Radio-One's Atlanta Station Hot 107.9 Releases Local Talent After Going To Syndicated Host

zAJC: Rashan Ali leaves Hot 107.9
It is quite hard to pin down the position of certain activists when it comes the their concerns about "placing too much power in the media into too few hands".

Their favorite talking point is against syndication. Local Talent is fired as some national personality comes in. Those who know intimately about the local scene are replaced with a big name talker.

We know that this is typically targeted upon "Right Wing" talk stations. What better way to destroy your critics than to put up the demand for "localism".

I couldn't help but to notice that this same type of syndication is also taking place in "Urban Radio". Of course there is Tom Joyner, Steve Harvey, Russ Parr, Al Sharpton, Michael Baisden and several others. Admittedly I just learned that Ricky Smiley now has a syndicated radio show. This show has bumped the morning crew on Hot 107.9 off of the air in Atlanta.

I wonder how much of these claims against syndication and for localism applies to these particular personalities? Indeed if their is a claim that right wing talk is a defacto platform for the Republicans it is too easy to sell the case that each and every one of these Black themed shows listed above are Democratic biased platforms just as strongly.

The case of Rashan Ali is coincidental from my point of view. I have seen her previously on various billboards and buses around town. I listen to satellite radio - NPR, CNBC, Bloomberg when I am driving into work so I can't admit to having listened to her but for on a passing occasion.

Just 2 days ago I recorded a segment from the television news where her charity program "Sporty Girls" offered an opportunity for young Black girls to be exposed into sports that are non-traditional for them - swimming, tennis, golf. She was going to hold a fund raiser for the program later this week.

Today I see that she had been bumped from the air by TV-One due to their choice to syndicate Ricky Smiley, shifting her to the afternoon. Then after a contract renegotiation that did not turn out favorably - they did not renew the contract and instead she is being replaced by "cheaper talent".

Wow - this is some type of "Union Machinists" versus "evil Corporation" type stuff! Unfortunately what "is business" in the real world will stay that way in that there is not going to be a leftwing activist giving this story wings in which TV-One, a Black owned media conglomerate owned by Cathy Hughes is changed with

• Violating Localism with Syndication
• Purging high paid talent for lower paid workers
• and, perish the thought - Getting rid of a Black Female worker while she is PREGNANT

Nope - In order to do Muckraking - there must be both an unsavory target that the operative seeks to do damage to. When you have one of these two - you "punt the story", especially if you are the biased Black Press seeking to avoid hitting one of your own elements of the "Vertically Integrated 9Ps" that work in sync within the Black community.

Rashan Ali, the mid-day host at Hot 107.9, was let go Thursday afternoon, she informed me at her fundraiser for her charity Sporty Girls tonight at the Loft in Castleberry Hill. Q from the R&B group 112 performed.

Ali was a morning host for many years at Hot and headed the “A” Team until last summer, when Hot went with syndicated Rickey Smiley. She was moved to mid days, partly because she was still under contract. But she was making morning show money and Hot, like other radio stations, is in serious cost cutting mode.

Her contract was up in February but her agent Career Sports and Management got her a three month extension. Hot, she said, did not negotiate with her. Her contract is up May 31 but they decided to let her go a week early. She has a three-month noncompete clause, she said, so she is free to look for other radio employment in Atlanta in September.

For now, she said she can focus on her charity work. “It’s all good,” she said, with no trace of bitterness. She said she was expecting to get cut, given the economic environment.

She’s also pregnant with her second child, a girl, who is due in September.

Hot will likely hire a replacement at less than half the cost of Rashan to do mid days.

Her former morning cohost C.J. was there, along with Murph Dawg of 95.5/The Beat. Hot 107.9’s Emperor Searcy was there to support her as well. I’ll put up photos in the morning.