why was Venus hired for a ROCK station?
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JohnQ1127 — 13 years ago(September 19, 2012 07:55 AM)
Well I think it's hardly analogous to compare a 3-4 hours weekly Sunday blues program to a full-time 4-5 hour nightly Freeform R&B/Soul/Disco program.
AOR stations would often change formats on Sunday night because listenership was often fairly low. We used to have a station that played a Dr. Demento program or sometimes they would just to a local radio call in show on Sundays.
WKRP wasn't very realistic so Venus was just another part that didn't make much sense.
I not sure you're familiar with the concept of "tokenism." There's a wikepedia entry that covers it quite fully.
T.V. shows starting in the mid 60's started adding a single black character for a variety of reasons that I stated previously. One, there was a demand from civil rights groups for more inclusiveness on t.v. so as a from of appeasement shows started adding minority candidates. Two, shows could deal with racially related subjects or make race-related jokes by adding a black character. Three, shows could broaden their appeal by adding a black character, four, producers felt progressive by adding a black or minority character to an all white cast. South Park actually made fun of the practice and called their black character "Token".
RE: You're just naming random black characters from TV and implying that they were only there because of their skin colour. If anything,"
That was exactly my point, they were only added because they were black. You could add Ron Glass from Barney Miller or Freddie Boom-Boom Washington from Welcome Back Kotter or Franklin from Charlie Brown & Peanuts or Valarie from Josie and the Pussy Cats to the list.
It didn't matter if Eddie Murphy was carrying the show, he was the only minority cast member on SNL at the time. Robert Townshend was initially supposed to be hired by SNL but was dropped once they found Eddie Murphy. I guess the thought of having "TWO" black cast members was out of the question. -
PillowRock — 13 years ago(September 20, 2012 08:52 AM)
Lots of rock stations, including a fair number AOR ones, got significantly mellower and / or outside their normal format in the late-night time slot (which was always portrayed as the time slot that Venus worked). And not just on Sundays. During the time period when
WKRP
was on the air, WRIF in Detroit had a nightly show (originally 2:00 - 4:00 AM, but later expanded to a 3 or 4 hour slot) called "The Rif Rock Cafe"; and nothing that you ever heard on that show would ever be played on that station in any other time slot (though that particular example was sliding off in a different direction than what Venus played; the Cafe tended more toward Laurie Anderson).
That part never struck me as much of a stretch. The part that did seem odd was a generally low rated station having a DJ that was always talked about in terms of being a top ratings draw, and keeping him perpetually hidden in that late-night slot where his earning potential (for the station) is so limited. -
JohnQ1127 — 13 years ago(September 20, 2012 10:10 AM)
Well there's a big difference in Laurie Anderson type program to a free form Black R&B/Soul/Disco show.
It's really not that big a deal because the show wasn't very realistic in the first place. Hardly any of those 70's Sit-coms were very realistic.
How about Taxi? Not one minority cab driver in NYC during the 1970's?? LOL. -
hariseldon59 — 13 years ago(March 04, 2013 09:39 AM)
How about Taxi? Not one minority cab driver in NYC during the 1970's?? LOL.
To be fair, there were minority cab drivers who worked for Sunshine Cab. (I seem to recall an episode where some young black female cab driver had a crush on Alex.) We just didn't see them regularly because they weren't part of Alex Rieger's circle of friends. -
activista — 11 years ago(April 07, 2014 12:11 AM)
@JohnQ
You do realize that there were other shows on the air in the era like What's Happening, That's My Mama, Sanford and Son,Good Times, which were,in fact, written and produced by black writers/directors, and had mostly black casts? So,no, the whole era wasn't just putting actor of color in "token minority" roles. And, yeah, shows were beginning to get more diversified, due to black folks demanding that black people be represented not only in front of the camera, but behind the scenes,too. When you look at the fact that black folks were barely even cast in "token" roles on TV in the '60's, the '70's were a huge step forward in improvement.
