WDAS shamefully nixes Michael Baisden

Philadelphia Black radio took another step backward with WDAS canceling ‘Michael Baisden Show.’

I’ve been in the New York area the past couple months and was surprised that Baisden’s show wasn’t on up there in the afternoons. Then, I come back to Philly and learn that WDAS kicked him off, too.

It’s not that I was a regular listener, but when I did check in I found Baisden appealed to my age group, was fun and entertaining, and was a man of substance. He didn’t just shuck & jive all afternoon with a lot of worthless banter, as Baisden used his time to go in depth on issues important to the black community.

I could be wrong, but I believe, thanks to his audience, Michael Baisden was the one who brought the Trayvon Martin case national attention after it was a neglected story in central Florida for quite a while. 

WDAS has long lost it’s community activism luster since being gobbled up by conglomerates years ago. Although not a Gorgie Woods, nationally syndicated shows like Baisden’s are few, with most of the good ones stuck in their local markets or on satellite radio.

The following statement, has made is clear that news and politics is not a concern to their audience. Black folks just want to shake their ass. 

“The powers that be at Clear Channel have decided that music is enough in the afternoon to achieve their ratings goals,” the statement said. “Although we were consistently in the top five and beating our nearest Urban Adult competitor by 10 positions, the decision was made to remove the ‘Michael Baisden Show.’ ... there seems to be a disturbing trend in urban radio to opt to give the black community less information about what's going on in our community, even when my program is competitive, and in some cases, winning in its time slot.”

Thankfully, we still have WURD-900am taking our issues to the air.