When I was younger, the funkiest radio station in Detroit used to be WGPR-FM 107.5. This radio station used to be the home of The Electrofying Mojo, one of my three all-time favorite DJs (the others are Mike Halloran of Radios in Motion and Brent Bambury of Brave New Waves). WGPR also had Mason In The Morning, which was another very popular program in the Detroit area*.
There were plenty of nights where I would hang out with my friends, eating pizza, playing cards and listening to Mojo. It was just something we did and never thought twice about. The only problem with hanging out with my friends, eating pizza, playing cards and listening to Mojo on Saturday nights was midnight. That was the time WGPR would switch to religious programming.
None of us had a problem with religious programming. And to this day I still don’t have a problem with religious programming. Whatever gives you peace without hurting someone else is something I wholeheartedly endorse and if someone finds peace and solace in religion or religious programming, then go for it.
However, when you are a teenager hanging out with your friends and you had just been listening to funky music for the past few hours, then songs about the glory of Jesus is not necessarily something you want hang out to.
Fast forward 20 years and I found out that WGPR has a Twitter account. I was curious to see what a radio station would tweet about. Upcoming contests and promotions? Announcements about schedule changes? Off air news about the station or the DJs? Nope, the entire Twitter feed is to announce what song they are about to start playing. Of course, I subscribed.
Just looking at the playlist brought back lots of good memories because in a lot of ways WGPR is still stuck in the past, with songs like Encore by Cheryl Lynn, Flashlight by Funkadelic and Strawberry Letter 23 by The Brothers Johnson; but at the same time, they also have newer artists like Chrisette Michele, Joss Stone and Beyonce.
The Twitter account is not the reason why I think that WGPR is changing their ways. I looked at the feed and noticed that they are now switching over to Sunday religious programming at 6 am! I guess somewhere in the past twenty years, someone must have told them most good hearted church going people were asleep at that time of night and weren’t hearing the programming designed for them. They must have also realized that they were leaving a lot of ad money on the table by having all of the young people switch over other stations at midnight.
In case you were wondering, WGPR stands for Where God’s Presence Radiates.
* I recently found out that Mason In The Morning is back on WGPR as a syndicated show, but I don’t listen to morning radio, afternoon drive-time radio, late night radio or overnight radio, so I didn’t realize. And as much as I like the playlist that I have seen, there is nothing that makes me want to go out of my way to start listening to the radio again. Not as long as podcasts still exist.
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