Well…
That didn’t last long.
Just shy of a year after Audacy made a very big deal about bringing two enormously familiar Atlanta personalities back to morning radio, Kevin Avery and Taylor Scott have exited Star 94 WSTR.
And this one deserves more than the standard morning hosts exit station headline.
Because Kevin and Taylor weren’t random personalities imported into Atlanta.
These two had already spent 25 years building a relationship with this city before Star ever hired them. Audacy itself celebrated that history when it announced their arrival last September, calling them an award-winning team and putting them into the 6-10 a.m. morning slot beginning September 15, 2025.
Now, less than twelve months later?
They’re gone.
And suddenly we’re looking at Star 94 and asking the most entertaining question in radio:
Now What
Because this could get interesting.
Really interesting.
Kevin and Taylor Had Already Survived One Radio Earthquake
Remember how they got here.
For roughly a quarter-century, Kevin Avery and Taylor Scott were synonymous with mornings at Christian AC 104.7 The Fish WFSH.
Then Salem sold the station as part of its Christian music station transaction with Educational Media Foundation.
The Fish disappeared.
The local morning show disappeared with it.
For a pair of personalities who had spent decades building an Atlanta audience, that could have been the ending.
Instead, Audacy eventually came calling.
Star 94 brought Kevin and Taylor back to Atlanta radio last September, putting two personalities with enormous local familiarity onto another major FM signal.
It made sense.
They knew Atlanta.
Atlanta knew them.
And after losing their longtime home, Kevin and Taylor had another microphone.
Great radio comeback story.
Until now.
Because Here We Are Again
Less than a year later, Kevin and Taylor are apparently looking for their next chapter.
And Star 94 is looking at a rather large hole between 6 and 10 every morning.
That’s not exactly an insignificant daypart.
Morning drive is where stations establish personality.
It’s where listeners develop habits.
It’s where advertisers want endorsements.
It’s where radio has historically done some of its best relationship building.
You don’t just remove the morning show and say:
“Eh, we’ll figure something out after lunch.”
Especially not at Star 94.
This is Atlanta.
This frequency has an enormous personality-radio history.
And the next move will tell us quite a bit about where Audacy wants Star to go.
And Don’t Forget There Has Already Been A Major Change Upstairs
There’s another reason we’re watching this closely.
JR Ammons.
Following Emily Boldon’s departure, Ammons added programming oversight of WSTR.
And this isn’t some programmer trying to learn Star 94 from a PowerPoint presentation.
He’s been there before.
Ammons previously worked at WSTR as APD and Music Director during an earlier chapter of the station’s history and later returned as Program Director.
So the person now helping shape the future of Star 94 already understands the DNA of the brand.
That’s important.
But Ammons also has something else that suddenly makes this story a whole lot more fun.
JR Ammons Has A Lot Of Audacy Radio Under His Umbrella
Ammons isn’t only dealing with Atlanta.
His programming responsibilities stretch across multiple Audacy properties and markets, including St. Louis, Kansas City and Houston.
Which brings us to St. Louis.
And a certain morning show.
And now we’re going to cause trouble.
😂
Umm What About Bret Mega
Before anybody screenshots this paragraph and announces that On The Dial says Bret Mega is moving to Atlanta:
WE DID NOT SAY THAT.
There is no confirmed announcement that Bret Mega or his team is leaving St. Louis.
In fact, as of August 19, Audacy is still actively publishing fresh episodes of The Bret Mega Show, and Y98 continues listing the program as its weekday morning show.
Everybody relax.
Put the moving boxes down.
Bret doesn’t need to call U-Haul.
Yet.
😂
But come on.
We’re radio people.
We’re allowed to notice the chessboard.
Because The Bret Mega Show Is Already More Than A St Louis Morning Show
This is where things become interesting.
Audacy describes The Bret Mega Show as Bret alongside Kevin, A.B. and Hannah, with the program built heavily around the team’s friendships, personal lives, local happenings and listener participation.
That’s exactly the kind of personality-driven morning product radio needs more of.
But here’s the bigger piece:
Audacy is already distributing the show beyond Y98.
The program has appeared on sister properties outside St. Louis, including 105.3 The Buzz, where Audacy has a dedicated page for the show.
So we’re not talking about a morning show that’s technologically or strategically incapable of expanding beyond St. Louis.
That infrastructure already exists.
Now add JR Ammons to the equation.
Now remove Kevin and Taylor from Atlanta.
Now stare at the board.
