Last week an old friend died…. Her name was WJBT (92.7 The Beat)
WJBT was a station that I worked at in Jacksonville, FL. At one time it was called “The People’s Station” because it was all about the people. Not only her but urban radio was all about the people… community involvement, community interaction, community ties.
I rode the wave of major broadcasting companies coming into cities and buying up multiple stations, creating cookie cutter formats and raping the community. I witnessed this station go from being the only urban station in the market to sharing the market with another urban to both being bought by a company which became Clear Channel Broadcasting. Clear Channel made one station “Adult” which is WSOL, and the other station “Younger” which was WJBT.
I started in radio at WHJX (which Clear Channel changed to WSOL). This was many moons ago when music was on carts not CD’s. I had mentors in this business. I listened, learned and asked questions. I followed their lead and learned what it was to be a radio jock (DJ)….
Today the game is different…. It’s not a craft any longer. It’s just talking heads. You have people who just talk… These media companies care about the bottom line which is how much money we can make. My morning show was taken off the air because it’s cheaper to syndicate the Doug Banks Morning show than to pay a few salaries.
Presently listeners are forced Steve Harvey, Michael Baisden, and Keith Sweat in urban radio. These are not radio people!!! These people don’t talk about what happens locally in your city neither do they care.
I am going to fall back because I could go on for days about the decline of radio, but I will just say “Good Bye” to an old friend…… 92.7 The Beat…
I rode the wave of major broadcasting companies coming into cities and buying up multiple stations, creating cookie cutter formats and raping the community. I witnessed this station go from being the only urban station in the market to sharing the market with another urban to both being bought by a company which became Clear Channel Broadcasting. Clear Channel made one station “Adult” which is WSOL, and the other station “Younger” which was WJBT.
I started in radio at WHJX (which Clear Channel changed to WSOL). This was many moons ago when music was on carts not CD’s. I had mentors in this business. I listened, learned and asked questions. I followed their lead and learned what it was to be a radio jock (DJ)….
Today the game is different…. It’s not a craft any longer. It’s just talking heads. You have people who just talk… These media companies care about the bottom line which is how much money we can make. My morning show was taken off the air because it’s cheaper to syndicate the Doug Banks Morning show than to pay a few salaries.
Presently listeners are forced Steve Harvey, Michael Baisden, and Keith Sweat in urban radio. These are not radio people!!! These people don’t talk about what happens locally in your city neither do they care.
I am going to fall back because I could go on for days about the decline of radio, but I will just say “Good Bye” to an old friend…… 92.7 The Beat…
1 comment:
I agree not only has the local face of radio changed, but the style of radio is very different. Back in the day here in Jacksonville we grew up listening to Larry Brody and every kid and adult knew the phrase "Hey Now Larry Brody" on the radio station WPDQ. Now we are subjects of a syndicated,prepackaged radio show value meal. There is no originality and it is not butger king because you cannot have it you way. The local connection that people had with there DJ's in the morning when going to school or work. You have to call the 800 number that a few other thousand individuals are calling just to get a constant busy. Anyway I could go on but.... I will go on record as saying 92.7 0r 93.3 or whatever you are THE STEVE HARVEY SHOW SUCKS AND DOES NOT MATCH YOUR TARGET MARKET!!!!!!! Oh yeah speaking of the "Beat" it would not hurt if you had more than two DJ's that know how to talk. Doom and Gene seem to be the only individuals who actually know how to speak. But oh boy when you want to hear real n words speak in the most ignorant way possible to set African Americans back 400 years, just listen to T-Roy or Easy-E. I stopped listening this station at certain times because of these individuals and got my son an ipod and cd to play in his car so he would not have to listen to such ignorant individuals. One more thing if Easy is still saying "Ghost" will somebody please hit him across the head. Now I dont promote violence, but sometimes you have to do an Ike to get you point across. LOL. *** Please excuse any errors I was so fired up I did not proof read***
Post a Comment