TR1992 said:
[I guess I'm the only one that feels that B 96 is "urban"?????
www.radioblack.com/Illinois.html
Note that this is an African American website and they list WBBM FM in the same words that they
describe WGCI and WPWX.
The cited website is, indeed, bizarre. For some reason, they believe that any station playing, in their opinion, "Black" music is a "Black" radio station.
Of course, the flip answer would be that in the 60's, CKLW and its big dose of Motown would be considered Black by that criteria.
For some reason, they liste a couple of stations in Haiti as being "Black" yet nearly 100% of the population is Afroantillian; this forms the basis for a conclusion that the website interprets the playing of music that has some element of "Blackness" to it as being at the core of their determination, and not whether a station appeals to a Black audience.
Again, the key element is not whether a station plays music by Black artists (whether they be African American, Afroantillean or whatever) but who the station appeals to. At around 10% Black listenership, 30% Hispanic listenership and 60% "other" (Arbitron's term for non-ethnic white), WBBM-FM is not a Black radio station, and is not an urban radio station.
There have been Black artists on non-Black specificly targeted radio stations going back to Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, the Platters, many of not all the do-wop groups, Little Richard, etc., etc. Playing hit songs that happen to be hip hop songs does not make a station uban any more than playing lots of Motown songs in the 60's on a Top 40 station did.
When you look at the inclusion of pop artists ranging from Lady Gaga to decidedly crossover artists like Black Eyed Peas on B-96, you can tell the station is a rhythmic CHR, just like many other major market CHR stations. In fact, if you look at the hip hop they play, you see it is "hip pop" or crossover material... one of the key elements of CHR back to the top 40 days when picking the best from a variety of genres made the format what it is.
You can also google "black radio Chicago" and guess what station pops
up before GCI and Power 92? Yes that's right WBBM FM. I guess I'm not the only person that perceives B 96 in this way. Oh wait your books say differently, so to hell with reality.
The listeners are, at the end of the discussion, the ones who tell us what a station is and is not. An average of a bit less than 3% of Chicago Blacks listen to WBBM-FM one hour or more a week... eliminating with the listening requirement most of those in the PPM world who we exposed to but did not pick the (any) station. We're talking about a station that has less than half the Black appeal that WBBM AM does!
Yes, these are "figures" in part and a bit of CHR and music radio history on the other hand. But the figures show that B-96 has very, very limited Black listener appeal while Black music has enormous appeal across ages and ethnicities and is at the very core of the musical taste of a huge percentage of Americans who don't happen to be Black. And that is a wonderful thing.
