asugeorge1 said:
P.S. We love you KDM! Glad to have your energy back on the boards! 
Awww, thanks! This sort of puts me in an R. Dub kind of mood... And speaking of R. Dub, I have a feeling that he, or something similar, may be back on the station, even if it's only once a week. We do not have any type of urban or urban leaning rhythmic format station with a slow jams dedication show (and even TUCSON has one!).
URBAN FORMAT / HIP HOP STATION
I gotta feeling that KNRJ will eventually become completely modern hip hop (and possibly r&b) with some old school and recurrents thrown in and a whole new set of mixshows. Despite the fact that I heard a "dance is ok, but my true love is hip hop" drop liner on KNRJ, I believe that if they mix, they may have some uptempo hits since they do play the remix of "Day'N'Nite" in regular rotation. I don't think this station is going to go 100% urban or urban contemporary.
CURRENT HIP HOP HITS & RHYTHMIC CHARTS
I believe the reason for the failure of Power 98.3 is not so much the hip hop, but more about the current funny playlist formatting in addition to being up against other stations with a more solid playlist and signal. As of right now, Drake, Big Sean, J. Cole, and Jay-Z ft Kanye West are within the top 10 RHYTHMIC charts (and N***** in paradise (the 'That Sh%t Cray' song) by Jay-Z ft Kanye West is at a solid #1 on the charts with J. Cole's "work out" sitting at #2). B.O.B, Wale, Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and Wiz Khalifa are just outside the top 10 and rising. Keep in mind this is just the rhythmic charts. I haven't looked at the urban charts . I noticed Power 98.3 stayed reasonably ok in ratings up until the point something happened and the playlist was... well, messed up, for lack of better terms. Hip hop was fading out, but it seems like some rappers finally "woke up" and decided to quit messing around or sitting back helplessly and start bringing back creative & meaningful lyrics and more quality hip hop rather than just sitting there watching the new rappers destroy it and talk about how the music died.
I'm not sure that hip hop is doing well enough to be supported exclusively on a station, but with a mixture of contemporary R&B (and maybe even some urban pop), I believe it could pull through. They will have to add some new R&B (Beyonce's new one, Miguel's new one,...etc.) and stuff if they fully plan on filling the urban style void.
WHY DOES THIS EXCITE ME?
I guess the reason why this excites me is not only because I am liking some of the newer hip hop releases lately and because it's somewhat of an unique format for the southwest, but I still sort of have that old subconscious mindset from my high school years when whatever city you were from or lived at was judged and rated based on how "hard" that city was, or how gangsta/hip hop it was. I was not exactly the "coolest kid in class" representing PHOENIX, AZ. when I lived in the southeast. I know all that is old and in the past now, but for some reason, I still carry that subconscious mindset that I have something to prove and some city to beat. I imagine the possibility of certain folks flying in to Phoenix, scanning the dial, and
finally accepting Phoenix for "being hard". I don't know why this is still important to me, and I'm sure a city with 4 urbans on huge signals doesn't even care or think about Phoenix, yet... although times have changed, I still feel that it's a competition and something must eventually be proven.
