This was posted on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
After more than 20 years working with Tom Joyner, former Atlantan and veteran stand-up comic J. Anthony Brown is jumping to rival Steve Harvey's morning show starting April 17.
He made the announcement on Tuesday. Radio Facts broke the story.
Brown has not responded to inquiries seeking more details. And the Harvey camp has remained silent as well.
Back in December, Brown said to me in an exclusive interview that he left Joyner's show voluntarily and that it had nothing to do with pay. He said he wanted a weekend show, which he began doing soon after he left Joyner. At the time, he didn't indicate any particular desire to work weekday mornings again. But clearly, Harvey gave him an offer he couldn't refuse.
It's unclear at this point whether this is an addition to Harvey's morning show or whether someone plans to leave. Currently, the team consists of Harvey, Shirley Strawberry, Carla Ferrell, Thomas Miles and Kier Spates.
For several years, Harvey based his show out of his Atlanta studios, although he spent most of his time in Chicago shooting his syndicated TV show. He was typically only in Atlanta to shoot "Family Feud" in the summers but most of his staff remained here.
The busy Harvey is moving his radio studios to Los Angeles, where he has more work obligations including a revised version of his TV talk show. He hosts "Little Big Shots," "Celebrity Family Feud," "Family Feud" and his own talk show, as well as his morning radio show.
Joyner, heard locally on Kiss 104.1, has not replaced Brown with a single person. He's been using a rotation of different celebrities: Arsenio Hall, Bill Bellamy, Kym Whitley, Sherri Shepherd and Lavell Crawford.
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