🤔
Would Audacy Move Bret Mega and Team To Atlanta
We have absolutely no confirmation of that.
None.
Zero.
But it’s a delicious radio question.
Would Audacy consider relocating an established personality show from St. Louis to Atlanta and using WSTR as the next stage of its development?
Would Bret and company remain based in St. Louis and be syndicated into Atlanta?
Would the show originate from Atlanta while continuing on Y98?
Would Audacy build something entirely different for Star?
Could Star go local with another Atlanta personality?
Could somebody already inside the cluster move into mornings?
Could Kevin and Taylor’s departure be connected to a larger programming adjustment?
Those are all questions.
And right now, questions are exactly what we’ve got.
But Moving Bret Mega Would Be A Much Bigger Story Than Filling A Morning Vacancy
This is where we’d pump the brakes.
Because Y98 isn’t a disposable station.
Bret Mega isn’t simply occupying four hours that Audacy can drag from one spreadsheet cell into another.
He’s building a show.
There is a team.
There is a St. Louis relationship.
There is local familiarity.
And uprooting that operation would create another enormous question:
What happens to Y98?
That’s why, if anything is happening involving Bret Mega, it deserves its own story.
Not three paragraphs buried inside this one.
And believe us…
We’re already looking at it.
What about Bret Mega and team possibly relocating from STL?
That’s a whole separate story.
Standby.
👀👀👀
Meanwhile Atlanta Has A Decision To Make
Star 94 currently positions itself around an upbeat adult music presentation, and the station has spent the last several years evolving its musical identity. Its current digital presence was still promoting Kevin and Taylor content even as recently as this week, illustrating just how quickly this change has unfolded publicly.
That’s why the next morning show matters.
Does Star continue investing in big local personalities?
We hope so.
Does it choose another established Atlanta name?
Does Audacy leverage talent from elsewhere in the company?
Does the station rethink mornings entirely?
Those choices will tell us whether Kevin and Taylor’s exit is simply a personnel change…
or the beginning of something larger.
And Let’s Give Kevin and Taylor Their Flowers
Whatever happened behind the scenes, these two deserve respect.
Twenty-five years together on Atlanta morning radio is ridiculous longevity.
Think about how much changed during that period.
Presidents.
Recessions.
Pandemics.
Facebook.
Twitter.
Instagram.
TikTok.
Spotify.
Satellite radio.
Podcasts.
Smartphones.
Consolidation.
Streaming.
And probably 937 different consultants telling morning shows what millennials supposedly wanted.
Kevin and Taylor kept showing up.
Then their longtime station disappeared.
And they managed to get back on a major Atlanta FM.
That’s resilience.
We Also Hope Somebody In Atlanta Understands What Just Became Available
Two broadcasters with decades of market familiarity are now apparently available.
That doesn’t happen every Tuesday.
If Kevin and Taylor want to continue together, there should be some interesting conversations ahead.
Radio?
Digital?
Podcasting?
Streaming?
Another Atlanta station?
Some combination of all four?
Twenty-five years of audience connection doesn’t evaporate because somebody changes a morning-show schedule.
The transmitter doesn’t own the relationship.
The personalities do.
An On The Dial Perspective
Kevin Avery and Taylor Scott leaving Star 94 after less than a year is surprising, but the bigger story may ultimately be what Audacy does next. Star has a long history as a personality-driven Atlanta brand, and JR Ammons now has an opportunity to define another chapter for a frequency he already knows extremely well. The company could stay aggressively local, bring another established Atlanta personality into the building, leverage talent from elsewhere inside Audacy or attempt something completely unexpected. Whatever happens, morning drive is too important to treat as background music with a clock attached.
And yes…
We know exactly what half the radio geeks reading this are thinking.
Bret Mega.
Could Bret and the team eventually trade the Gateway Arch for the Atlanta skyline?
Could an Audacy morning show already capable of expanding beyond its home station become part of a larger strategy?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
We have no confirmation whatsoever that such a move is planned.
But the pieces on the board make the question interesting enough that we’re not ignoring it.
Actually…
We’re working on that one separately.
Bret Mega.
Y98.
JR Ammons.
Atlanta.
Star 94.
What could it all mean?
That’s a whole separate story.
👀
STANDBY.
And to Kevin Avery and Taylor Scott: after more than a quarter-century of waking up Atlanta, we sincerely wish both of you the absolute best in whatever comes next.
Something tells us Atlanta hasn’t heard the last of either of you.
Star 94 Atlanta
The Bret Mega Show on Y98
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