Radio One and XM are parting ways
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Tags: 2, XM
Radio One and XM Satellite Radio are severing their partnership and handing over the reins to XM for full control of the African-American talk channel The Power (ch 169), according to the Redding News Review.
Syndication One News/Talk National Program Director Lee Michaels told RNR that it will end the relationship with XM (which has existed for over six-years) on Tuesday, January 8th.
“It has nothing to do with the programming, it has nothing to do with the people that work here,” Michaels said. “It was strictly a business decision.”
According to XM's channel page, Radio One will no longer offer the weekday programs "GW on the Hill", "Digital Spin", and "Spirit" as of January 7th. XM will also be adding new programs to the lineup during the first few weeks of January.
Michaels said Radio One had not made money on advertising for the joint venture with XM, where the primary focus is selling subscriptions. Radio One has been selling stations in non-core markets and blames "a challenging radio industry environment," for a 40.2% decline in third-quarter earnings.
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Comments
Does this mean Sharpton will be on the news soon?
Posted by: iband | January 2, 2008 1:41 PM
Here in Philadelphia, there's no love lost for this company, so I'm glad their earnings are down.
One of Radio One's stations here, WPHI, was responsible for the deaths of not one, but two great alternative rock stations, WDRE in 1996, and then WPLY in 2005, as both were killed off in favor of that urban format station soon after acquisition by Radio One. It was the death of the latter, in particular, that soon after that had me abandon FM radio forever and make the jump to XM, as alternative rock was completely absent from the Philadelphia market until WRFFsigned on in May.
Posted by: Anonymous Coward | January 2, 2008 3:04 PM
Oh Man, at first I thought you meant BBC Radio One was severing ties with Sirius. That would have caused me to have a heart attack. This, I can live with.
Posted by: jeddeth | January 2, 2008 4:25 PM
>> Oh Man, at first I thought you meant BBC Radio One was severing ties with Sirius. >>
How would you infer that at *all* considering the article had 'XM' right in the title?
Posted by: Pete | January 2, 2008 4:45 PM
Does this mean "The Power" will disappear, or will it just be programed differently. If anyone knows, you can post it here, or drop me a line.
--The Radio Kid
JHANLON001@twcny.rr.com
Posted by: The Radio Kid | January 2, 2008 7:49 PM
Does this mean "The Power" will disappear, or will it just be programed differently. If anyone knows, you can post it here, or drop me a line.
--The Radio Kid
JHANLON001@twcny.rr.com
Posted by: The Radio Kid | January 2, 2008 7:50 PM
Anonymous Coward from Philly: I couldn't have put it any better myself! Radio One killing what were overall damn good terrestrial stations and their built up communities were what drove me to SDARS in the first place.
Posted by: Chris | January 3, 2008 1:17 PM
I switched to XM so that I am able to hear Urban radio and especially Urban talk radio. Since Clear Channel bought the No 1 Urban R&B Station that has been around since I was a child(WDAS) and someone bought the Urban talk statoin(WHAT) there has not been a lot of GOOD Urban radio in Philly. It is not good radio to you because it does not concern your community. I can tell it does not concern you due to the type of formats that were listed.
Posted by: Philly Native | January 16, 2008 12:41 PM
Anonymous Coward and Chris, I diagree. One of the longest standing radio stations WDAS was just bought by Clear Channel an will probally change it format any moment. Also WHAT was bought out by some entity after it was ran in the hole due to poor management. In reguards to WDRE that radio station bought the dial setting for the signal. Look there are PLENTY of rock stations in Philly. There are no Urban Talk Stations in Philly.
Posted by: Philly Native | January 16, 2008 1:17 PM