Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and 256 Today CEO Mecca Musick, take you through Alabama’s biggest political stories.
Mecca Musick is the CEO of 256 Today. Sign up for the 256 Today newsletter here.
Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN, Talk 99.5, and News Radio 1440 from 10-11 a.m., and on Talk Radio 103.9 FM/730AM WUMP from 3-4 p.m.
Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and 256 Today CEO Mecca Musick, take you through Alabama’s biggest political stories.
Mecca Musick is the CEO of 256 Today. Sign up for the 256 Today newsletter here.
Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN, Talk 99.5, and News Radio 1440 from 10-11 a.m., and on Talk Radio 103.9 FM/730AM WUMP from 3-4 p.m.
Radio talk show host Yaffee, filling in for Dale Jackson, and 256 Today CEO Mecca Musick take you through Alabama’s biggest political stories.
Mecca Musick is the CEO of 256 Today. Sign up for the 256 Today newsletter here.
Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
What’s the matter with Tennessee?
Former Alabama talk show host Matt Murphy breaks down what is going on with the ‘Tennessee 3’
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10 a.m. to noon.
Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and 256 Today CEO Mecca Musick take you through Alabama’s biggest political stories.
Mecca Musick is the CEO of 256 Today. Sign up for the 256 Today newsletter here.
Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10 a.m. to noon.
Friday during his Birmingham Talk 99.5 morning show, long-time Alabama radio host Matt Murphy announced he was departing the Magic City’s airwaves and accepting a job with WWTN in Nashville, Tenn.
Murphy, who has been a fixture in Alabama radio, both Montgomery and Birmingham, since 1999, will be filling a void left behind by the late Phil Valentine, who died because of complications from COVID-19 earlier this year.
“And so, I will continue to head up I-65 as I did 19 years ago from Montgomery to Birmingham and head to Nashville starting after next week,” Murphy said to his listening audience on Friday. “Never you fear, for you are in wonderful, wonderful hands at Talk 99.5.”
“Not only will Valerie remain here in this day part — she will be joined by another,” he continued. “There will be new voices and new individuals coming to the microphone starting a week from Monday.”
Murphy will host from noon-3 p.m. on the Nashville station.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
State Rep. Wes Allen (R-Troy) will have at least one challenger in his bid for the Republican spot for Secretary of State on the 2022 general election ballot.
Laura Clark of Mountain Brook announced on Birmingham radio Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Val” program on Tuesday she will also be seeking the GOP nod next May.
Clark, a mother of two and originally from Dothan, made the announcement during an appearance on Matt Murphy and Valerie Vining’s morning drive program, accompanied by Republican activist Perry Hooper, Jr.
Conservative talker and radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh died Wednesday after losing his battle with Stage IV lung cancer at age 70, according to a statement from his wife Kathryn read on Limbaugh’s Wednesday broadcast.
Over the past three decades, Limbaugh’s program became the most listened-to radio show in the country. It aired on over 600 stations and had a weekly listenership of up to 27 million. His program aired on at least 10 stations throughout the state of Alabama, including all five of the state’s media markets.
While Limbaugh had a weighty national political focus, one of his lasting legacies is that he rejuvenated terrestrial spoken word radio and created a forum to discuss state and local issues. From one end of the state to the other, Alabama radio talk hosts acknowledge Limbaugh made their programming possible.
Yellowhammer News reached out to talk show hosts around the state and asked them to weigh in on Limbaugh’s passing and what they saw as his lasting legacy.
MONTGOMERY — Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Val Show” broadcast live from inside the Alabama State Capitol on Thursday morning, interviewing Governor Kay Ivey, members of her cabinet and prominent state legislators.
The interview came ahead of the third day of the legislature’s 2021 regular session and two days after Ivey’s annual State of the State Address.
The lineup of guests was packed, starting with Alabama Department of Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell at 7:00 a.m. She was followed by State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris and Attorney General Steve Marshall, respectively, before Ivey’s interview. (more…)
Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) is pushing back against what he sees as brazen lies coming from the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Palmer interviewed on Talk 99.5’s “Matt and Aunie Show” on Thursday morning and reacted to the vice presidential debate the previous night between Harris and Vice President Mike Pence.
