A shooting outside of Hot 97 in New York.

Maybe the station has nothing to do with the shooting directly, but it seems interesting that this is an interesting place to be. Interesting as in “My you live in interesting times” kind of interesting.

Not that this is a first for Hot 97, mind you. Either first controversy, or first shooting. There was the first shooting in 2001, which is what started the mess that got Lil’ Kim in trouble. (Note to Lil’ Kim: Baby, you can’t lie under oath, unless you can invoke Presidential Privilege. Just sayin’.) The evening DJ came to fisticuffs with a DJ of the cross town rival Power 105.1.

There was the complete lack of a sense of propriety when the morning show on Hot 97 played a parody of “We are the World” about the tsunami disaster that included racial slurs.

But cross-town rivals in the morning time slot, Star and Buc Wild, aren’t any better. Their racial comments have raised some ire, although the outcry has been less.

Incidentally, this pisses off Hot 97 to no end. Star and Buc Wild were fired from Hot 97 over a year ago, and now the station is holding them to a non-compete agreement. What could have possibly gotten them fired? Oh, the little things of assaulting fellow employees, insensitivity to the death of singer Aliyah, stuff like that. Lawsuits were mentioned as a means of keeping them off air.

Damn. Seems like Hot 97 is in deep shit. Again. And what exactly will be done about all of this?

Nothing.

See, since the deregulation of radio with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, radio has become very, very corporate. Scales of economy, and all that. Just four companies own a 49% share of the radio listening audience. In news broadcasts, it’s worse with four companies holding a 67% share. The result? Failing stations are snapped up and integrated into larger corporate empires. Which is fine for making use of common resources to reduce individual costs.

The problem lies in the fact that these companies could not care less about the employees or the audience. They are driven by bottom lines, which are fed from advertising dollars, which are based on market share. So far, so good. But the pursuit of market share, that is, making people go “I have to tune back in to hear [insert the blank]”, comes not from content, but from shallow antics.

But what about the consumer? If they are tuning in, aren’t they culpable? Yes, except for two things. One: what is the alternative? A vast majority of the stations are owned by the same oligopoly. Two: they are turning off the radio, and it is beginning to show. Alternatives exist in the Internet and on satellite radio. Revenues are down. Fines are up.

So what is a radio company to do? Well, squeeze more from the employees. Don’t like it? Quit. I know, it’s a tough business and job market, but if you can’t take the sweatshop, then you need to go. Sweatshop being the operative word here. Think it’s a hostile environment? Tough shit, get on the air with the racist anyway. That is the situation that Minya Oh (a.k.a. Miss Info) is facing. Seems that in the Hot 97 tsunami flap, the highly paid lead host, Miss Jones, berated Ms. Oh and made less than harmonious comments. Why? Ms. Oh expressed displeasure for the parody thinking that it was in bad taste. The result? Get on air with the same scum bag, don’t talk about anything, or you’re fired. Minya Oh is considering a civil suit.

Now, should a flap occur, respond only when advertisers pull out. Then, muddle around only enough to make a token effort at apology. Like, firing the producer of the segment and maybe one DJ. But only because he said he was going to “shoot all Asians” which probably panicked the legal staff. The racist can stay because a public flogging is only a hostile work environment, which is harder to prove than terroristic threatening.

Since the market is tied up effectively in the hands of the few, there are limited options for either on air talent, or consumers. Keep in mind that the producer of the tsunami segment is formerly of the Opie and Anthony show. (That would be the same show kicked off air for having a contest that involved listeners, sexual relations, and a church in New York City.) The station knew what they were getting with Rick Delgado. There was no way that they could not know what to expect. It’s only after there are protests led by a New York City Councilman that Emmis Communications (owner of Hot 97) goes “my bad.” And a token donation is made to smooth over hard feelings. But the show goes on.

Other than that, The Suits will go out of their way to protect a racist with the intention of protecting their investment in air talent. Hot 97 is locked in a statistical dead heat with their rival. All for declining ad dollars. There is never so vicious a fight like one over shrinking resources.

Content is king? The king is dead. Long live the king.

What else can a communications company do to make a few dollars in a declining market? Payola. Pure and simple. Well, one step removed, but simple none-the-less.

New York District Attorney Eliot Spitzer is looking into payola with some of the larger broadcast companies. Say what? Isn’t that, like, so 1950’s or something?

Here’s how the new shell game works: Instead of paying the station or DJ directly, the record labels pay an “independent promoter.” It’s the promoter that pays the broadcaster directly. Did the (former) Iraqi Information Minister think up of this operation? “Nope. No payola here. Haven’t seen any all day.”

