Radio One
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- The name "Radio 1" is also used for the primary service of several broadcasters. See that page for more. For the Jimi Hendrix Experience album, see Radio One (album).
Radio One is a U.S. company which owns and operates 69 radio stations in 22 American cities, and programs a channel on XM Satellite Radio. The company's target listeners are African-Americans in urban areas. Radio One also owns a 40% interest in TV One, a cable TV network begun in early 2004 in partnership with Comcast. As with other large radio broadcasting companies, Radio One has a strategy of acquiring stations in a given market and making sudden format changes they believe will be profitable. Radio One tends to favor urban-based formats targetting African-American listeners, and makes format changes to target their demographic. One example of this occurred when Radio One acquired country radio station WCAV, near Boston, Massachusetts, in 1999, and transformed the station into WBOT, "Hot 97.7", with an Urban format. However, the most notorious incident of this occurred in Philadelphia in 2005.
TV One targets the same demographic as Radio One, airing shows such as 227, Good Times, and Martin.
Philadelphia
In 1996, Radio One acquired Philadelphia station 103.9 WDRE, and changed the format from Modern Rock to Rhythmic CHR as "Philly 103.9", WPHI, which was later renamed "103.9 The Beat". The airstaff of WDRE was released, and much of the airstaff found jobs with the city's other Modern Rock station, 100.3 WPLY (Y-100). Not long after, Radio One acquired WPLY, and left the station alone for many years. This is believed to have been because the station was received good Arbitron ratings and made a decent amount of revenue annually. However, upon the announcement that WPLY's popular morning show, Preston and Steve, was moving to another Philadelphia station, WMMR, Radio One decided to convert the station to an urban format. Subsequently, the format of WPHI, moved to the more powerful 100.3 signal, and Radio One launched a black gospel format on the weak 103.9 signal, to be known as "Praise 103.9", WPPZ.
At this time, websites such as Y-100 Rocks! (http://www.y100rocks.com) are protesting the Y-100 format change. Tons of Philadelphians are doing their part by signing an online petition to change the format back to Alternative and rehire all the former DJ's.
External links
- Company website (http://www.radio-one.com/)
- Yahoo! - Radio One Company Profile (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=roiak)
- Y100 Philadelphia (http://y100rocks.com/index.php)