Metropol

Obviously this forum isn't dedicated to American radio, but this is amusing enough to share.

This week I discovered that Hot 97 in NYC, perhaps the most influential Hip-Hop/R&B radio station in the United States, is illicitly using a 1999 David Lowe BBC News theme as its headline bed for morning news updates.

It's not a typical cut either...it's one of the more obscure somber beds with dramatic strings. I'll try to record it somehow. I tweeted them that it was amusing that they were taking the BBC's music, and they told replied

gotta give them credit! Plus they are friends of the show. Nothing wrong with that lol"

I'm not quite sure what type of justification that is, but I thought I'd share!

Oh hello again, long time no see.

I have to say it was odd visiting a radio site and not having the ability to play the entire show back on demand. The BBC spoils us.

Indeed! ClearChannel stations (probably a near-monopoly across the entire country, honestly) heavily promote their proprietary "iHeartRadio" listening apps, but I don't know how good it is. Honestly NPR/local public radio are the only radio stations with accessible websites and podcasts. I find WNYC (which operates separate talk feeds on WNYC-FM and WNYC-AM, as well as classical on WQXR-FM (owned by the New York Times until 2009) to have a particularly elegant web presence : https://www.wnyc.org. Their newly redesigned smartphone apps are actually quite stunning: http://www.wnyc.org/mobile/?utm_source= ... ver-yellow

I found a recording of Hot 97's "news" operation. They actually just upload each show to Soundcloud, which is a pretty efficient way to podcast actually. Here's a link to the news segment with the BBC News music at 12min30sec:

https://soundcloud.com/hot97ny/the-hot- ... 15#t=12:30

Listening to it from the link you posted I believe it's the Budget 2001 track.

http://up.metropol247.co.uk/samwsmith1/ ... 202001.mp3

Indeed, thanks for the identification. What an obscure cut for them to use! It's not as if it has ever been broadcast in the US before.