• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Whatever happened to... Jeff Hullinger?

No doubt we'll hear replies from people who worked with Hullinger who will base their opinion of him on that experience, whether positive or negative. I've never met the man; know nothing about him.

What I CAN say, as a non-native Atlantan, is that I miss seeing the guy on tv. He always seemed to me like the 'every man's man'. Just a good, next-door guy who knew his sports. I'd love to see him back on the air.
 
Some people thought Jeff Hullinger would replace Chuck Dowdle on WSB-TV, but that didn't happen. Supposedly Jeff's being released by WSB-AM was a budget move, but the station has hired a replacement.

I miss seeing Jeff on TV. He was one of the best in the market, and I agree he could anchor news as well as he does sports. This is a tough environment for higher-priced air talent.
 
This is not meant to be mean but I don't think he has a face for HDTV and that is just the reality these days when it comes to HD technology. That's why a couple eyars ago anchors were disappearing for weeks at a time. To get the old favcelift. If I remember correctly Jeff's face is very pock-marked which isn't going to fly these days.

Now why he isn't on radio that's another question but I think cost-cutting is the reason. How having him come in a once a week on Jimmy's show?
 
Once Jeff gets out of the non-compete, someone with some intelligence will hire him. If he wants to TV he can. I use to work with a refugee from the Knoxville Market and he showed me a picture of Dolly Parton with out make up. Dolly is not ugly just looks like another person. A lot of the Hollywood types owe it all to makeup. Make can do wonders! Jeff would make a great news director at either TV or Radio. Or course he would have to move unless CBS makes 92.9 all news or news talk. Just a thought, with Tribune in Bankruptcy, I wonder if CBS will pick up Channel 46 on the cheap making it an O & O. CBS has the resources to challenge WSB TV. With Digital there is no great technical difference between an old channel 2-13 and the 14-69 bands. They could mess with Cox on both TV and Radio.
 
I can tell you that at least in the mid 1990's at WAGA-TV Jeff did some things that were not very nice to people who worked around him. I witnessed one of them first hand. I was good friends with former news director Gayle Bledsoe and was in the control room one Friday night. There was a sports director intern who took over Gayle's seat during Jeff's segment. Jeff was reading the high school football game scores and with absolutely no warning what so ever stopped reading the scores and there were many more on the list. As we all know, things are timed during a news broadcast and unfortunately this poor kid had no idea how to fill the time and was practically frozen in fear because Jeff left him to figure out what to do (this was not any kind of exercise, just plain jerkiness). Gayle had to climb back into his seat and take over. I felt so bad for this kid. He was very enthusiastic and was doing a great job. Gayle shared with me where Jeff was very rude to one of the chroma key people and he had to get in Jeff's face and to quote Gayle, " Don't you ever mess with my people, you can be replaced a whole lot easier than she can". We all have bad days but there's no reason to be rude or put people who don't deserve mistreatment in very stressful situations unnecessarily.
 
He's accomplished, experienced, professional, has strong ties to the market, connections, and knows how a personality should sound in order to make a real difference.

In other words, he's the worst thing he could be when it comes to getting hired by a radio station in Atlanta.
 
secondchoice said:
Just a thought, with Tribune in Bankruptcy, I wonder if CBS will pick up Channel 46 on the cheap making it an O & O.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Tribune would gladly take the cash from the sale of Channel 46, but I don't think station owner Meredith would be too happy, especially if no one told them their station was sold! ;D ;D
 
I don't know if he was a jerk or not, but his newscasts at WSB-AM were fantastic. I would sit in the driveway just to see what bizarre soundbite he could come up with. I can enjoy talent on the air without having to think they are nice people. This isn't the 50's...if Arthur Godfrey fired Julius LaRosa today, he'd probably be considered a hero.
 
Firebird said:
secondchoice said:
Just a thought, with Tribune in Bankruptcy, I wonder if CBS will pick up Channel 46 on the cheap making it an O & O.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Tribune would gladly take the cash from the sale of Channel 46, but I don't think station owner Meredith would be too happy, especially if no one told them their station was sold! ;D ;D
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. I do not keep up with TV ownership like I should. I should not have even brought in the TV angle but with Channel 2 and WSB AM in the same building, it will take deep pockets to compete with 750 AM in the Radio News Game.
 
Firebird said:
secondchoice said:
Just a thought, with Tribune in Bankruptcy, I wonder if CBS will pick up Channel 46 on the cheap making it an O & O.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Tribune would gladly take the cash from the sale of Channel 46, but I don't think station owner Meredith would be too happy, especially if no one told them their station was sold! ;D ;D
Click to expand...

Tribune sold then WGNX to Meredith in 1999 in order to buy WATL. WGNX became WGCL-TV on the 4th of July in 2000. Tribune sold WATL to Gannett in 2006.

As for Jeff Hullenger...I don't know where he is going to end up. The only places he could end up are WXIA/WATL (sister to WTSP/Tampa, where he worked for about a year), the sports talk stations, or WPBA/WABE (the Varsity special aired on WPBA). And I don't think anyone is hiring.
 
Jeff will never surface at 680 because of Fox 5.
The station needs to cultivate a local television relationship because of 790 and WGCL.
Buck Langford is part of the radio station now. If Hullenger gets hired it makes an enemy of the Fox 5 GM and they won't get to use Buck. This is the GM who has blackballed him.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom