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I really like 92Q. I like WPGC and WKYS but I find 92Q refreshing for some reason, probably because it's not as typical mainstream to me as most Hip Hop stations in the country.
Completely agree. I grew up in the DC area but get good reception of 92Q, and in the last few years they have become a MUCH better station than the DC stations PGC or KYS fm. 92Q has a more east coast vibe and they play more 90s or early 2000s hip hop.
WPGC and KYS are both trash - 99% is chris brown or drake or some other top 40 stuff. 92Q definitely has a better variety of hip hop music. DC's stations used to be better, but it's very watered down now much like the city itself has become.
and YES Baltimore as a city is extremely underrated, I tell people that all the time!!! just steer clear of certain hoods and it's a great place to hang out in and meet folks.
You know it's true, (even tho' I'm becoming an old fuddy-duddy as far as pop-radio is concerned) that it seems like R&B radio of all styles in the Baltimore/DC region has declined dramatically over the past 20 years.
When I moved here in 1992, there were still at least three stations (AM&FM) that played high quality R&B, whether it was 60's,70's or 80's. And this is coming from a white-boy-rock'n'roll-punk rocker wanna bee. Within a few years everything shifted-all the stations switched to either a sappy ballads, a ghetto-dialect violence eschewing, or worse yet "Baltimore Club" format. I don't know if that's what the demand was, or if radio guided the demand as the labels required. Payola still existed-who's to say more or less now days?
I stopped listening.
When I dial in, I hear the same stuff, just recycled.
Black music has been one of the main driving forces in American music since the blues/jazz scene of the '20's/'30's-I wish, I wish, I wish...
You know it's true, (even tho' I'm becoming an old fuddy-duddy as far as pop-radio is concerned) that it seems like R&B radio of all styles in the Baltimore/DC region has declined dramatically over the past 20 years.
When I moved here in 1992, there were still at least three stations (AM&FM) that played high quality R&B, whether it was 60's,70's or 80's. And this is coming from a white-boy-rock'n'roll-punk rocker wanna bee. Within a few years everything shifted-all the stations switched to either a sappy ballads, a ghetto-dialect violence eschewing, or worse yet "Baltimore Club" format. I don't know if that's what the demand was, or if radio guided the demand as the labels required. Payola still existed-who's to say more or less now days?
I stopped listening.
When I dial in, I hear the same stuff, just recycled.
Black music has been one of the main driving forces in American music since the blues/jazz scene of the '20's/'30's-I wish, I wish, I wish...
Stick to the underground. The only stuff I like to listen to on the radio (WPGC, WKYS, WHUR, and 103.2) now are 'indie-R&B' (i.e. Miguel, Elle Varner, Gabi Wilson, Jhene Aiko, Frank Ocean, Tinashe, etc.), the good Hip Hop artists that pop on there from time to time (Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Lupe Fiasco, A$AP Rocky, J Cole, Wale, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Game, etc.), old school Soul/Adult Contemporary/Quiet Storm/R&B, and late night Go-Go. Other than that, I just listen to stuff on YouTube, SoundCloud, Pandora, DatPiff, and my iTunes library. I also really miss the jazz station that used to be really popular down here in the DMV back in the day (was it 95.9?)...I'm a young head btw.
Completely agree. I grew up in the DC area but get good reception of 92Q, and in the last few years they have become a MUCH better station than the DC stations PGC or KYS fm. 92Q has a more east coast vibe and they play more 90s or early 2000s hip hop.
WPGC and KYS are both trash - 99% is chris brown or drake or some other top 40 stuff. 92Q definitely has a better variety of hip hop music. DC's stations used to be better, but it's very watered down now much like the city itself has become.
and YES Baltimore as a city is extremely underrated, I tell people that all the time!!! just steer clear of certain hoods and it's a great place to hang out in and meet folks.
Yeah, that may explain why I like 92Q. There was a time when WPGC and WKYS sounded more East Coast in their format. Now (at least outside of Go-Go nights), they sound like ATL... Think they started to sound like that around 2008ish. I also REALLY wish the two DMV stations would do more to get the growing and vocal underground Hip Hop scene down here put on like the Hip Hop stations in New York, Philly, ATL, Houston, the Bay Area, Hampton Roads/757, etc. tend to do. They used to do it for Wale and Tabi Bonney a lot back in the day...Sure, they put on some stuff from Fat Trel and Shy Glizzy on occasions but other than that, the stations down here be sleeping. Don't know whether or not if 92Q is in touch with the underground Hip Hop scene in the Baltimore area.
Interesting points! WPGC and WKYS did have more of an East Coast sound, but Hip Hop scene and the music has changed considerably over the years? And...who in the hell listens to mainstream radio anymore with all the tremendous variety in college and internet broadcasting???!!!
I lived in Houston for a few years, mainstream radio down there is about Southern rap music (they promote Houston and other southern rap acts).
Underground Hip Hop??!! What do you know about that? Lil Boosie and Wakka Flakka Fool is not underground Hip Hop! That is garbage, death music!
Quote:
Originally Posted by tcave360
Yeah, that may explain why I like 92Q. There was a time when WPGC and WKYS sounded more East Coast in their format. Now (at least outside of Go-Go nights), they sound like ATL... Think they started to sound like that around 2008ish. I also REALLY wish the two DMV stations would do more to get the growing and vocal underground Hip Hop scene down here put on like the Hip Hop stations in New York, Philly, ATL, Houston, the Bay Area, Hampton Roads/757, etc. tend to do. They used to do it for Wale and Tabi Bonney a lot back in the day...Sure, they put on some stuff from Fat Trel and Shy Glizzy on occasions but other than that, the stations down here be sleeping. Don't know whether or not if 92Q is in touch with the underground Hip Hop scene in the Baltimore area.
