Specialty Shows Provide Alternative Outlets For Unheard Artists
By RASHAUN HALL
Friday, March 19 2004
Friday, March 19 2004
Published on AllBusiness.com
Specialty shows aren't just for hip-hop mix shows anymore. A recent crop of specialty programs geared toward R&B and jazz is providing new platforms for artists who don't normally see the light of day in regular rotation.
R&B WUSL (Power 99) Philadelphia mainstay "Inner City" and smooth jazz WQCD (CD 101.9) New York's recently launched "Groove Boutique" are among the specialty shows breaking new ground.
For "Inner City" creator/host Tiffany Bacon, the show allowed her to combine her two loves—music and poetry.
"Friends and I would sit and talk about how we missed hearing A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Digable Planets and people like that on the radio," Bacon says. "At the same time, I was already a fan of poetry venues. I would go to weekly poetry events at [Philadelphia jazz restaurant] Warm Daddy's just to chill out and enjoy myself. And one day I thought, 'If I could take this atmosphere and put it on the radio, it could be a cool show.' "
Bacon, who began at Power 99 in 1997, originally pitched the show to then-PD Helen Little in early 1998, but the idea was rejected. This didn't deter her.
"In November of '98, I put together an hour-long demo tape," Bacon says. "I figured if I did get a shot that it would only be for 60 minutes. I put music like Jamiroquai, Brand New Heavies and Digable Planets on the tape along with a poet reading poetry in between three or four songs. [Little] liked it."
The program was approved a month later and debuted Feb. 7, 1999.
Since its inception, "Inner City" has served as a launching pad for poet Black Ice of "Def Poetry Jam on Broadway" fame and artists Jill Scott and Musiq.
"Musiq's managers brought in a tape of his first single, 'Just Friends,' " Bacon recalls. "I played it [on the show], and the next day the programming department was asking about the song because they were getting a lot of requests for it.
"The list goes on and on," she adds. "Floetry is in that circle. Anthony Hamilton is in that circle, [as well as] India.Arie . . . A lot of people that ended up doing really big things and setting the stage showed up at our doorstep first."
getting into the 'groove'
R&B radio isn't the only format that utilizes the specialty show to give opportunities to the unheard artist. WQCD's "Groove Boutique" also offers alternatives to the acts heard in heavy rotation.
Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., host Rafe Gomez kicks up the station's pulse by playing various forms of uptempo jazz including soul jazz, acid jazz, U.K. jazz-funk, nü jazz and neo-soul.
"The
R&B WUSL (Power 99) Philadelphia mainstay "Inner City" and smooth jazz WQCD (CD 101.9) New York's recently launched "Groove Boutique" are among the specialty shows breaking new ground.
For "Inner City" creator/host Tiffany Bacon, the show allowed her to combine her two loves—music and poetry.
"Friends and I would sit and talk about how we missed hearing A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Digable Planets and people like that on the radio," Bacon says. "At the same time, I was already a fan of poetry venues. I would go to weekly poetry events at [Philadelphia jazz restaurant] Warm Daddy's just to chill out and enjoy myself. And one day I thought, 'If I could take this atmosphere and put it on the radio, it could be a cool show.' "
Bacon, who began at Power 99 in 1997, originally pitched the show to then-PD Helen Little in early 1998, but the idea was rejected. This didn't deter her.
"In November of '98, I put together an hour-long demo tape," Bacon says. "I figured if I did get a shot that it would only be for 60 minutes. I put music like Jamiroquai, Brand New Heavies and Digable Planets on the tape along with a poet reading poetry in between three or four songs. [Little] liked it."
The program was approved a month later and debuted Feb. 7, 1999.
Since its inception, "Inner City" has served as a launching pad for poet Black Ice of "Def Poetry Jam on Broadway" fame and artists Jill Scott and Musiq.
"Musiq's managers brought in a tape of his first single, 'Just Friends,' " Bacon recalls. "I played it [on the show], and the next day the programming department was asking about the song because they were getting a lot of requests for it.
"The list goes on and on," she adds. "Floetry is in that circle. Anthony Hamilton is in that circle, [as well as] India.Arie . . . A lot of people that ended up doing really big things and setting the stage showed up at our doorstep first."
getting into the 'groove'
R&B radio isn't the only format that utilizes the specialty show to give opportunities to the unheard artist. WQCD's "Groove Boutique" also offers alternatives to the acts heard in heavy rotation.
Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., host Rafe Gomez kicks up the station's pulse by playing various forms of uptempo jazz including soul jazz, acid jazz, U.K. jazz-funk, nü jazz and neo-soul.
"The
