Ahhh, urban radio

I dedicate this post to what is wrong with WPGC 95.5 in Washington D.C.  If you don't know much about me is that I'm an avid listener of terrestrial radio (even in this day and age of  mostly corporate-owned radio).  Anyways, CBS Radio's former urban flagship is still suffering from the same problems plaguing it back in 2007 when the Portable People Meter (PPM) system was introduced to the Washington, D.C. radio market.  (PPM is a system of Arbitron ratings that records instantaneous measurements of how many, often, and how long people listen to a particular radio station.)

Apparently, there back to the same place they were some 4 years ago in the DC market overall 6+ Arbitron ratings.  As of December 2012, the station is currently 14th overall in the market.  It kind of embarrassing considering CBS hired Jason Kidd, a DMV local to be the station's program director and turn the tide of this wayward ship in 2011.  Prior to Kidd's tenure, WPGC began to reintroduce some pop songs only spun on rhythmic contemporary hits radio stations like Z100 in New York, B96 in Chicago, and Power 96 in Miami.

Although the station has officially moved from the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop panel to the Rhythmic panel in July, its ratings have remained stagnant with only occasional influx of marginally higher overall ratings.  The results display that their problems lay with playlist which is a mixture of contemporary hip-hop, R&B, and pop songs.  However, the station's mixture of contemporary hip-hop and R&B is mostly chart topper songs from either genre rather than a wider variety of such found on most other urban stations.  Although their promotional events like "For Sisters Only" and concerts of the hottest hip-hop and R&B artists mainly targets 25-40 year black particularly black females, but the all-over-the-place playlist is main deterrent.   Basically, they have given their core audience, 18-49 year old blacks, a reason to look elsewhere a significant portion of the time.

My solution, it's time WPGC goes back to its roots of being an urban contemporary radio station that occasionally spins pop or dance music but focuses primarily on R&B and hip-hop song titles.  However, the DC region hasn't changed to the point that it would warrant them to attempt to sound like Z100 in NYC because the region has a larger than average black population.  Also their numbers are abysmal and there needs to be some serious soul-searching on the station's core demographic group (which has always been 18-49 year old blacks).  It's bad when Radio One's WKYS is eating their lunch like it is going out of style in the 18-34 demographic group overall.

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).

Teena Marie 1956-2010

I swear it seems like every Christmas Day, a major entertainer passes.  I remember like it was yesterday back in 2006 when James Brown passed on Christmas Day because I was listening to WPGC 95.5 in Washington D.C. via AOL Radio and they announced he passed on air while playing Christmas music.  Now, while listening to WPGC's sister station, WVEE "V-103", in Atlanta they announced during their Quiet Storm on Sunday night that Teena Marie had died in her sleep sometime between Christmas Day and the 26th.  It seems like we have reached a time when a number of the "old school" musicians are passing away at a rapid pace.  ***SIGH***

Her music was legendary with "Fire & Desire" with the late Rick James to "Lovergirl", "Ooo La La La" to my all time favorite "Square Biz".

Rest in peace, Ms. Marie.  I will miss you and your soul-funk music, the Queen of Ivory Soul.  You were also one of the few non-black soul artists that gain my respect and admiration for your tenacity music making.

Well, well, well, somebody made it big in urban music out of Pittsburgh

Well, if you know my blog track history then you would know I am an avid urban music fan.  Well, fellow blogger, Urban Radio Nation, did a story talking about how up-an-coming rapper, Wiz Khalifa, making it big in urban radio without a local station being in Pittsburgh.  The blog covers the history and closure of long time "heritage" urban station, WAMO, after nearly 5 decades of being on air in Pittsburgh.  Now it's a Catholic radio station airing religious services and programs.  The closest station to the urban format is Clear Channel-owned top 40, WKST, which plays it because of its charting status on the Billboard Top 100.  However, that station is just paying lip-service to the hip-hop song because its hits status, not because it is local per say.

However, Wiz Khalif has made it so big that he is getting spins with his hit, "Black and Yellow", which is based on the colors of the cities sports teams, like the Pittsburgh Pirates, major-league baseball team.  The single is now on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Song chart.  It celebrates the "Steel City" and its pride for hometown sport teams.  I personally love the song and play it while in the gym working out because the up-tempo beat.

It's just a damn shame that a city as large as Pittsburgh and with a 27% black in the city (about 10% metropolitan area), it doesn't even have an urban radio station serving its community.  Another time and depressing day for listeners of urban radio that want to see stations represent their hometown artists, whom are good and give their city some spotlight, has to use alternative ways of obtaining success.

