Martin leaves KEGL

03/16/2000

By MARIO TARRADEL / The Dallas Morning News

  An eagle has flown the coop. Russ Martin, the popular morning radio personality who replaced shock jock Howard Stern's syndicated show at KEGL-FM (97.1) "The Eagle," left the station Wednesday to "pursue other opportunities."

"We would have loved to have him stay but we couldn't reach an agreement," said Greg Stevens, program director.
 
Mr. Martin won't reveal his new on-air home, saying he signed a "nondisclosure" that prevents him from divulging anything until the station is ready to make the announcement of his arrival. He does, however, say it's a 100,000-watt Dallas-Fort Worth station.

"From the information I have about the new station, this is going to be huge," said Mr. Martin. "It was really hard to leave the Eagle because that's been home for eight years. But the opportunity at the new station was just unbelievable. ...They have been really kind to me, given me a long contract, more money than I can spend on one night at a topless bar."

Meanwhile, Eagle midday man Chris Ryan will be temporarily moved to mornings. More music will fill the a.m. hours while Mr. Stevens finds a replacement for Mr. Martin, whose show ranked fifth in the recent Arbitron ratings.

"We'll try our best to forge ahead," said Mr. Stevens. "Every time there's a major change there's a possibility at least for the short term that there will be a major impact. Sometimes people don't respond well to change. But there's nothing we can do about that."

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