"Baltimore is too expensive for most companies to have a meaningful presence. If a company is in a position to locate elsewhere, they will. Look at the flood of businesses relocating to N. Virginia, where everything is less, from taxes on the businesses to taxes on individual income."
*This is crazy!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by trickymost
The last statement is true for the entire east coast, not only Baltimore.
Baltimore's other under-reported problem on this thread is the state business taxes are too high relative to its neighbors in Delaware and in Virginia.
Baltimore is too expensive for most companies to have a meaningful presence. If a company is in a position to locate elsewhere, they will. Look at the flood of businesses relocating to N. Virginia, where everything is less, from taxes on the businesses to taxes on individual income.
I see Baltimore as treading water, a testament to the old real estate tenet "location, location, location". If Baltimore were not so centrally located in the mid-Atlantic, it would've devolved into Detroit long ago.
Baltimore's problems are completely tractable. Cut the city property tax in half (or greater), give incentives to all sized businesses to set up shop in the city (so effective tax rates are on par with VA), give things 3-5 years, and the city and surrounding counties will be awash in growth.
London and Moscow feel like a big city even before easing off their height restrictions. Skyscrapers a big city don't always make dude. Example: Charlotte. Paris is more of a big city than Bmore will ever be (and ironically, Paris is geographically smaller than Bmore).
And besides, Baltimore hardly feels like a "big city" to me. A big town yes, but I don't get a big city vibe from up there as I do in DC, LA (yes, LA), New York, etc. Nothing's wrong with that, but the differences are pretty obvious to me.
DC does have height restrictions, yes, but DC is also almost completely filled in. Virtually all construction in DC requires something to be demolished or at the very least, converted (such as in a hotel into a condo complex). Baltimore has an excessive amount of vacant and/or neglected properties, some of which are connected by blocks and blocks of emptiness.
So, that gives Baltimore the unique ability to truly build itself into a new city without having to destroy much, if any, historic qualities or displace (too many) residents/businesses.
But for some reason it is not. If you peruse the balitmore dot gov website you can find documentation regarding city projects/developments. There is at least one "master plan" for each Baltimore neighborhood. However, many are dated from the 1970s and 1980s, with a few from the 1990s. So what happened? Nothing much outside of the area along the Harbor. The Harbor is also where Baltimore is putting its money. Currently there is the Harbor Point project, which given Baltimore's history will probably never happen despite the City throwing tens of millions of dollars at it, and, the Waterfront Project 2.0, which is really just going to add green space around the Inner Harbor (plus a sand beach complete with volleyball and a pedestrian foot bridge connecting the south side of the Harbor with the north side).
There is Sparrow's Point, which contains the most modern ship building facility in the U.S. to my knowledge. The current owners of Sparrow's Point have plans to turn it into a mixed use business/technology park and to keep the ship building facilities. That would all be of benefit to Dundalk and Baltimore County, though, not really Baltimore City. Also, if you look at a map of the Harbor you will see an enormous amount of rail track. These are obviously left over from the days of when shipping was a big deal in the Harbor. These tracks are owned by CSX and CSX has plans to expand within Maryland and neighboring states. My guess is that cargo ships will once again become a major presence in the Harbor once CSX completes its expansion, but who knows when that will be.
Take Portland, OR. I have mentioned this before: Portland was not always the cool, hip, place to be. 30 years ago the place was a total dump (Portland used to also be heavily Conservative not that long ago, but that is a topic for another thread). The City of Portland hired a firm to revitalize downtown and now wala, we have the Portland of today. Take my hometown of Sacramento, CA. Sacto's Midtown and Downtown were also kind of dumpy for a very long time. Not only that but there was almost latterly nothing to do. Sacramento hired the same firm who did Portland to revitalize Midtown/downtown. Now, skid row is luxury condos, the hole-in-the-wall bar where you used to be able to get a Shaker glass full of gin and a splash of grapefruit juice for $2 now sells $10 pints of craft beer. The food scene that once was full of restaurants that probably should have been condemned is now being featured in major New York City publications. Even though these plans were put into place just over a decade ago most of this change really only happened over the last five years.
Here is my point: no one in Sacramento would have thought any of this possible ten years ago. Heck, growing up we used to joke that Sacramento was a cow town, which was not far from the truth. I mean imagine a major U.S. city built around agriculture and being a place where "big city folk" did things like join 4H and/or FFA (Future Farmers of America) and going to something like a rodeo within city limits was a good way to spend a Friday evening...a major U.S. city. But Sacramento became tired of being the red-headed step-child to SF that everyone loved but no one really wanted. I do not want to suggest that this is what Baltimore should do. I am just giving some insight into what is possible. Hence my previous comment that Baltimore can become the big city that DC cannot.
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Think they started to sound like that around 2008ish. I also REALLY wish the two DMV stations would do more to get the growing and vocal underground Hip Hop scene down here put on like the Hip Hop stations in New York, Philly, ATL, Houston, the Bay Area, Hampton Roads/757, etc. tend to do. They used to do it for Wale and Tabi Bonney a lot back in the day...Sure, they put on some stuff from Fat Trel and Shy Glizzy on occasions but other than that, the stations down here be sleeping. Don't know whether or not if 92Q is in touch with the underground Hip Hop scene in the Baltimore area.
Lil Boosie and Wakka Flakka Fool is not underground Hip Hop! That is garbage, death music! 
