HOUSTON – The Houston morning radio wars will soon have a new and familiar competitor.
A radio personality who left the Houston airwaves in 2006 is returning in the new year.
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Atom Smasher will host a new 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. morning show on MIX 96-5 (KHMX-FM) beginning January 6, 2014.
Smasher was a radio personality on 104.1 KRBE (KRBE-FM) from 1998 until 2006.
He started on nights, slid to afternoons and eventually co-hosted the station's morning show with Maria Todd.
KRBE and KHMX have a history of morning shows switching between stations. In the summer of 2006, when Cumulus-owned KRBE brought in "The Roula & Ryan show", Smasher moved up north to host the afternoon show on 106.1 KISS-FM (KHKS-FM) in Dallas-Fort Worth.
"The Roula & Ryan Show," with Roula Christie, Ryan Chase and executive producer Eric Rowe launched on KHMX in January 2003, but were replaced with Sam Malone and Michelle Fisher in 2005.
Malone and Fisher worked at KRBE before going to then Clear Channel-owned KHMX.
CBS Radio bought KHMX from Clear Channel in April 2009.
Malone exited the station before the acquisition.
Fisher co-hosted a new morning show on KHMX after Malone's exit, but exited the station in 2010.
Maria Todd, who co-hosted the KRBE morning show with Malone from 1993-2005, returned to Houston and co-hosted the KHMX morning show from 2010-2011 with Brad Booker.
Todd and Booker left KHMX in 2011 and was replaced by the Dallas-based syndicated morning show "Kidd Kraddick In The Morning."
In November 2012, KHMX cancelled Kraddick in favor of a locally produced morning show hosted by Blake Hayes and JP Stevenson.
Stevenson is also the public public address announcer for the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center.
Stevenson will stay on at KHMX on a part-time level.
In January, Hayes is moving to Portland, Maine, where he will be closer to his family and take over the morning show at WMGX-FM.
Smasher most recently hosted morning drive on WSTO-FM in Evansville, Indiana.
His co-host from WSTO, Shawnda McNeal, will join Smasher at KHMX when the new show is launched.
"I have always loved Houston, and it's been my mission to get back for the past seven years," said Smasher in a KHMX press release. "It's the only city I have ever wanted to live in, mainly because of the people and the food," Smasher added.
In Houston, CBS Radio also owns KHMX-FM, KIKK-AM, KILT-FM, KILT-AM, KKHH-FM and KLOL-FM.