By Ytasha L. Womack
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen people bumping the radio in their cars,” said Qabah R. Cowen, store manager at the popular George’s Music Room. Callers have flooded Power 92’s lines, thanking deejays for playing new songs. “I’ve made the switch and I’m never going back!” shouted one excited woman. “They sound like they’ve been freed from slavery or something,” says Jay Alan, Power 92’s programming director.
Testifying might be a better way of describing it: less than two months ago, Power 92 was a gospel station.
Harris got busy pursuing Banks. He also tapped Alan, who was music director at WGCI, to come over as programming director. Alan refused. “I told them that they wouldn’t be able to make a dent in [WGCI] with that signal,” he says. “If they wanted to do some damage, they’d have to move to 92.3.”
In the brief weeks before the April 21 launch, Power 92’s Arbitron ratings for the 18-34 age group rose from a .2 to a 2.1 “It’s a little bit above average,” says Alan of his new employer’s improvement. “But we have a lot of work to do.”
