Craig Blac is back!
Former Q95.5 PD is new Hot 104.1 PD morning show host
By Bill Beene
Of the St. Louis American
Craig Blac is back.
So.
So St. Louis gets back a personable, down-to-earth radio personality and program director who has the tools to get Radio One’s new Hot 104.1 on the hip-hop block.
“Radio One couldn’t bring back hip-hop in St. Louis without bringing Craig Blac back,” said Brian Kruger, a former Radio One staffer, now at KMOX with former Radio One GM Dave Ervin.
The new Radio One station, a rhythmic format, has given way to a gang of hip-hop or, as Craig Blac puts it: “Hip-hop has expanded so much that it jumped onto the rhythmic format.”
Another coup for hip-hop.
The station, like the former WFUN Q 95.5, which Craig Blac helped put on the local map, dabbles in R&B, but hip-hop is its primary source of rhythm.
Local hip-hop musicmakers will get their chance to get in the mix on down the line, but right now Craig Blac is busy branding the station.
“Right now, we’re grinding hits, but local programming is coming,” he said.
Since Radio One jumped onto the STL dial, it has remained community-oriented with more of a “us” feel instead of “us vs. them.”
Craig Blac went back on air with his former radio mates, Tony J, Charlie Chan, Maryland newcomer Wendy Brown and comedian Arvin Mitchell.
The show, “Craig Blac and the Hot Morning Show,” airs weekday mornings 6-10 a.m.
Blac formerly did the midday show for his former gig at Q 95.5, then afternoons when he was relocated to Dayton, Ohio. This is his first morning show slot.
How’s it going?
“It’s killing me,” he said. “I’m adjusting my body to doing mornings.”
Tony J, who had been doing his own thing producing stage shows and running an internet station since his Q 95.5 days, has already made the adjustment.
“I don’t think I’m going to have a problem getting up and coming to work on time. I’m not producing ‘The Russ Parr Show’ anymore, now I’m doing damage in the market and going up against legends like Tony Scott (104.9). Now we get a true test of what we can really make happen in this market,” Tony J said.
The show’s direct competition is “The Dee Lee Morning Show” on Clear Channel’s hip-hop station 100.3 The Beat. Both shows have one female and three males, one of which is a comedian. The Beat has Jessie Taylor as its comedian.
Dee Lee doubles as a comedian and so does Hot 104.1’s Tony J.
Hot 104.1 appears to be evenly matched with 100.3 The Beat’s morning show, but the “Hot Ones” say it isn’t their competition.
“This isn’t an easy market to break,” Tony J said. “So our only competition for real is us. We’re competing with ourselves.”
Tony J said Radio One is a little looser than Clear Channel and you can let your personality grow. That’s one reason he said he thinks former 100.3 The Beat personality Staci Static hopped over to Radio One and its new 104.1.
We swiped her from the Beat,” Blac said. “They had a great talent and didn’t know what to do with it.”
Staci Static has the afternoon slot, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., weekdays.
Staci Static comes on after DJ C-Note, a former Q95.5 QJ. C-Note comes on at 10 a.m.
Like many St. Louisans, Jackie Porter, Radio One receptionist, said she’s glad to have the former QJs back.
“I cried when they left, and I cried when I heard them back on air,” said Porter.
Tony J said, “It’s kind of like an old girlfriend calling and wanting you back. I want her, but is she still tripping. You love her, so you go back, but I feel a little guilty because everybody isn’t back.”
Brown, the latest addition to the “Craig Blac Morning Show,” said she’s right at home with Craig Blac, Tony J and Charlie Chan.
A visit to the station on Wednesday revealed that though she just started Monday, it’s like the hosts have known one another for years.
“We have good chemistry,” Brown said Wednesday in the studio.
And St. Louis and Radio One have good chemistry, according to Craig Blac.
“St. Louis is like family,” Blac said. “You might always move and don’t always get to see your family, but St. Louis gives you family.”
