Power 105 has grown and developed into a New York urban music favorite for millions of listeners. What’s their secret? It’s rather simple. Providing a mixture of current urban music with the sounds of urban music of yesterday, the radio station offered an alternative to the straight up commercial clutter of every day on radio waves.
The call letters may have changed but the 105.1 frequency has been famous for playing the music of your past for a long time. Since 1953, 105.1 has played music by a variety of artists, from Nat King Cole to the popular rap artists of today. The station changed into what it is now by March 2002 and caused Hot 97 to loose a lot of it’s listeners. At the time 97 was the only station to play the Hip Hop and R&B hits of today. Since then, 105 offered a lot of musical coverage the rest of the radio waves lacked.
On the more commercial end of the deal, it offered star show hosts like Ed Lover and Dr. Dre, Monie Love, Star and Buc Wild, Déjà Vu, Cherri Martinez, the infamous Big Tigga and more. Popular DJs of the station included the legendary DJ Red Alert, the now late DJ Carl Blaze, DJ Clue, DJ Spinbad, DJ Kut and others.
Of course, no station goes on without some controversies. Popular DJ Carl Blaze was killed in Harlem as a result of robbery. On a less tragic and more bizarre note Star made a name for himself with his remarks. Getting FCCand the NYPDinvolved, his attempt at a joke/diss was directed at a rival DJ’s little kid and his wife. On a bright note he was replaced by Big Tigger, only giving the station more credibility among its Hip Hop listeners.
Integrating Reggaeton into its roster of music for a little while, Power 105 got even more fans. The Hurban music (Hispanic Urban music) played in the city with one of the largest Spanish-speaking population was a definite success.
2007 marked 5 years of bringing some of the best music to New York for Power 105. The station celebrated it by putting on a concert with a number of performers at the Webster Hall. Ne-Yo, Fabulous, Swizz Beats, MIMSand Wayne Wonder all graced the stage with their performances. Besides that, DJ Red Alert, Marley Marl, DJ Clue, DJ Kut and several other DJs played tracks for the packed venue.
Fabulousis about to drop his album. Coming back to his fans, this time a part of DefJam, he’s leaked some of his new music to the radio already. Ne-Yo’s new album’s success is making headlines as you’re reading this. Selling over 200,000 copies of his album in the first week he’s asking for another Grammy. MIMSjust finished his US club tour and still riding on the hills of his #1 hit is gearing up for new things to come. You can read more about him here: MIMS is making everyone hot. Swizz Beats made a sudden migration from his producer status to rapping, ala Kanye West and now has his own super hit, It’s Me Snitches. Jamaican Wayne Wonder is making a name for himself in Hip Hop nowadays, doing songs now with Foxy Brown and Lisa Lopez.
One more successful year for the station, one more year of entertaining people and bringing the best music of today and the classic of the years past, that’s what that concert celebrated. Being one of the top radio stations in New York is always a tough job, considering the mixture of people and all the other competition. At the same time being an urban music station in the city where Hip Hop was born makes it that much more difficult to solidify a leading spot. Still, Power 105 shines.
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