Thursday, January 17, 2013

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. 

13 comments:

  1. He talked about the same things just about everyday and show that he replaced had top ratings before he came. Also some of the subject matter was inappropriate for the time of day that he was on.

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    1. One of WDAS owners is Bain Capital...Remember Mitt Romney. I truly don't believe it was about the ratings. When you silence the people they no longer are a threat.

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    2. I will follow Micheal! WDAS has nothing but useless radio now. 20 plus years! Godbye WDAS. Hello100.3.

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    3. I will follow Micheal! WDAS has nothing but useless radio now. 20 plus years! Godbye WDAS. Hello100.3.

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  2. Michael Baisden was in the Top 5 when is came to ratings. One of the WDAS owners is Bain Capital....Do you remember Mitt Romney. Self explanatory.

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  3. Desiree Potts said...One of WDAS owners is Bain Capital...Remember Mitt Romney. I truly don't believe it was about the ratings. When you silence the people they no longer are a threat.

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  4. Desiree Potts said...One of WDAS owners is Bain Capital...Remember Mitt Romney. I truly don't believe it was about the ratings. When you silence the people they no longer are a threat.

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  5. I have to admit I've become very picky with radio over the years. I listened to Baisden for a year on my commute home but I did start to notice a pattern with his show:

    - Sound bite from old show
    - Laugh about some topic from current show
    - Talk about next hour
    - Introduce topic
    - Have a caller on making a good point
    - Interrupt caller to segue what was said into the next song

    Pretty soon it because difficult to catch his show because there would be music playing. I think the music breaks were longer than his actual show. He did have really good topics but I could never get to them because of the music or the joking. I will miss his show. I've missed it since I stopped listening.

    One of my biggest gripes with Black Radio is the lack of seriousness. It's as if we can't have a topics show without constant joking. Baisden did his fair share of shucking & jiving which turned me off and at this point I should just accept that is the only format I will have access to for Black Radio. It's not just him, Joyner does it (far more if you ask me) and so to the hip hop stations.

    If we are going to remain on the air, we need to have a more mature approach to radio. The whole "we need our own" stance will only get us so far without a crossover audience that can "stomach" our type of "entertainment".

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    1. http://www.siriusxm.com/thepower
      http://www.npr.org/programs/tell-me-more/
      http://tunein.com/radio/WURD-900-s23419/

      The line up.

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  6. Bring back Micheal Baisden

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  7. Will not listen 2 Wdas at that time slot again. His shows were informative and the subjects were good and some just made my day. Hope I bring him back!!!!

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