
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Mike Stern is a Classic Rock columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. He has been with Jacobs Media consulting stations in the Classic Rock, Rock, Alternative and AAA world for more than a decade. Prior to that he programmed stations in Chicago, Detroit, Denver Las Vegas and other markets. He also worked as News/Talk Editor for Radio and Records, wrote about Top 40 Radio for Billboard Magazine and had his own radio talent coaching business called Talent Mechanic.