Who in the hell still steals copper?

Copper is practically worthless these days after the market drop in late 2007 (because let's be honest take into account the price of gas to travel to where it is and a place to sale it then it is worthless).  Meanwhile, the late thieves in Alabama (where it seems 90% of everything is way behind the curve) are still attempting to steal copper to make a quick buck.  This morning in downtown Birmingham, where the city's Christmas tree was standing in Linn Park was burned down by a couple of these late copper stealing morons.

According to the Birmingham News, the thieves attempted to melt the plastic from the copper to extract the metal to sale by dousing the tree in gasoline and set a small fire.  The idiots also set the tree on fire and burned the majority of the tree lower portion resulting in being taken to the city recycling center to be made into mulch.

It's a damn shame after Birmingham has already suffered through another election of another member of the status quo group, continued plunging of city population, the ongoing battle to handle a deficit, and now this.  Birmingham really needs a break...SIGH!

UPDATE: The local urban adult contemporary radio station WBHK, "98.7 Kiss FM" has decided to step in and help replace the city's tree.  They had the tree delivered to Linn Park around 3PM this afternoon, and other surrounding cities are offering up extra ornaments that have storage to the city of Birmingham to decorate the new tree.  There is a tree lighting ceremony planned for 9AM Thursday morning.

However, on a personal note, it still doesn't change my feelings about the boring ass Kiss FM.  Birmingham should have a station more like V-103 in Atlanta as its leader and community-oriented urban station.

WTH is going on at WVEE and WPGC?

Word on the street is that radio legend, media personality, and DC morning drive man for over 30 years, Donnie Simpson will be out by weeks end at WPGC.  Then there is the mysterious disappearance of Joyce Littel from WVEE "V-103" in Atlanta on the mic, but the word is that she said that last week on Twitter that she was "released to be free".  Whatever that means, another loss to my listening line-up of the 2 of the 3 main stations I listen to on a regular (the other is KMEL in San Francisco).  UGH! 

Birmingham, on the verge of success or failure, part I

The first of the 3 televised or broadcast debates were last night on ABC 33/40 from the UAB Alys Stephens Center for the Performing Arts moderated by their news anchor Pam Huff, and the production was amateur at best thanks to Birmingham's piecemeal ABC affiliate.  They had only 3 cameras and the operation was cheap looking compared to what they did in Atlanta with their news stations.  Also ABC 33/40 focused too much on the face rather the person themselves.  Anyways.

William Bell and Patrick Cooper faced off and boy was it a show to say the least.  Cooper tried his best to focus on his platform for the city whereas Bell tried his best to make a many side swipes at Cooper as possible and when he wasn't doing that he was talking about how much "experience" he has a politician.  It didn't amount to much because the debate was so fruitless in my opinion because only a dumbass with prejudicial bias against somebody who isn't "considered one of them" would vote for Bell.  Bell's platform is a vague as it comes and here I am watching this shit and wondering how in the hell did Bell say "I-65 & 41st Street is Eastlake". HUH?  That is North Birmingham, you moron.  You don't even know the city, yet you want to run the place.  He is so full of hot air that it is embarrassing.

I'm not even wasting my time listening to the debate that god-awful WBHK "98.7 Kiss FM" will be broadcasting because I'm not going to give them the listening cume or the advertisement dollars because as I've said in the past, they are garbage.  I'll just give the details of the last debate which will be aired on WBRC, "FOX 6" during their 9PM newscast Thursday live.

Why Urban Radio sucks!

Ok, here's my rant on this topic.  As I said many months ago, local radio stations out of Birmingham suck like a Hoover vac since they are so skewed.  Well, here is part 2 of my rant along with the rest of the stations along with why I tolerate over the garbage.

When I do turn on the radio in the vehicle I drive, I cringe because if it isn't for the fact that 98.7 Kiss FM will play a song that should be played during a slow jams show in the middle of the day or Hot 107.7 plays all R&B and no hip-hop aside from Saturday mornings for whatever reason.  It is 95.7 Jamz and their lack of variety.  Now I will say I looked on YES (http://www.yes.com/) and saw that they have added the current Maxwell hit song "Pretty Wings" and Melanie Fiona song "It Kills Me" to their playlists, but only because they are urban hits.  However, they still play the same 25-30 songs over and over again and practically never play any true throwback songs from the 1990s, just those from early 2000s.  Hence, my dilemma.

