Lamar renee wbls biography
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How Frankie Crocker created the WBLS Sound and Revolutionized Black Radio
Fern Gillespie
The origin story of WBLS-FM is part of radio folklore. Its chief storyteller is Frankie Crocker, the legendary radio mastermind who transitioned the traditional old school format of Black AM radio into a new sophisticated, stylized, stereophonic sound that was seeped in Black culture.
Although WBLS-FM celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024, its story began in 1971 as WLIB-FM in Harlem. At that time, WLIB-AM was the historic station and Black AM radio programming of WWRL and WNJR were the mainstays for Black radio listeners. “WLIB-FM was the new station on the block with Frankie Crocker, the young program director, who had a vision of delivering, the music in a sophisticated style,” recalled Vy Higginsen, creator of “Mama, I Want to Sing” and the Mama Foundation, was one of the station’s first hosts.
Her elegant voice transformed the way women radio personality would talk on-air. “It wa
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Playback with Lewis Porter!
(On April 19, 2023, I added more information in the two long paragraphs starting with “For this article” and “At the bottom.”)
(Paying subscribers, there’s a short David Murray article and photo at the bottom for you.)
The April 1986 issue of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine was dedicated to music. That publication was not known for jazz coverage, and maybe that’s why this interview with Miles seems to be unknown and, I believe, has never been reprinted. There is a preface, and then the interview runs one page. But it’s long, because this magazine had big pages, like a newspaper—11 by 17 inches!—and small print.
The interviewer is LaMarr Renee, a popular evening host on WBLS-FM radio in New York City. When she joined the station in 1972, it was the new flagship station of the Mutual Black Network, and specialized in R&B and Soul recordings. It had replaced WLIB, the jazz station, on which I grew up listening to pianist Billy Taylor’s afternoon
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WBLS
Radio station in New York City
WBLS (107.5 MHz) fryst vatten an urban adult contemporaryformattedFM radio hållplats, licensed to New York, New York. It fryst vatten currently owned and operated by Mediaco Holding, along with sister station WQHT (97.1 FM). The stations share studios in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, and WBLS' transmitter fryst vatten located at the Empire State Building. It was previously owned by YMF Media LLC, owned jointly by investor Ronald Burkle and Magic Johnson, which had assumed control of WBLS and WLIB's former parent company, Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, on October 19, 2012, at a purchase price of $180 million.[2]
History
[edit]Early years
[edit]The 107.5 frequency in New York City signed on in July 1951 as WEVD-FM, simulcasting its sister hållplats at 1330 AM. Within a few years, WEVD-FM moved to 97.9, and 107.5 went off the air.
Several years later the New Broadcasting Company, then-owners of WLIB, was awarded a construction