And another thingI used to listen to an oldies rock station out of Ohio back in the late '80's which actually had an early Sunday morning jazz show, of all things. Like another poster said, radio formats in the '70's weren't always as rigid,timid, and limited as they are now. Heck, radio in the early '80's,looking back, seems to have been a little more adventurous that any of these music stations today. And,BTW, black people pretty much invented rock n' roll, so there wasn't anything really strange about Venus being therehe should have been able to play it,too,or whatever the hell else he wantedand not just R&B. -
trollomatic — 12 years ago(March 30, 2014 09:19 PM)
He was obviously just used as a token black character which was common for shows from the mid 1960's-1980's.
yes, The shows from the 1970's had only token black characters: "Sanford & Son", "The Jeffersons", "Good Times", "What's Happenin'", "The Jackson 5ive", "The Harlem Globetrotters", "Diff'rent Strokes", etcetera.
1980's and after "The Cosby Show", "A Different World", "Family Matters",
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", "Homeboys in Outer Space", "Livin' Single", etcetera. -
Ariane1998 — 11 years ago(November 07, 2014 10:51 AM)
In the season 4 episode "The Consultant", the consultant Mrs. Carlson has hired tells Andy that the sound of the station is "all over the road" and Andy makes it clear that he lets the deejays program some of their own music.
You can see it here:
The Consultant
http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2008/10/wkrp-episode-consultant.html
This is the episode with the famous Bailey "M & Ms" scene with her Nestle commercial spoof. (Nestles makes the very best chocolate). -
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jefgg — 9 years ago(December 20, 2016 01:52 PM)
There are African-American disc jockeys who work on rock radio stations. When I was a kid Mark McEwen was an African-American gentleman who worked on New York rock radio stations WNEW-FM and the defunct WAPP. I don't think any normal person had an issue with McEwen's race. He went on to work in TV and is probably best known as the host of "A&E's Live by Request". Please click on
http://www.markmcewen.com/ -
jefgg — 9 years ago(December 20, 2016 04:00 PM)
WAPP was 103.5 FM. Are you from the New York area? I listened to WAPP a lot when they had their commercial free summer in 1982. For some reason WAPP didn't really catch on with listeners. Many were loyal to to WPLJ and and/or WNEW. When WPLJ switched to a contemporary hits format, WAPP's ratings got a slight boost. In 1984 WAPP's owners decided to change the station's format to contemporary hits. The station could not compete with WPLJ or Z-100 and their ratings fell. In 1986 the station became Hot 103 with new call letters WQHT and a new format called rhythmic contemporary. WAPP is known as the station that helped launch Bon Jovi's career. So blame them.
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Catnip86 — 9 years ago(December 20, 2016 04:33 PM)
Yes, I am from the area. I have three older brothers - 8, 14 and 15 years older than me. So I grew up hearing rock from different eras, even if the later years still played stuff from the earlier. WPLJ was the usual station, or WNEW. I did listen to WAPP also, but often just forget all about it.
Later I switched to WSOU when they were playing the hair metal bands, which was what I had grown to prefer.
I try to listen to Q104, but they just play the same bands over and over all day, every day. Little to no variety. -
jefgg — 9 years ago(December 20, 2016 05:37 PM)
I am a Jersey Boy from the Exit 153 area. I listened to WPLJ until they went pop. That was the day the music died for many people I know. You are absolutely right about Q-104.3 playing the same songs from the same artists over and over. I listened to WSOU a lot back in the '90s. I also listen to the oldies on WCBS-FM. My favorite station is WDHA-FM 105.5 from Cedar Knolls, NJ. One of my friends was one of the "jocks" there in the '90s. "WKRP in Cincinnati" sometimes reminds me of hanging out at the 'DHA studio. I sometimes listen to 'DHA's sister station WMTR-AM 1250. They play classic oldies.