If Dave FM listeners had rolled down their car windows during the heated exchange between Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed and traffic reporter Crash Clark Wednesday morning, the city’s snow and ice “event” would be history.
The Dave FM morning team of Jimmy Baron, Yvonne Monet and traffic guy Crash Clark booked Reed on the airwaves in the 7 o’clock hour to discuss the city’s glacial response to snow and ice removal. Clark immediately criticized Reed for the city’s lack of readiness (hear the complete exchange here) .
“You’re a serious person so I’ll give you a serious answer,” Reed told Clark on-air. “We had double the [snow removal] equipment we’ve ever had in the past. But we had the worst snow in 10 years.” Reed explained that the city of Atlanta expanded its snow removal fleet from 21 to 81 vehicles over a 40-hour period after city officials realized they weren’t making a dent in restoring the city streets to driveability.
Clark then argued that the perimeter remained impassable Wednesday morning and Peachtree street and Piedmont avenue remained icy.
“You’re making statements that are flat out wrong,” Reed retorted. “The perimeter is not the responsibility of the city. It’s the state’s. Peachtree and Piedmont are both state roads. We’ve taken care of 200 miles of city roads, however.”
“I had zero trepidation about putting the mayor on with Crash,” Baron told Intel after the broadcast. “I knew he would remain respectful to the mayor. But I also knew Crash was passionate about this issue and that he was voicing the frustrations of a lot of people in the city.”
“I wasn’t trying to bow up to the mayor,” Clark told Intel later. “I just wanted some answers. The city has been paralyzed for days now.”
When Reed informed Clark on air that Peachtree and Piedmont are both state roads and hence the state’s responsibility to clear, the traffic reporter conceded he got schooled. “When Mayor Reed said that, Jimmy and I just looked at each other in the studio. In all the years we’ve worked here, neither of us knew that before this morning.”
After the broadcast, Baron donned a blond wig to record a funny video (ala Chris Crocker‘s now-infamous Britney Spears Youtube plea ” to “LEAVE KASIM REED ALONE!” for the Dave FM web page.
As of Wednesday midday, Baron, Monet, Clark (all pals from their days together at 99X nearly 20 years ago) and the rest of the Dave FM and V-103 FM air staffs (both stations are based at Colony Square and owned by CBS Radio) remained sequestered at the W hotel in Midtown where they’ve been since Sunday night.
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