The central Alabama congressman praised Pence’s debate performance, saying the vice president did well outlining what a second Trump-Pence term would accomplish. Palmer then turned his attention to the Democratic ticket.
“What really bothers me about this is that they think that the average American is stupid,” he advised of Harris and Biden. “They think that they can get up there and lie about the agenda and that the average American’s going to buy everything they’re selling. And that includes suburban people. They think that we will, that people will go blindly into the night with them on the lies they’re telling us.”
Palmer pointed to Harris’ claims about healthcare last night as one of the top recent examples. (more…)
With just nine days until the July 14 Republican U.S. Senate runoff, U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) said he still thinks there is a need for the two candidates, former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville, to debate.
Palmer called an unwillingness to debate based on political strategy a show of “weakness” during an appearance on Birmingham radio Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show.”
“The thing that bothers me, and you know this — I’d debate anybody,” Palmer said. “I think that both candidates owe it to the voters to have a debate. When you don’t have a debate, I think it is indicative that there’s severe weakness, serious weakness in one who refuses to debate. People say, ‘Well, it’s good political strategy if you’re way ahead.’ No, you’re buying a pig in a poke.”
Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and Alabama Democratic Executive Committee member Lisa Handback take you through this week’s biggest political stories, including:
— Is the COVID-19 pandemic really out of control in Alabama?
— Will more cities mandate mask to follow the lead of Birmingham and Montgomery ordinances?
— How have former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden completely escaped scrutiny over their role in prosecuting General Michael Flynn?
Jackson and Handback are joined by Talk 99.5’s Matt Murphy to discuss COVID-19’s surging numbers, mandatory mask ordinances and the Republican primary U.S. Senate runoff. (more…)
For many, Gov. Kay Ivey’s announcement on Tuesday to roll back some of the coronavirus restrictions on commerce was welcomed news as it means many businesses can reopen, just with some manageable limits.
However, churches and other venues of worship, along with restaurants, bars and breweries, have facilities that must remain closed until further notice from the state of Alabama.
Wednesday on his Talk 99.5 radio show broadcasted in Birmingham, Matt Murphy challenged Alabama State Health Officer Scott Harris on these requirements and asked him to justify how those institutions are to remain closed while some big-box retailers that draw sizeable crowds can remain open.
Former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville’s comments about the Trump administration’s handling of veterans’ issues last August 2019 at the Shoals Republican Club have been a focal point of the contest for the Republican nomination for Alabama’s U.S. Senate seat up in November.
“I’m pissed off at Donald Trump that our vets can’t get health care,” Tuberville said, speaking to the group at the time. “And if I ever get to see him, I’m going to tell him that. You said you were going to fix it, and it ain’t fixed. And that’s who we ought to be taking care of — these young men and women.”
During an appearance on Birmingham talk radio’s 99.5 on Thursday, co-hosts Andrea Lindenberg and Matt Murphy asked Tuberville to address those remarks, which have been used by opponents in political advertising against his candidacy.
Tuesday during an appearance on Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show,” former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, warned about the consequences of the hyper-politicization of every nuance of day-to-day living.
Tuberville told co-hosts Matt Murphy and Andrea Lindenberg that Democrats’ unwillingness to put election politics behind them could lead the country down the path of “civil war.”
“I feel bad for the people because there’s nothing any of us can do,” he said. “It’s out of our hands because we watch it, and it is going in the other direction.”
Even though former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been a U.S. Senate candidate for a month, there appears to still be some hard feelings regarding his entry into the race.
During an appearance on Birmingham radio Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show,” U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) discussed a phone call he received from Sessions just before Sessions’ entry into the race asking Byrne to withdraw his U.S. Senate candidacy and run for reelection to the seat he currently occupies in Alabama’s first congressional district.
According to Byrne, Sessions told him he thought he was doing a great job as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and that Sessions still had a “couple of gallons” of gas left in his tank to serve in the U.S. Senate. Byrne explained how he declined Sessions’ request to co-hosts Andrea Lindenberg and Matt Murphy and argued against the merits of Sessions returning to the U.S. Senate.
Ever since former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his decision to seek his old U.S. Senate in Alabama, speculation about an attack from President Donald Trump has been rampant.
However, there has not been such an attack, at least not yet.
