Friday, April 10, 2009

Black Radio Snobbery to the Highest Degree: The Citizen Family accused of being ignorant!?!


"Not to attack Harvey, but his listeners are anything but intelligent. Listening to the entire show is like scratching a chalkboard from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. cutting us off from Tom Joyner is like taking away our coffee, sugar, fried chicken, chocolate, ice cream and sex."

~ Veronica Jackson, a Tom Joyner Fan


Black folks are always getting fired up about the wrong things. McDonalds stop selling the McRib and all hell broke loose. It’s not false advertisement if they said it was only for a limited time. You know those Ribs didn’t taste good anyway!!!! I thought we would have learned after UPN cancelled “All of Us”. But nope!! Black folks are back at it again. Apparently radio listeners in Chicago are upset because The Tom Joyner Morning Show was replaced by The Steve Harvey Morning Show. Everybody likes Capitalism until it bites them in the behind.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Harvey’s show is the No. 1-rated syndicated morning show in the top 50 metro markets among listeners 18 to 34 and 18 to 49, as well as women 25 to 54.

That means he has College Students, Blue Collar, White Collar and Women locked up. This makes for an advertisers dream. It’s not complicated at all. Obviously it seems as if Joyner has lost or not gained listeners. When I was in college, all the guys waited to see what the freshmen girls looked like. Then the next year it was the same thing. Somebody new and fresh is always waiting around the corner. It was Joyner’s responsibility to reach out and obtain a younger audience. He has been around for awhile and was the only King of the Hill. He didn’t have any competition for the longest time so what did he need to worry about. And I’m pretty sure even when Steve Harvey was gaining traction he didn’t put any thought into it. This isn’t about Steve Harvey trying to muscle in on Tom Joyner’s territory. How did a business decision turn into an episode of “The Wire”? Even Stringer Bell knew it was better to be more business-like than hood-like. Now we have Joyner supporters’ up in arms and talking big time smack!!!

Some of the comments from Joyner fans say something deeper than a misplaced radio show. Black folks are in a class system when it comes to the radio. Joyner’s listeners describe Harvey’s listeners as the kind of people that would be in a BET Uncut video. While Joyner’s listeners portray themselves as people that read Chaucer and vacation in the Hamptons. They act like Harvey went from the crack house to the radio station. He has been on the air for a minute but that doesn’t matter with this crowd. They are looking for someone to blame and Harvey is the black piƱata.

The notion that The Tom Joyner Show is a bastion of class is foolish. You have J. Anthony Brown and George Wallace doing jokes about each other mothers. Then there is Sheryl Underwood sounding as incoherent as a co-ed drunk at a fraternity party. But I can’t leave out Huggie Low-Down talking trash about everybody who breathes. Please don’t think that I am knocking the show. I actually listen to both shows. To put down Harvey’s show as appealing to teeny boppers with silly antics is unjust criticism. The difference between J Anthony Brown “Murdering a hit” and Nephew Tommy’s “Prank Phone Calls” is of the slimmest of margins. I could have told Chicago that this was coming. Citizen Wifey likes Steve Harvey and thinks Tom Joyner is for “OLD FOLKS.” On the flip side, Citizen Father-in-Law listens to Tom Joyner and thinks Steve Harvey is arrogant. This is about gender more than it is about class. But don’t worry Joyner fans because one day Harvey’s fans will grow old too. Then some new upstart will take his spot. It is called the circle of life. The civil rights industrial complex has the same problem letting new folks break in. I guess it’s just an “OLD FOLKS” thing.

The real problem is Chi-Town residents are complaining while Rome is burning. Edward G. Gardner, the founder of Black on Black Love sent President Obama a letter regarding crime in Chicago. He asked Mr. Obama to send National Guard Troops to the hood to stop the violence. It’s a sad commentary when you need a police state in order to maintain discipline. Members of the organization called this criminal behavior “Domestic Terrorism”. Tom Joyner has spent years trying to improve the lives of black folks. How do you think he would feel about this petty bickering? Don’t be mad about the radio show because he is still on the internet. Be mad that your fellow citizens want martial law in your city.

2 comments:

the uppity negro said...

Something must be done, instituting martial law is NOT even remotely the answer.

I'm a 90s kid through and through. I started kindergarten in 1989 and the majority of my formative years in school took place in the 90s. Even when Chicago was the face of dirty high-rise projects, after the city survived the 14 story drop of a 5 year kid by a 13 and 14 year old because he didn't steal some candy for them, or when the kid was shot walking to school in the middle of Cabrini, I'm not convinced it was this bad.

I was talkin to one of my homeboys two years ago when the headliner CPS student death that year was a 16 year old who was shot on the bus stop two blocks from his house and I asked him, "Was it this bad when we were in school?" Because during the 90s Chicago saw murder numbers over 700 one year, I just figured it was, and he shook his head no.

Well, whether he was right or wrong, I'll say that I do remember my mother making sure I never coordinated the colors black and red or black and blue together. And I'm sure that even though I went to a really good school on the South Side for grammar school where gang violence wasn't even remotely an issue, most of the kids came from two parent households in my class, and the teachers knew all of the parents, I'm sure what my mother was watching on the evening news was half the reason she never bought me those Jordans I always wanted.

That aside...

Yeah, my friend's status messages were livid about them taking off Tom Joyner in the mornings back home.

Eye D. VS Mel O. said...

Feelin this post a lot Citizen... the whole issue of classifying Tom Joyner's show as one for the colored elite and Steve Harvey for the BET uncut vixens is foolish. Honestly everytime I hear Tom Joyner speak especially during an interview, it's utterly dreadful. He sounds uneducated a lot of the times to me... yea I said it! And Steve Harvey tries to be profound when at times he's making points we have heard already!

The Chi is wylin out right now so people need to stop crying about their morning shows and figure out how to remedy all the craziness that is going on!