SummitMedia drops Rickey Smiley’s Magic City Classic show, but Birmingham steps up

Rickey Smiley announced last week SummitMedia, LLC, did not budget for his annual live radio broadcast for the Magic City Classic. This comes after people complained about the tickets costing $30 for the live event when, historically, the event has been free.

Smiley explained on his Facebook page that he decided to pay for the live broadcast out of his own pocket and will attempt to recoup some of the costs.

“I have to pay for everyone’s hotel rooms, I have to pay for people’s flights, and get the artists in town on ground transportation,” Smiley said. “The reason I charge a ticket price is just to make some of my money back.”

He also said he’s spending over $10,000 of his own money but will likely only make about $5,000.

The live show is usually held at the BJCC Concert Hall, but with SummitMedia not involved in the broadcast, the show will be held at the Stardome Comedy Club in Hoover.

One person on Facebook complained about the change in venue. “This was not a good business decision. First off, it’s selfish! Why charge for something that’s been free forever! On top of that why take the revenue to Hoover when Birmingham didn’t get any of the proceeds!”

Smiley explained that all of the other venues were booked, and the Stardome is where he has a relationship with the club owner, plus it’s where he started his career.

The live broadcast event has already sold out.

AL.com received a statement from Smiley, who said he was notified in August about the company not having the budget for the live broadcast. “I took it upon myself to keep the tradition going for the listeners because they really wanted it,” Smiley said. “So I paid for the expenses myself, and produced an event for the listeners of the city that I love. Someone from Summit reached out to me, I responded to the text and heard nothing else…I didn’t want the people to be disappointed.”

“The Rickey Smiley Morning Show” is owned by Reach Media and syndicated in more than 100 markets across the country, including 98.7 KISS, a property owned by SummitMedia.

” target=”_blank”>Ivan Jones said in a Facebook post, “98.7 should really budget for this moving forward. Not sure if it requires year round fundraising through sponsorships but they need to make it happen. They lowkey need to make a statement about this to take some pressure off of Rickey.” Another user commented, “They high key need to make a statement. Rickey is one of the cities biggest ambassadors.”

SummitMedia did host a live broadcast of “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show” earlier this year in March for their Greenville, South Carolina, market station 107.3 JAMZ at Clemson University.

SummitMedia declined to comment on the matter. However, Smiley said, “We appreciate y’all carrying the Rickey Smiley Morning Show. We are thankful for the opportunity, and if it’s not your budget to do a live broadcast, I respect that it’s not in the budget.”

On Saturday, Smiley took to social media again to announce that he’s working with Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin to make the live broadcast happen at the BJCC in 2024. “Mayor Randall Woodfin and the City of Birmingham presents ‘The Rickey Smiley Morning Show.’ It is absolutely free! It will be back next year. And we will have two major artists to perform plus we will have a DJ outside performing while y’all are standing in line.”

Former Cox Media and SummitMedia executive, David DuBose commented on Smiley’s social media, “Back in the day when I ran 98.7 Kiss for Cox Media we always hosted the event in downtown or Legion Field for free as a service to the community and a celebration for a special week. This annual event was also a huge marketing opportunity.”

A live broadcast hosted in Birmingham the day before the Magic City Classic football game has been a tradition since the late 1990s. Originally, the live broadcast featured “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” which was on 98.7 KISS at the time, when it was then owned by Cox Media. In 2013, SummitMedia bought Cox Media stations which included 95.7 JAMZ and 98.7 KISS.

In the last few years of Joyner’s show, “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show” started coming to Birmingham for the live broadcast when the show aired on 95.7 JAMZ. Once Joyner retired from radio, “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show” moved from 95.7 JAMZ to 98.7 KISS.