A post dedicated to urban radio

I haven't discussed on this blog in over year the affairs of urban radio, but I am dedicating this one post to it.  Right now, I'm going to dub this one the "State of Urban Radio" post.

Right now, urban radio is in a tizzy because of the recent changes and shifts due to the release of more analysis and summary profiles of 2010 US Census decennial count.  In Atlanta, V-103 (WVEE) is still dominating by a long shot as the #1 urban station and overall station in the Atlanta radio market.  As of the January 2012 Arbitron ratings, WVEE is pushing a 10-share with 9.8.  CBS Radio Atlanta management is doing a helluva job maintaining an equal balance of dayparting musical programming with major events and promotions for the station.  Although, Atlanta isn't considered the largest market for the urban division, the station is still the 'flagship'.

Washington DC, is other major urban radio market where things are still changing and shifting with the times.  After nearly 5 years of floating around and dealing with so many shift, CHRurban juggernaut, WPGC 95.5 has found its footing.  It is finally secured its place back into the overall 12+ top 10 of the Washington radio market.  However, it still hasn't found a way to take down the R&B-exclusive urban adult contemporary formatted stations of Howard University-owned WHUR 96.3 and WMMJ "Majic 102.3", which are still respectively #5 and #6 overall.  I'm a huge fan of CBS-owned urban/urban-leaning rhythmic CHR stations, so I'm rooting for WPGC because they have shown they can be a well-programmed station that competes with both UACs, Radio One-owned urban contemporary WKYS "93.9 WKYS", and Clear Channel-owned CHR/mainstream (top 40) WIHT "Hot 99.5".  Unfortunately, they have just had bad management over the past few years since long time program director/VP of urban/rhythmic programming for CBS Radio, Jay Stevens, jumped ship on them just in time for the arrive of the Portable People Monitoring (PPM) system of ratings allocation into the DC market in early 2007.    WPGC is now back to playing actual hip-hop and R&B, contemporary and old school, along with some crossover pop tracks, which works for them considering they aren't V-103, rather a crossover station that targets blacks, Latinos, and some suburban whites.

In San Francisco, Clear Channel-owned and long-time CHRurban, KMEL "106 KMEL", is still doing their thing.  Although they are the only urban station that targets 18-34 year olds, although they program towards the 18-49 year old crowd.  Regardless, they are still doing their damn thing with #5 overall in the 12+ ratings of the San Francisco-Oakland radio market.  It is surprising for a Clear Channel station, well programmed with throwbacks from the late 1980s through mid-2000s integrated into its playlist and mixshows.  Overall, they are doing a good job.  These days, KMEL is the best programmed urban station in the high ranked market in the nation.

In lower ranked but major markets, Orlando has turned into a complete and utter disaster for CBS Radio.  WJHM "102 Jamz" has shifted towards rhythmic category, essentially dropping all of its contemporary R&B from its playlist, not like DC sister station WPGC which maintained its urban-lean the entire time.  Sitting at the bottom of the heap in the Orlando radio market at #15. Now with a playlist consisting of mostly dance, electropop, and hip-pop tracks, and it sounds like garbage.  This is what happens chasing after Cox Radio-owned WPYO, "Power 95.3" and allowing their sister station UAC-formatted WCFB "Star 94.5" runamok in the Orlando market unchallenged. Their play is to chase after Clear Channel-owned WXXL "XL 106.7" and "Power 95.3" with this shift hoping to bounce back. CBS needs to get it together with WJHM because "102 Jamz" is the only true heritage station in the market that has carried urban music over-the-air, but they are too busy trying to experiment with the rhythmic (non-urban-leaning kind) format in a market with a growing black population (15% as of the 2010 Census).

Not very bright at all if you ask me.  CBS might just failed this market not because of it is trying, but because they are trying the wrong things with a station that actually has the best positioning from signal strength and penetration to reputation amongst urban music listeners in Orlando and Central Florida.  I expect this station to remain sitting below the top 10 for a long time to come because Orlando isn't Miami, where they only have one rhythmic "Power 96" WPOW, that had to constantly reformulate itself to deal with Latin rhythmic stations and a rhythmic AC.  Miami is way more ethnically diverse.

Other mentioning is the strength of black-owned and operated station, KPRS "Hot 103 Jamz", in Kansas City.  Carter Broadcasting Group is still going long and strong even in this corporate-owned radio era with a locally-owned and operated (and non-white owned) urban station.  It is another surprisingly well programmed urban station in this Great Plains metropolis.  Although most of the blacks in reside in the cities of Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City/Wyandotte County, Kansas in the bi-state metropolitan area.  The station has a flamethrower signal that can be hard nearly 70 miles in any direction from its tower site in the southside of Kansas City (MO).

New Year, and one more semester

This year, I embark on the conclusion of my time in Auburn-Opelika area in Alabama and will be moving on afterwards.  THANK GOD!  I will be finishing up my graduate studies and will be relocating elsewhere.  Now I am not totally sure if elsewhere is going to be Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, Washington, Orlando, Memphis, or New Orleans.  I'm kind of conflicted because I know there is nothing here in Alabama for me and should venture elsewhere because it seems nothing of worth will come from this place for while.  However, I am going to try to blog a little more rather than every 4 weeks on the current issues and things that have been going on with myself.

Republicans are aiming for Alan Grayson ...

If you don't know who Alan Grayson is...  Well, you should most definitely should google or search on YouTube for clips of his rants and antics (and I like them all because the man speaks THE TRUTH for a Democrat but he is also a fellow progressive).  Anyways, the Orlando Sentinel is reporting that the Florida Republican Party aka Florida GOP has been reeling and scheming to take Grayson down.  I guess they can't handle somebody that tells it like it is...

