He’s back: Ramonski Luv returns to Chicago radio

Also: Tom Joyner’s Dallas station changes formats

Per Robert Feder, Ramonski Luv (a.k.a. Ramon Wade) is back with a new radio gig in Chicago – this time at WVAZ’s (V103) main rival.

Wade has signed on with Crawford Broadcasting’s WSRB-FM (Soul 106.3) to be their new evening personality, effective December 3. Wade’s show is scheduled to air every weeknight from 6 to 10 p.m. This means that yes, he’ll be competing against his old partner (Joe Soto) at V103 – the station who fired him last summer. The duo were paired at WVAZ for about a decade, first in afternoon drive and later in the evening, moved to make room for Doug Banks’ syndicated show (Wade was a producer for Banks’ morning show at WGCI.)

Wade thanked his fans Saturday morning:

@RobertFeder @Soul1063 thanking I Am God for my new assignment thanking management of Crawford broadcasting and the wonderful listeners

— Ramonski Luv (@ramonskiluv) November 15, 2014

When Ramonski Luv’s firing was made public, listeners were angry about the decision (with a few coming to T Dog Media to vent.) Since Soto went solo, V103 has fallen out of the number one slot in the evenings, but still remains competitive.

The hiring of Ramonski Luv comes as Denver-based Crawford – primarily known as an owner of religious and conservative talk radio stations – is making a bid to compete with iHeartMedia’s WGCI (Urban/Hip-Hop) and V103 (Urban AC) for the market’s African-American audience. While V103 is Chicago’s top-rated radio station, WSRB has languished at the bottom of the ratings.

However, the race between WPWX (Power 92) and WGCI has been significantly closer- particularly in the 18-34 demos.

Crawford also owns another urban-formatted station, WYRB-FM in Rockford, northwest of Chicago.

In another development in urban radio, Radio One’s KSOC-FM – a Dallas radio station best known for being the flagship for Tom Joyner’s syndicated show, has flipped from Urban AC to Classic Hip-Hop  – as did another station in the Metroplex, Cumulus’ KLIF-FM, which decided to launch a Classic Hip-Hop format for the holiday season. Both KLIF and KSOC did the flip within hours of one another Friday evening.

A few weeks ago, Radio One flipped its Houston all-news FM station (KROI-FM 92) to a Classic Hip-Hop format, and Radio One made a similar move in Philadelphia with its low-rated Urban outlet, WPHI-FM. All three Radio One stations are branded under “Boom”.

Classic Hip-Hop consists of songs from the mid-198o’s to ten years ago, running the gamut from Run D.M.C and Whodini to 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. to Missy Elliott and Nelly. Of course, the artists vary by market.

Despite the format flip, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, which airs locally over WSRB, remains on KSOC.

(UPDATE 2014-11-18: As of Monday, KSOC is no longer carrying Tom Joyner’s syndicated show.)

The duel Dallas format flip was first reported by Radio Insight.