During an appearance on Birmingham radio Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show,” Secretary of State John Merrill, who was a candidate for U.S. Senate until last Sunday, discussed his decision to bow out of the race and how Sessions’ entry into it played a role.
President Donald Trump’s visit to Tuscaloosa for last week’s Alabama-LSU football game is still reverberating around the state of Alabama.
Despite the outcome of the game, Saturday was seen as a positive sign for Trump and his supporters, given his reception at Bryant-Denny Stadium. U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) was in attendance and in the box with Trump for the game. He spoke highly of Trump’s reception in the stadium.
“Someone asked me about it, and I said I went to a football game, and a Trump rally broke out,” Palmer said.
Although the since-postponed I-10 Mobile Bayway Bridge project seems like a distant memory, local officials still control the project’s destiny, according to Gov. Kay Ivey.
Earlier this year, Ivey declared the project “dead” after the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to remove it from their Transportation Improvement Plan. The project had come under fire for the tolling component proposed to finance the bridge’s construction.
During an appearance on Birmingham radio Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show,” Ivey revisited the subject and maintained it was still a “needed project.”
Last week, Gov. Kay Ivey announced she was replacing State Sen. Chris Elliot (R-Daphne) with State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures (D-Mobile) to serve on the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program-II (ATRIP-II) Committee.
Elliott had become an outspoken critic of the I-10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway proposal in its late stages before Ivey pronounced it was “dead” immediately after the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) met on Wednesday to vote on its Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP).
In the days since Elliott was replaced by Figures on the ATRIP-II Committee, which Ivey had said was “a privilege, not an entitlement,” the Baldwin County Republican has appeared on Huntsville radio’s WVNN, Birmingham radio’s Talk 99.5 and Mobile’s FM Talk 106.5 to offer his perspective on the move by the governor.
On Monday, the political battle over the proposed tolling for the new I-10 Mobile Bayway Bridge escalated when Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth came out in opposition to the toll. Following in Ainsworth’s footsteps and coming out against the proposal as well was another heavy-hitter, State Senate President Pro-Tem Del Marsh.
Tuesday, Gov. Kay Ivey, who has insisted on the necessity of the project and warned that “cost of doing nothing” was too high, offered a response to detractors.
Ivey indicated to Matt Murphy and Andrea Lindenberg, co-hosts of Birmingham radio Talk 99.5’s “The Matt & Aunie Show,” that a reaction to a toll was to be expected. She also said she would listen to alternatives at the Alabama Toll Road, Bridge and Tunnel Authority meeting scheduled for October 7.
Former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday interviewed with Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie” show, discussing his 2020 Republican candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Alabama and some of the recent headlines that have stemmed from his campaign.
Some of the issues that Tuberville touched on included requests to see his driver license, as well as his highly publicized comments regarding veterans’ healthcare that led to criticism from some of his GOP opponents.
“Well, first of all, you know when people are coming at you, you’re doing pretty good,” Tuberville told cohost Matt Murphy. “And our campaign’s getting stronger and stronger.” (more…)
Tuesday on Birmingham radio’s Talk 99.5, State Auditor Jim Zeigler, who is one of the leaders of the effort challenging the proposed I-10 Mobile Bayway toll, spoke out critically of Alabama Department of Transportation director John Cooper.
Zeigler blamed Cooper for the tolling proposal and said such type toll proposals were the vision of Cooper for the future in Alabama.
He was asked by “Matt & Aunie Show” co-host Andrea Lindenberg what the possible motivations could be for the tolling proposal given the negative politics surrounding it. Zeigler initially called it “insanity” before invoking former Alabama Democratic Gov. George Wallace.
It would appear that the Alabama Democratic Party has a lot of vocal critics, from the national level down to the local level. And now you can add former Gov. Don Siegelman to that list.
During an appearance on Birmingham radio’s Talk 99.5 on Tuesday, Siegelman, Alabama’s last Democrat governor, called his party “pathetic” and blamed current party chairwoman Nancy Worley and Alabama Democratic Conference chairman Joe Reed for its current state.
“The state of the Democratic Party itself is pathetic,” Siegelman said on “The Matt & Aunie Show.” “Joe Reed and Nancy Worley have succeeded in wrecking anything that might resemble an actual political party.”