Blair Garner’s Next Window Opens
• Late last week Westwood One announced it would discontinue the distribution of The Blair Garner Show, effective Sunday, August 9. At the same time it was announced that Lia Knight, longtime host of The Lia Show enjoyed 7-midnight six nights a week, will extend her brand and add a second syndicated show from midnight-5am, delivered seven nights a week.
No stranger to the rarified world of overnight radio, Garner (left) created and hosted the Premiere-syndicated After MidNite, which ran successfully from 1993 until 2013, when he was hired by Cumulus to anchor the all-new America’s Morning Show, originally teamed with Terri Clark and Chuck Wicks and distributed on the company’s NASH-branded Country stations. That team was later reconfigured as Garner, Wicks and Kelly Ford. In August 2016 Cumulus restructured its national talent line-up, introducing Ty Bentli as the new host of what was later rebranded as The Ty Bentli Show, and on Nov. 1, 2016, Garner returned to his familiar overnight territory as host of The Blair Garner Show.
RAMP caught up with Garner, a 2013 inductee into the Radio Hall of Fame and a 2016 inductee into the Country Radio Hall of Fame, who was philosophical about this turn of events, as he told us, “The downturn of the economy has hit our industry very hard, and I know that the company has been forced into making very difficult decisions. I fully understand it.”
That being said, Garner then shared exclusive details of his next exciting chapter, as he told us, “With radio’s future feeling a little uncertain, my husband Eric and I began work on a new venture nearly two years ago — we bought a 55,500 square-foot Baptist church in Columbia, TN, about 40 minutes south of Nashville and are turning it into a music venue.” He added, “Columbia’s nickname is ‘Muletown,’ as it was once the mule-trading capital of the world, so we’re calling the venue ‘The Mulehouse.'” Pictured is an artist’s rendering of the completed building.
Garner continued, “We will be the first American music venue built specifically in support of concert streaming. Construction is well underway and likely headed toward completion in March of 2021. There, on stage, I’ll be hosting live interviews mixed with performances. Think Inside The Actor’s Studio meets Austin City Limits. The venue will also host other streaming events as well. Clair Solutions (Franklin Theater, Old Red, Garth’s Notre Dame show) are doing the sound and lighting — almost a full $1M in that alone.”
In closing, Garner said, “All that to say we are actively building a better future for ourselves.” Looking ahead, Blair can be reached at Blair@TheMulehouse.com.