They have apparently are hoping on the national scene a political nobody, but on the state-level clearly a mover and shaker (and former state senator representing the Greater Orlando area).  After reading the article it seems like the GOP will have a grand ole party with the Republican primary to prove who has the fortitude to take down Grayson in the November midterms elections.   Which I doubt they will because Grayson seems to have a number of fans in the politically moderate Greater Orlando 8th Congressional district of Florida. 

High Speed Rail in the South?

The Southern High Speed Rail Corridor has been a point of discussion through out the 1990s and 2000s, but nothing came of it considering Alabama nor Georgia openly funds public transit since both states have bans on using gax tax revenue towards such things.  However, North Carolina and Florida, ironically the only 2 "swing states" in the South, have both struck it big on the Obama administration's stimulus funds for high-speed rail in the South.  North Carolina will get some $545 million in federal funds to improve intrastate rail service among 30 other projects that involves commuter and regional rail between the Charlotte metropolitan area and the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham).  Also the funds will allow quicker service from Charlotte to Washington, D.C., with the Amtrak Piedmont rail line.   Florida will get $1.25 billion in funds to mainly fund a commuter rail between the Tampa Bay area and Daytona Beach, including Greater Orlando.  Also a number of these funds can be used for the SunRail commuter rail system proposed for the Greater Orlando area.  

Georgia fumbled big time with it majority conservative and Republican General Assembly by only getting $750,000 in federal funds to study it for the state.  Whereas, Alabama is still trying to figure out how to put together the economic development and transportation puzzle with the Alabama Department of Economic Development (ADECA) and Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), both needs to merged into one agency like Louisiana where the transportation and development departments are one (LDOTD).  Alabama did get a few funds to do more studying of high-speed rail like Georgia.   Unfortunately, Birmingham and Atlanta will continue to suffer from sprawl and one-tract mindsets of their state leadership since both cities are limited in alternative forms of transportation aside from private automobile (although Metro Atlanta has MARTA, but it is limited to only Fulton and DeKalb counties with limited connections to bus systems in Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton counties). 

The current rail service in the South, mainly the Deep South, is the Amtrak Crescent Line, that goes through Richmond, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greenville/Spartanburg, Atlanta, Birmingham, and terminates in New Orleans.  The funds on the table that Alabama and Georgia would upgrade their service allowing a high-speed rail line from Birmingham to Atlanta within 45 minutes. 

This something leaders in these 2 states need to think about and stop being so damn shortsighted about since this portion of the country is increasingly becoming an urbanized belt.

A Hiring Manager at an Orlando McDonald's said what?

Now this is just plain mean-spirited and evil!

According to the Orlando Sentinel, an Orlando black transgender teenager was denied a job interview at on of the area McDonald's location over the fact that she is transgender.   

Zikerria Bellamy, 17, said two managers at an Orlando restaurant wouldn't give her an interview on two separate occasions in July. Later, she said a manager left her a voice mail, using a gay slur to let her know she wouldn't be hired.

A spokeswoman for the local restaurant, Allison Garrett, said in a statement the employee who left the voice mail "acted outside the scope of his authority and was not responsible for hiring." He no longer works at the restaurant. The statement did not mention did not mention the other manager.

McDonald's "has a zero tolerance policy prohibiting discrimination or harassment in the restaurant," the statement said.

Bellamy is a male who has been living as a female for about the past six years. She said she completed a job application online, then was called to the store for an interview. When one manager refused to see her, she called later and was granted an interview with another manager.

"He began to laugh at me once he saw me," said Bellamy, who wore a suit to the interview. "He said, 'Oh, I can't interview you today. I'm busy.'"

One of the managers also left her a voice mail saying: "We do not hire faggots."

Bellamy notified the New York City-based Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, which filed the complaint on Bellamy's behalf to the Florida Commission on Human Relations, posted a recording of the message on YouTube.  Florida state law doesn't include sexuality or gender identity in its state equal employment law (typical of any Southern state), but there are stipulations associated with the Florida Civil Rights Law involving discrimination of sexuality and gender identity. 

Here's the clip:




In this economy, it is hard for EVERYBODY, but this is just plain evil for those managers to have left such an asinine message to Ms. Bellamy.  In addition, McDonald's is suppose to be one of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) companies with such high marks for LGBT/SGL issues.   Ironically, they do leave off gender identity in their non-discrimination coverage.  I'm not saying, but I'm just saying...

UPDATE: From Orlando CBS affiliate, WKMG, the one of the hiring managers at the Orlando area McDonald's was terminated for the voicemail. 

STILL IMHO, McDonald's and HRC got a lot of 'plaining to do when it comes to rights and discrimination policies involving transgenders.

Tiger Woods and his ness

The conflicting reports on Mr. Woods, his car accident, and his alleged rescue by his wife, Elin, is just plain fishy at his estate in suburban Orlando.  At first Friday when it first occurred the reports were Woods had crashed into a fire hydrant and tree and his wife had broke the front windshield with a golf club then rushed to a hospital.  Then by late Friday, the reports were that his wife broke the windshield and back windows out then and he had a facial lacerations.  Now, it just a big ass confusing mess that doesn't even make any type of sense where he had a concussion, facial lacerations, dents on the front end of the car from the golf club, and the broken out windows.  The 911 tape to Orange County 911 says otherwise like Woods was unconscience and severe injuries. 

IMO, he and his wife got into a fight over the allegations that he was cheating on her with some NYC socialite and event planner, Rachel Utichel, who has been alleged to have been with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Bones star David Boreneaz. 

That's not the icing on the cake is Woods along with his wife have refused to give any type of information to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.  Now why are they avoiding the authorities when it is within their purview to request a statement from Woods and his wife on the incident.  You can play private all you want, but they can get the DA to subponea you to talk....  SMH