Friday, October 21, 2005

Cold snap at Hot 97.7

You knew it couldn't last -- having two hip-hop radio stations in Boston was just too good to be true. As of Thursday, WBOT Hot 97.7 switched formats, with the Globe reporting it's going with WILD-programmed smoov R&B during daylight hours, and only playing some of that nefarious rap music from 6-10 pm.

We've been on the phone all morning trying to track down details, and the upshot is that it's pretty dire, but not quite as bleak as a total wipeout. The stations have indeed merged, with WILD's footprint being by far the dominant one. But most of the jocks -- including the people's faves DJ Chubby Chub and Mr. Peter Parker -- are still on board. Says Peter Parker:

"The format changes at 97.7 have now made it instead of Hot 97.7 it is now WILD FM, 'The People's Station.' They merged the two stations and took on the WILD name because of it's history. I am still involved, but to what extent, I will find out today. The new format is Hot/Urban AC with Tom Joyner in the morning, classic r&b during the day, Hiphop in the evening, and Quiet Storm (slow jams) over night. As far as weekends, I'm almost 100% sure there will still be Hiphop mixshows at night, but everything is still early."

WILD/WBOT marketing director Alfredo Fonseca -- a quality dude who worked here at the Phoenix until a few months ago -- confirmed those details. After Joyner in the mornings they'll go "heavy on the music, without a jock" at midday. The mix during the afternoon will be urban Adult Contemporary with a twist. "You'll still hear 50 Cent in rotation, but not nearly as much. Maybe two songs per hour" of top-40 rap. Chubby will continue to be Chubby in the evenings from 6-10 pm. Friday and Saturday nights will be hip-hop dance parties with Mr. Peter Parker. WILD's highly-rated "Time Travel" program will come over to 97.7 and run in two weekend slots, Saturdays 8 am-noon and Sundays 6-10 pm.

One more bum note is that the HOTLOWEEN concert featuring Mike Jones, T-Pain, and Dem Franchise Boys, originally scheduled for October 29 at Club Lido, has been cancelled according to Fonseca. We're bumming hard on this, especially since we've been bumping this song in our Japanese-made car lately . . .

LISTEN: Thrill Da Playa feat. T Pain, "Yo Chevy (Remix)" (mp3, via TJSDJS)

IN OTHER NEWS:

1. But will THE PEOPLE'S STATION PLAY IT? Pharrell Williams solo album single #2, "She's An Angel" (mp3, via Spine Magazine and Lemon Red)

2. Hey, look: Gorilla Vs. Bear and Brooklyn Vegan ~~blantantly plagarize~~ borrow from David Day's post without credit. You should hustle over to David's and get these tracks: the Knife's original really is fantastic, the remix is better, and then to blow your mind comes dude-with-acoustic-guitar covering the song in a way that -- as David points out -- incorporates pieces of both versions.

3. New Krumbsnatcha tracks up at his MySpace page. New album, exec-produced by DJ Premier, coming soon.

4. MORE BOSTON BOUNCE, PLEASE. Two new tracks have surfaced. DJ C and DJ Flack record as DuoTone. They just posted a Boston Bounce remix of the DuoTone song "Serve That Pu$$y," this one called "Serve That Bouncy." Download it at Riddim Method. Meanwhile, Certified Bananas serve up a stand-alone Boston Bounce remix of a certain whispery treat, first heard on their Lemon-Red mix. This one's up over at L-R as well.

5. DFA1979 dude Jessse Keeler's alter-ego MSTRKRFT has been remixing the fuck out of indie-dance bands. Coming soon: MSTRKRFT's neo-house debut 12-inch. Songs from it streaming now on their MySpace page.

6. Fuck a "radio edit". Checkboard Chimes came up with the album version of Madonna's "Hung Up." But, alas, it's Yousendit, so it's probably gone by now.

7. Leak #3 from the forthcoming Strokes album, this one called "15 Minutes of Pain," is in play. Badminton Stamps knows something about it. Stereogum readers hate it almost as much as they hated "Juicebox." And, uh, we're inclined to agree. But that "You Only Live Once" track is real nice if you can find it.

8. That Lady Sovereign single we told you about is starting to float around. Consensus is trending towards "hype is over," but a few people are standing by the Mizz Beats mix, which My Old Kentucky Blog has heard on the radio.

9. No homo? Gay TV show denied use of Kanye West music.

10. Who knows about the Lil' Jon remix of "My Humps"? The one with completely re-recorded vocals and everything? Man, just when we were convinced that you couldn't get, like, any more ridiculous than the original. For one thing, it's genetically engineered to be the least sexy song in the history of the universe. When she talks about her "humps," it makes us think of a hunchback. And what really creeps us the fuck out is when she starts going on about her "lovely lady lumps," which makes it sound like she's got breast cancer or something. (Sidebar: when hype dude says, "Whatcha gonna do with all that breast? All that breast inside that shirt?," we're always convinced she's gonna say, "I'm gonna make make make you squirt." But in an unexplainable fit of decency, she only makes him work.) In theory, the song is just fucking gross. In practice? Unbelievably, shamefully catchy. Guilty pleasure of the year. We brought this up to a friend who shall remain nameless, who said he heard it on the radio while in a van with two prominent DJs. They decided it was hot. Then the DJ came on and said it was Black Eyed Peas, and the entire crew fell into shame-faced silence for a half hour.

11. Ben Sisto breaks down, begs Noise Board for help designing new Great Scott logo, with predictable results: