The Loss of WHAT-AM in Philadelphia

When I first moved to Philadelphia in 1979, WDAS radio had a kickin' news department: Karen Warrington, E. Steven Collins, Thera Martin and many others kept the black community on alert. Cody Anderson helped to keep the community's conversation with itself flowing. But as the then black-owned station responded to the need for increased profits in the 1980s, WDAS's news division began to fade. Once the station was purchased by Clear Channel, any hint of concern for news was abolished.

My first radio appearance in Philadelphia on was Georgie Woods' program on WHAT. I was a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time and Georgie and Terry Lee Barritte invited me on to talk about some article I had written. Georgie asked me one question and then said he had to briefly leave the studio, telling me to continue talking until he returned. I was one of hundreds of community voices that could be heard on WHAT talking about issues critical to the black community.

Back in those days, when someone talked about African American leadership, the label didn't just apply to spineless elected officials. In those days, leadership came from the grassroots, although, admittedly, that form of leadership was being undermined. From a musical standpoint, regional African American music was on the wane too.

Now WHAT is gone. The broadcasters and workers were given their pink slips last week. All of this amounts to another blow to the black community at this most critical time: high rates of incarceration, unemployment, health disparities, etc.

Glen Ford at BlackAgendaReport.com has a nice piece on the loss of news on African American oriented radio. Later on this week, Rob Bell plans to jump in with his thoughts on the need to develop a progressive media policy.

"The absence of news on commercial Black radio has stunted our dreams and warped our politics for a generation, leaving Black America with no means to talk to itself in its own voices. Sparking a movement in our communities to demand the return of news to the Black commercial airwaves, argues Glen Ford , must be at the center of any meaningful black push for media reform."

Bring Back Black Radio News: The People’s Network

by BAR Executive Editor Glen Ford

“The people listen to commercial Black radio, and the struggle must be taken to the proprietors’ doorsteps.”

When 2,500 activists gather for the National Conference on Media Reform in Memphis, this weekend, one of the chief villains of the event will be Clear Channel, the media giant that has sucked up and dumbed down 1,200 commercial radio stations, the vast bulk of them in the decade since the U.S. Congress ushered in a corporate feeding frenzy with its Telecommunications Act of 1996. If past Media Reform conferences (2003 and 2005) are any guide, participants will – correctly – rail against the strangling grip of a corporate media oligarchy that manipulates and distorts the purchasing behavior, moral judgment and global worldview of the nation. We at Black Agenda Report fear, however, that the African American corporate players in the Great Media Rip-Off will largely get a free pass – while discussion of the Black commercial radio scene will, as usual, be limited to the general precariousness of (small) Black station ownership, and the poisonous nature of the musical menus beamed to the inner cities.

To read the full article, click to:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33

Follow this link for some music for your thoughts:

We Shall Over Come by Toots and the Maytals:
http://www.zshare.net/download/1-13-we-shall-overcome-m4p.html

Post Modern Decay by Zion I:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/12-poems-4-post-modern-decay-feat-aesop-rock-mp3-cf4.html

Choice of Color by the Impressions:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/choice-of-color-mp3.html