A deep voice boomed these words out the speakers this morning: ” Here is a Back in the day Throwback from Power 105.1″.. So I perked up my ears, because I know full well that radio stations in NY are capable of pulling out some good old school joints. Songs that you just won’t hear on “outside of NY” radio stations. NYC stations always seemed to have a careless freedom about them. (Live mix shows, not just at night, on the weekend, or holidays? Blasphemy!) Bottom line: NYC Radio stations certainly have more freedom then my hometown regurgitated pop stations and I always assumed it’s because they aren’t in a stranglehold from Clear Channel. (Clear Channel: the reason why every 5 songs on a radio station are THE SAME DAMN SONGS I JUST HEARD, EVERYDAY. It’s called a 20 song play list and it’s irritating as shit!) ANYHOW -- I always assumed that power 105.1 and Hot 97 were independently owned stations, because they both pull out songs you would only hear in NY. Yet this morning’s “Back in the day throwback” got me to wondering..
The “Back in the day throwback” was Jazmine Sullivan’s song “Need U Bad”. I stood there puzzled thinking.. wait a minute this song is old as in, this summer. Now it’s fall. Which makes the song all of a few months old. To me, for a song to be a “throw back”, or “back in the day” it needs to be AT LEAST 10 years old. I needed to be in at least senior year of high school when it was a #1 jam for you to be calling that shit old. It can’t be on the top ten charts of this LAST summer for you to date it as OLD SCHOOL. So I am hoping that this commercial dub deep voice announcement of “Baaaaccck in the daayyy Throwbackkk” was a mistake? Because the album that track is on was released on September 23, 2008. Here we are on November 8th of the same year. So, Say What?? Jazmine’s second big single “Bust Your Windows” has just been released last month and is JUST starting to get this girl recognized so she is certainly not “Back in the day” yet, by any means.
So it got me to thinking about Power 105.1, who is deemed: “Power 105.1 fm -- R&B, Hip Hop & Back in the Day Joints”. I thought, Hot 97 wouldn’t do this mistake and call an essentially new artist an old school hit maker.. and so I digressed, to the internets, and found this:
..In 1995, Hot 97 again became New York’s top station in the Arbitron ratings. Hot 97 was the only radio station in New York for hip-hop until mid-1997 when WBLS reintroduced it on its playlists. In March 2002, Clear Channel Communications launched WWPR-FM (Power 105.1 FM) to challenge Hot 97, and went to number-five in the ratings. In the fall of 2005 Power 105.1 edged slightly ahead of Hot 97 for the first time ever during the same period of time as the Tsunami song parody. Most recently the station resurged back to the top of the ratings..
..And there we have our answer. Clear Channel owns Power 105.1 and tells them that as long as a song is 3 months old, then it’s from back in the day. It’s not. But I will leave you with some songs that ARE, to me at least.
My iPod shuffle made me smile with these songs the other day and all I could think of was the summer of 1998. Ever notice when you think: “This is the worst time of my life.” You look back and realize: “That was the best time of my life.” 17. I was going into my senior year in high school. I stayed with a different relative every week, and lived at whatever club would let me in. I was hanging out at Bootleggers on the waterfront (RIP) and I was thrown into the pool with $200 express leather pants on while this first track was playing, and I didn’t even care. The other two just represent that summer properly and in my humble ass opinion, “With Me, Part II” is the best attempt Destiny’s Child ever made to be hard (and it WAS good!). Lastly, the current hit from the previously spoken about Miss Jazmine Sullivan who is NOT in fact from back in day, but right the hell now.
