Radio Ethnography:

Blazin 102.3Tallahassees Hottest Hip Hop and R & B

Living in an urban environment can be quite stimulating. In large clusters of people of
varying ethnicities that are most American cities, one does not have to go far to find insightgiving aspects regarding the cultures one does not identify oneself with, the cultures that make
up ones neighborhood, workplace, and of course, ones city. In the city of Tallahassee, there are
many opportunities for one to come across these insight-giving aspects, but one of the most
convenient perhaps, is found by way of any old radio. Indeed, something as simple and mundane
as surfing through ones local radio stations can be like opening a fantasy novel set in some
fantastic fictional metropolis; there are radio stations catering to, as one might expect, anyone
who would normally listen to the radio, or in other words, just about everyone. One such person
is myself. In fact, I regularly tune into WFSQ, 91.5, a station featuring western classical music,
and of course the various accessories that make up a radio station: guests, discussions,
advertisements, and even the occasional over-the-air trivia. For this essay I wanted to explore the
cultures which both surround and preclude me, and so it would behoove me, I thought, to go as
far away from my norm as possible.
There are a few characteristic aspects of a classical music radio station that I considered
in order to find the perfect mismatch for me. Obviously, this radio station couldnt have classical
music, not the classical as in Mozart, or even classic as in The Eagles. No, this radio station
should have whats hot, that is, fresh material that caters to a very large audience. That in mind, I
thought I should find a rap station, seeing as rap is undoubtedly the hottest music currently out
there. (Now I must interject: coming into this adventure of cultural exploration, it wouldnt be
fair to say that I was completely ignorant of the cultures Id be exploring, and it is this

knowledge that informs some of my decisions and conclusions about said cultures.) Having
decided on the type of radio station to look for, it wasnt long before I found Blazin 102.3
Tallahassees Hottest Hip Hop and R & B.
Blazin 102.3 is a station that does exactly as its title suggests. Its a commercial radio
station with an outgoing DJ slinging, arguably, the hottest singles out there. Also of note, is
during the time I was listening, a roughly hour long period in the afternoon of a weekday, there
were call-ins for birthday shout-outs. From these components, which were themselves typical
to most radio stations in my experience, were seemingly equally average components. There
were advertisements in-between songs and DJ banter for, in the time I was listening, hair
products, cars, and TV shows. The DJ himself was very personable and friendly just as any DJ
should be, and he did this by talking about relatable troubles, i.e. paying bills, while freely using
slang to get his point across. The songs were similar to how I imagined having heard short
segments played in the cars that drive through my neighborhood. (Regrettably, I can hear these
songs a little too well from my bedroom.)
The songs were all vocal features, with a little more rapping than singing. Of the rapping,
all that I heard was spit by males, whereas the vast majority of all the singing I heard was done
by female vocalists. The rapped songs and the sung ones contrasted more in sex of the artists
though. The raps seemed to use common subject material while their themes differed; getting
paid and drug use were common, but the overall theme of one rap I heard was the rappers
insecurity. Conversely, much of the sung material was more outward in projecting the inner
emotions of the artist. For example, there was one female singer who renounced her want for
worldly things for instead her lost lover. The music for these more emotional songs, while still
being rhythmically driven like the rap songs, had softer instrumentation, probably to compliment

the softer timbre of a womans voice and subject material, contrasted to the generally harsher,
syncopated male rapping.
There is quite a lot which can be said about the music, but let me focus on the rhythm
aspect of it as all the songs were rhythmically driven more than melodically or harmonically,
even for the R & B material. Whats the difference between melodically or harmonically driven
music compared to music focused on rhythm? Well, the first thing which comes to mind from my
own culture is dance musicof all genres. In my experience just about all genres have some sort
of dance subset, which is clearly more centered on a driving beat than anything else. However,
just because rhythm is the dominant element in music doesnt make that music any less valid. In
order to be constructive, we can look at the cultural implications of a rhythm-heavy music. Do
the members of this particular music like theirs to be more physically tangible, that is, do they
like to be able to feel the music kinetically? Does this element relate more deeply to the stations
listeners cultural history? I am of course no sort of musicologist, but with a little background
knowledge in African music and the target audience of this radio station seemingly AfricanAmerican, I think there is room for argument that rhythmically driven music is a tradition of
Africans and their descendants. Granted, yes, the rhythms I heard were nowhere near as complex
as the native African rhythms, but still, the music on Blazin 102.3 consistently used rhythm
more than anything else to get its point across, and after all, both hip hop and R & B are
distinctively African-American.
To conclude on my experiences with a culture next store, sort to say, Id like to compare
my personal experiences with two radio stations: WFSQ 91.5, a western classical station, and
Blazin 102.3, a hip hop and R & B station. To start, both had the normal components of a typical
station; most of the air time was occupied by music, followed by advertisements, DJ banter, and

short segments for interviews or call-in. My normal radio station plays music written any time
between the early Baroque era and the present, whereas Blazin plays the hottest new hip hop
and R & B. My normal station has a few ads here and there, but most of the support comes from
private, local donors, whereas Blazin is strictly commercial and so the air time used for music
has to be accommodative of the many commercial that fund the program. There were short
segments for call-ins and shout-outs on Blazin where, if WFSQ uses time for station-specific
segments, its usually for an interview with a guest artist followed by a limited number of call-ins
with questions relating to the interview. The difference between the music of the stations is the
root and most important differences here though. On WFSQ on any given dayexcept Baroque
Sundayone can expect to hear Mozart and Handel and Schubert and friends, a collection of
composers of the classical style or at least spirit, whereas on Blazin, one will hear the hottest
new hip hop and R & B, or a collection of rhythm-heavy, more personal music. It is the last
difference that explains all the other differences I think, and therefore the most definitive contrast
between the culture Id have to identify myself with, and the culture that the regular listeners of
102.3 would probably identify themselves with.