Ch-ch-ch-changes

Well,...Mayor Street was right: "The brothers and sisters are running Philadelphia!"

This has nothing to do with his moronic politics, but how to bad business for the sake of race and ratings.

On Thursday morning, two local - and popular - morning radio DJs, Preston & Steve, signed off on their farewell show at radio station WPLY (Y100). They were going to move to a competing rock station. This is common in the industry. P&S' contracts expired and WMMR offered them more money, plain and simple.

(In the interest of full disclosure, Y100 is owned by RadioOne, which owns numerous radio stations, in a mostly-urban/rap/sh*t-hop format.)

What happened next was an absolute disgrace:

As fellow Y100 DJs, support staff, and management gathered around Preston & Steve to wish them fair-thee-well, the station went to commercial break. Suddenly, the entire group was herded into a meeting room and told they were fired. Radio One, which also owns TWO other stations in Philly, was moving the format of WPHI (103.9-The Beat) over to Y100 for better reception. 103.9 will become an urban/gospel station. Radio One is also introducing yet another station in Philly, WRNB 107.9, this month!

If you're keeping count, that will bring a total of SEVEN (yes, SEVEN) rap/sh*t-hop radio stations in Philly and only TWO (yes, TWO) current/AOR rock stations and ONE "classic rock" station in Philly. (WTHK 97.5 in Trenton, NJ also broadcasts a "classic rock" format that reaching most of the Philly radio area)

I know radio formats change faster than a Frenchman's underwear, and while I've made it no secret that I despise rap, what bothers me (and about 500K area rock fans, too) most is that in shutting down Y100, Radio One is also screwing over the entire community.

Y100 held several rock "Festivals" every year, where entrance cost you nothing more than a couple cans of soup, which in turn, went to a local food bank for the homeless. Preston and Steve would spend an entire week every year in the December cold, soliciting donations of canned good and non-perishables (totaling in the 100+ ton range every year).

Now, all of this is gone.

Sad,..really, simply,..... sad.