Quiet Storm: How 1970s R&B changed late-night radio

Quiet Storm is a late-night Black radio staple.

Link to the extended interview with Fredara Hadley: https://youtu.be/QjAd49e0H8s

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Late one evening in the summer of 1976, a Howard University student named Melvin Lindsey was tapped to fill in as a host at WHUR, the university-owned Black radio station. He chose a lineup of his favorite R&B ballads to soundtrack Washington, DC, that evening. The show was an accidental success. Shortly thereafter he was hired, and his show had a name: The Quiet Storm.

Quiet Storm radio shows have since become a staple of Black communities across the United States. In the video above Estelle Caswell, along with ethnomusicologist Fredara Hadley, break down exactly what makes Quiet Storm such a beloved black radio tradition. Also featured in the episode are radio hosts, Angela Stribling, Al Wood, and John Monds.

The playlist is called "Quiet Storm Odyssey" you can find it on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6cgyKA4A75Agpv6CRfBprS?si=b1B2ozp2SEebTxZp2ZJhIw

Sources:
Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class by Karyn R. Lacy

The Death of Rhythm and Blues by Nelson George

That's the Joint!: The Hip-hop Studies Reader by Mark Anthony Neal

The Quiet Storm by Eric Harvey for Pitchfork

Quiet Storm Sweeps Black Radio by Nelson George, Billboard Magazine Oct 4, 1986

Airing the Moods of Melvin Lindsey by Roger Piantadosi, The Washington Post, February 3, 1979

New, Lower Voice Deliberately Cultivated by Smokey Robinson by Jean Williams, Billboard Magazine April 12,1975

Blacks Rise by 110,000 in Suburbs by Lawrence Feinberg, The Washington Post, May 18, 1975

Blacks Total 77 Percent of District’s Population by Paul Valentine, The Washington Post, January 24, 1976

The Voice of the Evening by Jacqueline Trescott, The Washington Post, September 5, 1985

Black Perspective on the Move, The Pittsburgh Courier, February 19, 1977

Durable Radio Format Survives Shift in Tastes, Tod Beamon, The New York Times, February 19, 1987

To The White Suburbs by Carlie Douglas, Ebony Magazine, April 1973


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