Now, to be fair, some places like Clear Channel have claimed that they distanced themselves from this kind of thing. In April of 2003, which would be not quite two years ago. But the implication is that they did in the not too distant past. And so did Radio One. New revenue stream indeed.

Also, as an aside, Spitzer is slow on the uptake. 20/20 aired a program on 2002 on this. Timing? Anyone?

All this extra money has got to make the analysts on Wall Street Happy. Actually, no. Stock ratings are down. Share prices are down. Damn internet.

Oh, and the 50 Cent thing? Disloyalty. Someone else said “ya know, I don’t think that I’m going to play with your silly shenanigans.” Kind of like Ms. Oh. Maybe 50 Cent and Hot 97 really belong together. They seem to be cut from the same cloth.

Looks like I am not the only one with issues with a radio station. WPLY in Philadelphia, Y-100, has flipped formats from Alternative to Hip-Hop and fired all the staff in the process. Radio One is the corporate parent of Y-100, and I guess they feel Urban Pop / Hip-Hop is a more profitable format. Not that the Alternative format is unsustainable, according to the (now former) Program Director of Y-100 Jim McGuinn.

Which is kind of amusing, in a sardonic way, since on my recent trip to my Grandparents, we tried to get WHFS when we were in the Washington / Baltimore area. All we got was Spanish. Huh? I know that I was picking up their signal before in the previous September / October timeframe. What the hell is going on?

When I get back, I get the scoop. Turns out that they too had flipped formats. There was a public outcry and now the programming of WHFS is piggybacking on another frequency in the evenings and weekends. And the option for Internet broadcast is available for HFS through AOL Internet Radio.

It looks like the same setup is being done with Y-100. There is the Internet broadcast of older original and local material through Y100rocks.com and this is available on a subscription basis.

Interestingly, WMMR announced today that they were picking up the Y-100 morning show of Preston and Steve. In the course of the announcement, WMMR said that they had been doing a search for about five or six months now and had identified them early on. So, the format flip is serendipity in the respect of the talent migration and not the cause. Nor does the talent migration seem to be the cause of Y-100 blowing up. Just another case of narrow-minded Suits following the money and pursuing their own self interests. Kind of like my shop sometimes.

However, there is a posting on the blogs that the format change is because the morning show was leaving. This allegedly from the Program Director of WPHI, Colby Colb. Morning shows are often lynch pins to commercial radio line ups, so it was felt that building a new morning show to compete with the same line up across town would be too much. So junk the format.

I don’t buy it. I think that the decision was in the making, and this might have been the tipping point, but the intent was there to begin with. Radio One describes itself as targeting the African-American and Urban markets. Specifically, they want to be in “markets that have a significant African-American presence” and have a “primary focus on urban formats” in these markets. No room for an Alternative format in that. Period. The morning show excuse bit is a red herring.

All of this reminds me of WDRE going off the air, but in that case there was notice. Listeners knew it was coming and could figure out how to fill the gap. This is sudden. Interestingly, McGuinn was at WDRE, so if this format makes a comeback in the Philly market, I am willing to bet a nominal sum to the charity of choice that McGuinn will be one of the people behind it. (I pick the Ronald McDonald House.)

WDRE incidentally became WPHI which is the station moving to Y-100’s frequency. WDRE was bought in July 1996 by Radio One and changed over less than a year later. See this page for a rundown of the history of Philly radio. Again, Radio One does Urban and Hip-Hop, not Modern Rock or Alternative or anything approaching a rock format. Their past shows this and any blathering by Colby Colb to the contrary does not bear this out. He picked up a new morning producer in July of 2004 and had a change in his morning show starting in December of 2004. None of which required a format change.

Conspiricy theories involving Radio One and a drive to push Alternative formats out of the Philadelphia market will now be entertained.

This morning on all the morning television newscasts, the local news was dominated by the demise of Y-100. The former DJs were talking about the format change and the overwhelming public response. Seems like this story might not fade into the night like the news outlets were figuring and The Suits were hoping. I don’t see Radio One reversing its decision, but I do see other stations eying this situation up and Radio One taking a loss in the Philly Market in the long haul.

After all, Urban / Hip-Hop formats are dominated in Philly by Clear Channel. Between WUSL (Power 99) and WIOQ (Q 102), Clear Channel has a virtual lock on the format in this market. And Radio One’s piss ant “me too” entry is going to make a dent? Puh-leese. The best shot for Radio One would have been the Alternative format since NO ONE ELSE does it. WMMR might be the biggest competitor then, but the sound is sufficiently different to allow for enough distinction so each station can carve out its own niche.

On the other hand, it seems to me like a corporate culture war was brewing and Y-100 didn’t fit in nice with the ideas entertained by The Suits.

How not to fight the juggernaut of Clear Channel: “What if we were the sixth station to add Usher to the line up?”