Brian Vickery, one of the hosts of "The Film Thing" shifts his eyes from the entertainment section of the newspaper to his co-host, Greg Peters. "Where's Kevin?" With another ring of the elevator Brian's question is answered.

Two more elevator loads and a few minutes later leave the station's lobby chock-full of hosts. Talk show hosts, Fifteen voices of talk radio in Athens now have faces. Ready or not, they've got five minutes -- no, make it four, until three hours of non-stop, non-scripted chatter will begin.

Coming out of an election year, and the light of the apparent influence of talk radio on our society, it makes perfect sense that 90.5FM would act up and kick in with a new idea in programming. Replacing WUOG's previous talk format, which spread the shows across much of the weekdays, the Wednesday night talk block has brought consistency and listeners to shows such as "Culture Shock", "Athens Journal", and others.

Boasting shows form sports news, and public affairs, the talk block airs from 5pm until 8pm on Wednesday nights. The shows are lined up back-to-back and are punctuated with public service announcements and occasional commentator from its producer, Tony Stephens, the news director.

In theory the switch made sense, and in practice, the Wednesday night Talk Block moves like clockwork. With the entire talk lineup in one block of air time, listeners can now carry over form show to show. Shows feed off of each others fans and ultimately the talk block itself is the best reason for listeners to tune in. And they are. In the first quarter of its freshman year, the talk block has stirred up the community and gotten a good amount of press along the way.

While the increase in listenership is a benefit, the improvements to the broadcast as a whole are the real achievement. The block allows for a producer that is present for the duration, and the director of sports, news, and public affairs to make appearances. Each of the hosts assist in the production and someone is always there to keep the ball rolling.

All signs show us that talk radio at WUOG is getting better. Or perhaps it is the block itself. Either way quality, listenership, and enjoyment seem to be a high point. From listening on a Wednesday evening, it makes sense that this type of programming is the best thing to happen to talk radio in a long while, and block programming as a whole seems a lot more appealing.