The other reason why I deplore the local stations is the lack personality any on-air talent that is local has.  I can tolerate Tasha Simone on Hot 107.7 since she makes a good midday personality, but I can't stand country bumpkin wannabe Steve Harvey or Michael Baisden.  Anyone aside from Tom Joyner and his crew on the syndicated morning show puts me to sleep on 98.7.  However, what truly pisses me off is the ignorance that Cox Radio Birminngham allows on 95.7.  Buckwild, whose real name I do know, but refuse to post it because I'm respectful to his privacy, is 40 years old and he tries so damn hard to pretend like he is 'down' with his whackness.  If B-Money (another person whose name I know as well) doesn't stop with is lame self as well I will scream.  Nobody in their right mind would listen to any of the other ignorant, non-pronouncating personalities on that station who all talk like they don't even have a high school education at all.  I mean come on?

Cox acts as if the 18-34, nevermind, their target is 12-24 black demographic group suppose to be that damn dumb in Jefferson and Shelby counties.  They bores us in the 18-34 demographic group with 98.7, so they only chase after the 34-54 year olds instead.  Thus Citadel needs to be monkey stomped with their incompetence of programming an urban here because practically all their urbans in Little Rock and Charleston, SC were inherited along with their management from other companies.

Why is that urban stations can't have program a station these days?  I mean I work in the field of demographics and cultural aspects on a regular, but these stations are so over researched to the point that stations fear to play local or undiscovered artists anymore.  95.7 will play the ghetto ones locally that doesn't have any talent like Soulja Boy tell Em, but aside that nothing.

The stations I do love is KMEL '106 KMEL' in San Francisco that serves the Bay Area and Northern California.  It originally was a Mainstram Top 40 radio station when it first moved in the direction of what it is today in 1983 and evolved from that to Rhythmic Crossover like WPGC in DC to the Urban Contemporary format it has today.  They play quite a bit of Southern hip-hop music for a station in Northern California where the black population is less than 15% of the region's population.  I also love how they play quite a bit of R&B and soul songs along with a good slow jams show on Sundays through Thursdays from 10pm to 2am their time (midnight to 4am my time).  Also they play the music I remember when I was growing up which is perfect for somebody like me in the 18-34 demo.  Their personalites are quite entertaining as well with Chuy Gomez, Sana G, and Big Von on weekdays along with Box Kev on weekends.  I enjoy the station for their realness regardless of the fact that they are owned by corporate misfit Clear Channel, but they apparently bring in the big bucks for them thus the musical freedom. 

V-103 and WPGC "95.5 PGC" wins me over with their personalities and variety within their playlists is at least tolerable for a radio enthusiast such as myself.  I'm more of a balance of both R&B and hip-hop type of person that likes to hear old school, recurrents, and current songs of both genres.  In general, CBS Radio has the best radio stations in the nation hands down over any other group of stations in the urban and rhythmic crossover formats with WVEE, WPGC, WJHM, WZMX, and WMBX in the mix so they speak for themselves.

Radio Stations I like, Part I

OK, I know radio is a not exactly as important to people as it used to be because of MP3 players, multimedia devices, and internet radio like Pandora.  However, I'm still a fan of listening to radio stations, particularly urban radio stations.  Here's my assessment of radio stations in Birmingham and across the nation that I know about and why I like them or hate them.

I'll start with Birmingham:

1) The Cox Radio Birmingham urban combo of WBHK/WENN "98.7 Kiss FM" and WBHJ "95.7 Jamz".  Honestly, I think they both suck because they are so skewed to 2 different demographic groups leaving those in middle like 24-40 year olds to wonder around the radio dial looking for something that fits them.  They are a textbook example of corporatized radio where the operators think you can "serve" listeners of urban radio with an Urban Adult Contemporary (Urban AC) and  Urban Contemporary Hit Radio (Urban CHR) stations.  Both are extreme lopsided with their playlists and song choices, so I don't even waste my time listening to them.  Finally, I wouldn't be a bit of surprised if Portable People Meter (PPM) causes both of these stations to fall from grace in the Arbitron ratings. 

2) WUHT "Hot 107.7" is another station in Birmingham, which I don't like.  They are just lost period.  They rank in top 10, but why does Birmingham have another R&B station?  I do mean "R&B" because that's all they play when they could be an full-service Urban Contemporary like WVEE "V-103" in Atlanta or their predecessor on the 107.7 dial position the original WENN.  Instead, they consistently lose against both of the Cox Urban combo because of they lost lackluster playlist and syndicated line-up of Steve Harvey, Michael Baisden, and Brian McKnight night time slow jams show.  There are already 4 stations in region if you include their sister station, Citadel-owned WTUG, out of Tuscaloosa that oversaturates this region with R&B only playlists.  Somebody with some common sense ought to just buy this station from Citadel and do it justice as a full-service urban that would give the Cox stations a run for their money.

