Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Making the music work


Joe Gorham, Music Director. WHUR-WORLD

WHUR-WORLD 96.3 HD 2 is merely a reflection of WHUR –FM 96.3 the oldest black owned and operated radio station in Washington, D. C. which launched December 10, 1971. WHUR is the first commercial broadcast facility owned by a historically black university. Howard University is the proud proprietor of this heritage radio property.

The original plan for WHUR-WORLD music format was to return its musical format to its glory days reflecting the original music played on WHUR. The blending of Contemporary Jazz, R&B, World Jazz, Afro Cuban Jazz, Poetry, Blues would be the standard for music and with the addition of Hip-Hop on WHUR-WORLD would also make a bold statement to this new stations integrity. A few of the artists that are the staple of our playlist are “The Crusaders, Al Jarreau, Jill Scott, Maxwell, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Sarah Vaughan, Gil Scott-Heron, Elton John, Nate “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra, Miriam Makeba , Keiko Matsui, Hugh Masakela, Common and T.I.

We actually set up our musical rotation based on its genre. This would allow us the possibility of exhausting our entire library system. So much music had been added to the WHUR library over the years and a lot of music from that format was forgotten, it was necessary to locate those ole songs to make the WHUR-WORLD format operable. So this is what we did. We merged the original WHUR music format with part of the present WHUR format which reflects more of this era’s musical influences.

An original musical program format called “The Quiet Storm” was a big part of the WHUR radio phenomenon. This show has been copied by many other radio stations in America that have totally missed its conceptual intent. One thing to understand about the original musical format is that there was no format.

As you listen to WHURWORLD.COM remember the music format is based on no format. This allows us to program the best of what we consider to be good music. It provides a wide variety of music for the listener at the same time reflecting our different musical genres. We hope to continue to provide this type of programming as long as there remains outside the box thinking in radio.

Please take time to listen to WHURWORLD.COM. It is a product you’re sure to enjoy.

jgorham@whur.com

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