Luther Vandross Tributes on L.A. Radio Stations

[heywhatsupglenn]

Hot 92 Jamz did an incrediblely great job today of honoring Luther Vandross. From the time it came down in the press to a one hour tribute at 7 PM. Even NBC 4 - whose studios are only a block away from Clear Channel - showed up.

KJLH also had plenty of tributes and listeners calls not unlike Hot. Just can't take that audio processing at KJLH.

On the other hand, 100.3 The Beat did a shameful job of remembering its roots. Hardly more than a mention and a few calls while Hot 92 Jamz was ALL Luther for a while today. Luther WAS 92.3 The Beat. On the side of the former studios on Yucca St. in Hollywood there was even a mural dedicated to Luther Vandross. And he use to show up on everyones show - John Monds, Diana Steele, Cliff WInston, Sky Walker, Frankie Ross, John London and The House Party etc....Radio One has really lost focus on what The Beat means...all they've done is TWISTED it.

But the worst I heard today was Julio G. on KDAY. Playing Luther and dropping the calls twice in the middle of his songs. Playing his own obnoxious intro. and continuing his tribute to Luther and then saying over a Luther song "Hope You're Having a Great 4th of July Weekend". What a total MORON. This station hasn't a clue.

 

[calguy]

> Hot 92 Jamz did an incrediblely great job today of honoring
> Luther Vandross. From the time it came down in the press to
> a one hour tribute at 7 PM. Even NBC 4 - whose studios are
> only a block away from Clear Channel - showed up.
>
> KJLH also had plenty of tributes and listeners calls not
> unlike Hot. Just can't take that audio processing at KJLH.
>
> On the other hand, 100.3 The Beat did a shameful job of
> remembering its roots. Hardly more than a mention and a few
> calls while Hot 92 Jamz was ALL Luther for a while today.
> Luther WAS 92.3 The Beat. On the side of the former studios
> on Yucca St. in Hollywood there was even a mural dedicated
> to Luther Vandross. And he use to show up on everyones show
> - John Monds, Diana Steele, Cliff WInston, Sky Walker,
> Frankie Ross, John London and The House Party etc....Radio
> One has really lost focus on what The Beat means...all
> they've done is TWISTED it.
>
> But the worst I heard today was Julio G. on KDAY. Playing
> Luther and dropping the calls twice in the middle of his
> songs. Playing his own obnoxious intro. and continuing his
> tribute to Luther and then saying over a Luther song "Hope
> You're Having a Great 4th of July Weekend". What a total
> MORON. This station hasn't a clue.
>
KOST did a nice but brief tribute a little before 4 o'clock.
The dj did a short "KOST 103 remembers Luther Vandross" with a jingle, played Luther's "Always And Forever" and followed the song with a short announcement about his passing and accomplishments. It was brief but classy.

 

[radioresearcher]

> Hot 92 Jamz did an incrediblely great job today of honoring
> Luther Vandross. From the time it came down in the press to
> a one hour tribute at 7 PM. Even NBC 4 - whose studios are
> only a block away from Clear Channel - showed up.
>
IMO, Hot was a little late. The news broke sometime around 3 (or a little before) and they took over an hour to put their "tribute" together. The first song they played about Luther was after 4:00. Not on top of it for a station who's core artist is Luther. I wasn't impressed.


> KJLH also had plenty of tributes and listeners calls not
> unlike Hot. Just can't take that audio processing at KJLH.

KJLH did a great job. They are the R&B authority in this town - and they were the first on it - and stuck with it. They had someone in their newsroom giving out info and they were playing tribute songs. Their audio sounded fine to me.

>
> On the other hand, 100.3 The Beat did a shameful job of
> remembering its roots. Hardly more than a mention and a few
> calls while Hot 92 Jamz was ALL Luther for a while today.
> Luther WAS 92.3 The Beat. On the side of the former studios
> on Yucca St. in Hollywood there was even a mural dedicated
> to Luther Vandross. And he use to show up on everyones show
> - John Monds, Diana Steele, Cliff WInston, Sky Walker,
> Frankie Ross, John London and The House Party etc....Radio
> One has really lost focus on what The Beat means...all
> they've done is TWISTED it.

The BEAT may have started a mix weekend and didn't want to break programming. Not sure why, although you would've thought they would've done something better.

>
> But the worst I heard today was Julio G. on KDAY. Playing
> Luther and dropping the calls twice in the middle of his
> songs. Playing his own obnoxious intro. and continuing his
> tribute to Luther and then saying over a Luther song "Hope
> You're Having a Great 4th of July Weekend". What a total
> MORON. This station hasn't a clue.
>
KDAY doesn't even play Luther's music - so Julio probably put it together at the last minute. For a station that doesn't have Luther as a core artist, it shows that they had the respect for Luther's contributions to acknowledge his passing.

Luther was a legend and his music stands the test of time..

 

[calguy]

> IMO, Hot was a little late. The news broke sometime around 3
> (or a little before) and they took over an hour to put their
> "tribute" together. The first song they played about Luther
> was after 4:00. Not on top of it for a station who's core
> artist is Luther. I wasn't impressed.
>

I wouldn't be too hard on HOT 92. First off, you can't do a tribute correctly in 2 minutes. Secondly, I found out that the offices at CC in Burbank closed at 2 pm on Friday, so support staff was light. Yes, radio is a medium of immediacy, but if you rush, you can really sound bad. Better to announce the bad news and then wait a few minutes to really get your act together to do your tribute and get it right.