Now on to other cities: In Washington, D.C., I do enjoy "95.5 PGC" formerly known as "WPGC 95.5".  They are a legendary "churban", which combines the Rhythmic Contemporary Hit/Crossover format with Urban Contemporary.  However, since the long-time former programming director, Jay Stevens, vacated the station in 2007 the station has falter tremendously.  They have become more "hits" oriented with their playlist compared to under Stevens where a mixture of throwbacks and hits were the balanced out to keep the playlist rotation relatively low for major market station.  I also enjoyed how they used to have local artists getting some major play like the Go-Go bands like E.U., which are big in the DC area.  Interestingly, the station has started give nation attention to Chuck Brown. The strong personality line-up of the legendary Donnie Simpson, former host of BET's Video Soul, is the morning man with Michele Wright for middays.  Unfortunely, the rest of the weekday line-up isn't as up to par with the "suspect" Darius "Big Tigger" Morgan in afternoons (former host of BET's Rap City: Da Basement) and a canned slow jams show compared to when it was under the helm of Stevens as "Love Talk and Slow Jams/the Coolout with Justine Love".  The station has seen better days, but I still enjoy it because they still have Simpson and some good song choices for a station in the nation's capital region. 

Another station I enjoy is KMEL also known as "106 KMEL" in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Although it is owned by corporate joke Clear Channel, it is still has its own sound and local flavor for a corporate-owned station.  It is also known along side WPGC as one of the first "crossover" stations in the nation that straddled the Urban and Rhythmic format designations throughout the 1990s.  They are the station that brought the nation 2Pac, Digital Underground, and legendary rapper Too Short.  It has become an Urban Contemporary these days, but it has a good mixture of current and old school music.  I actually catch myself listening to them on weekends when they play a plethora of throwbacks from the 1980s and 1990s mixed in with the current songs.  They also the only West Coast urban radio station that plays quite a bit of Southern hip-hop and hypey music from the Bay Area. 


I will talk about more stations in another installment including "V-103" in Atlanta, "102 Jamz" in Orlando, WGCI in Chicago, WDKX in Rochester, NY, WBLK in Buffalo, WERQ in Baltimore, and WZMX in Hartford, CT. 

Artur Davis is running ads for governor

He's already started airing radio advertisements on urban and urban gospel radio stations across Alabama.  So its seems he already hitting the ground running with the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.  Compared to Ron Sparks, he does seem like he wants to do things for Alabama compared to other governors.  However, one has to remember the State Legislature, and Alabama Democrats at that are fools who will do anything to get anything done to serve themselves.  So even if Mr. Davis becomes governor, he has an uphill battle ahead.

WPGC in DC is now known as "95-5 PGC"

DCRTV observes from their e-mailbag "Some changes at WPGC. Their on-air name is now '95-5 PGC' and their slogan is 'DC's Hip Hop And R&B.' The music sounds about the same, except I noticed that they didn't play as many slower songs as they did before in the day. They also took the cursive 'Jamz' off of their logo and replaced it with '955 FM' as seen on their website.

Well, I heard this was coming since they have fell from grace in the Washington DC area as one of the top radio stations.  Now they are just playing strictly the urban hits and throwback songs from about 2-3 years ago.  I will miss this legendary Rhythmic-Crossover that played everything from the current hip-hop to the crossover songs from folks like George Michael back in the 1980's when I first had a chance to listen to them via AOL Radio back in 2005.  Ahh, those were the days, I could be entertained for sure.  Well, at least V-103 still is worth listening to (some of the time) although they do push the envelope of being boring because they will sometimes play the same throwback twice in the same day.

Now Mini Cooper AKA "Mini Coop" ought be exposed for this

There apparently has been a NUD or "Non Urban Dictate" issued by the marketing agency that wants to promo Mini Coops via radio. In other words, there don't want to promote or advertise this specific brand of vehicles to Urban radio stations also know as "black radio stations". Interesting, I say since last time I remember black Americans were considered one of the "largest consumer block of products." Special thanks to Urban Radio Nation for the heads up.

Here's a piece of the e-mail:

MARKETS-BOSTON-HOUSTON-DC-BALTIMORE

Formats-Rock, News, Alternative, Sports, Talk

Length: 30’s

Dayparts-All

No combos or urban formats.