Johnson’s Raps: Kids Bring the Noise to WJPC
After five hours on the air, a young rap DJ’s thoughts turn to…dusties, of course:
There’s no contradiction: the radio kids like rap and dusties; and the high is natural. Pink House is 25, with a radio voice that’s high, wide, and handsome. His immense good humor disguises an intense single-mindedness when it comes to radio, a product of his first exposure to legend Tom Joyner. “I thought, I’d like to be able to do that,” he says matter-of-factly. “I wanted to play music for people, say hello to them, make them laugh, make today a little better than yesterday.” A few months ago Pink was a big fish in the tiny pond of King College’s 100-watt WKKC. Now he’s the flagship for a daring experiment undertaken by Johnson Publications, home of Ebony and Jet. The company has essentially turned over one of its radio stations, WJPC at 950 AM, to a band of eager and willing college DJs, led by a 23-year-old program director, Jay Alan. Alan, a vet of Columbia College’s WCRX, was tapped by Johnson’s radio chief, Charles Mootry, to take over the station; Alan, in turn, persuaded Mootry and company founder John Johnson to let him go with kids on the air. “I told them that they would make for a good image for the station, that they were professional, and all they needed was a chance,” says Alan.
