The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wynter, Massey garner full-time status on WSB
‘Word on the Street’ show will slide into 7-10 p.m. M-F slot.
Shelley Wynter and Malanikai Massey, who have been hosting “Word on the Street” on WSB in some form since 2019, have been rewarded full-time jobs with benefits at the popular news/talk radio station.
The show also will move up two hours starting June 13, when it will begin airing 7-10 p.m. weekdays. The second and third hours of Sean Hannity’s syndicated show will move from 7-9 p.m. to 10 p.m.-midnight. The first hour of Hannity remains live from 3-4 p.m. sandwiched between Erick Erickson and Mark Arum.
“Word on the Street” was the brainchild of WSB’S former program director Pete Spriggs in mid-2019 before he retired. It was a weekly show at first. In 2020, Spriggs gave them shows on both Saturday and Sunday as well as primary fill-in slots for “The Von Haessler Doctrine” mid-morning show and Mark Arum’s late afternoon show.
After Clark Howard ended his syndicated radio show, Spriggs’ successor Drew Anderssen (who just left in April) scheduled “Word on the Street” in the 10 p.m.-midnight slot in early January of 2021, saying it was a 90-day test run. The probationary period then kept on going for another 14 months.
Last Wednesday night, they were able to announce the good news to the world.
“We got contracts!” Wynter said on air.
“We are now officially fulltime employees at WSB,” Massey added. “You don’t have to go to urgent care anymore! … There is PTO!”
They took calls from fans and fellow radio employees for the next three hours.
“We’re ecstatic,” Wynter said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-constitution after the show. “Hard work and stick-toit-iveness pays off.”
Massey called it a “test of faith and endurance and perseverance. There were times I wanted to quit and give up before I was on WSB. But I kept pushing and keeping an eye on the prize. This has been very emotional.”
Wynter didn’t broach the subject of the delay to his bosses. He just patiently waited and kept honing the show. “We didn’t ask” why it had taken so long, he said. “We didn’t care. That was the last thing on our minds. We just talked about it on the air. We made it a fun conversation. We didn’t bug them. We knew it would be a process.”