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America's Trucking Network is a syndicated nightly radio broadcast heard across the United States. Targeted toward truckers, the variety program, hosted by Steve Sommers and Eric "Bubba Bo" Boulanger, covers numerous topics, mostly news and issues pertaining to truckers.
Topics discussed include weather, diesel prices, traffic, auto racing, political and legal news affecting the trucking industry, and general trucker chat. Some country music continues to be played, full length, on the program between segments and commercials, even after the show's original host went to an all-talk format.
History
The show was launched in 1984 by Dale Sommers, under the name "The Truckin' Bozo." The show had a network of approximately a dozen affiliates at any given time; however, almost all of these were clear channel stations that had very large coverage areas during the show's air time.
Due to health problems, Dale Sommers was forced to retire in 2003. His son, Steve Sommers, had been hosting the weekend edition of the program and was the natural successor to the weekday show. Dale Sommers would shortly thereafter take a daytime position at XM Satellite Radio, which had carried the program since 2001, taking the "Truckin' Bozo" title with him after several months of discussion with WLW.
To fill in Steve Sommers's former weekend position, flagship station WLW-AM hired Eric Boulanger, more commonly known by his alias of "Bubba Bo." Boulanger has been fired or laid off twice from the station: once when a guest set off the smoke alarms cooking steak and eggs in the lunch room inside the WLW studios, and again in January 2007 when Clear Channel made budget cuts across its entire radio operations. However, as of February 2007 he is back on the air thanks to the Idle Buster company paying his salary. Idle Buster no longer sponsors the weekend edition of ATN, for which Motorkote has picked up the bill for now.
Show information
America's Trucking Network airs five hours per night, live from 12 midnight to 5 AM Eastern Time. Steve Sommers hosts the show from early Monday through early Friday, while Bubba Bo hosts early Saturday and Sunday.
The show is currently heard on three affiliates, all currently or formerly owned by Clear Channel Communications.
- WLW 700, in Cincinnati, Ohio, is and has been the flagship of the network, and carries all five hours of the program, live, 7 days per week.
- KWKH 1130, in Shreveport, Louisiana, carries the last four hours of the program, live, 7 days per week.
- Extreme Talk XM 152, nationwide in the United States. Extreme carries all five hours of the program, live, 7 days per week.
Despite the low affiliate count, both WLW and KWKH are class A stations, resulting in the show reaching most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains.
The show can also be heard via the Internet feeds of both WLW and KWKH. The show's satellite channel numbering has changed several times; as The Truckin' Bozo and for several months after, it aired on Open Road (XM's trucking channel), then when WLW signed on, this was seen as redundant, and so it moved exclusively to the WLW feed. With the Sirius-XM merger, WLW was dropped from the lineup, but America's Trucking Network was retained, moving to Extreme Talk. It has always been carried in a live time slot.
Confusion
The show is often spelled "America's Truckin' Network" as an allusion to the former Truckin' Bozo title.
America's Trucking Network is not to be confused with the Midnight Trucking Radio Network with Eric Harley and Gary McNamara. That show is a rival of America's Trucking Network which has many hours of repeat programming while America's Trucking Network has 99% live programming where very few holidays are repeats.
Steve Sommers (with 2 Ms) is not to be confused with another late-night host, sports talk host Steve Somers (with 1 M) of WFAN.
References
- Cincinnati Enquirer story on the Truckin' Bozo's departure
- Article from the Cincinnati Post (via Black Cincinnati blog) on Bubba Bo's initial firing.