Radio station WHAT-AM (1340), whose longtime African American-focused talk format was silenced last week, today expects to launch a music format aimed at young people.
[...]“I guess you could call it alternative, but it will be a mixture of modern rock, R&B, reggae and hip-hop,” said Tom Kelly, chief executive officer of Marconi Broadcasting L.L.C., the station’s new owner. The station has been playing a diverse playlist since Jan. 11, when previous owner Inner-City Broadcasting laid off WHAT staff, including talk-radio queen Mary Mason. [...]Marconi wants to tap an audience it feels has not been served for nearly two years, since Y100, the city’s last station to call itself alternative, was silenced. WXPN-FM (88.5) has added elements of Y100 to its broadcast schedule and Web site, xpn.org.
Program director Alvin Clay, a local music producer, said WHAT would appeal to a wide range of people. “We’re playing to the demographic” - college-age and post-college age - “and not to ethnicity,” he said. Artists would include the Roots, the Killers, Stone Temple Pilots, Kanye West and local bands.

This is like some crazy kind of cosmic joke, right? These guys know this is an AM radio station, right? And they’ve heard of the Internet? And they are aware of, uh, what happened to Y100? Really? Okay. Wow.
Inky: You Wouldn’t Believe Us If We Told You

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 12:21 pm.