A radio duo who found success in the ’90s is back on deck – but this time around things are a little different. B.J. Murphy and Keith Richards (no, not that Keith Richards) used to spearhead the “Breakfast Brothas” morning show on WPEG (Power 98) in Charlotte and consistently rank among the top drive-time shows for the 18 to 34 demo.
But in a sign of the times, the guys are now on a different path: working out of a space in a community services center and developing an Internet-only radio station for Charlotte listeners.
Their station – QC102.com – went live July 2 with a soft launch. Each weekday from 10 a.m. to noon, the duo can be heard discussing a host of local and national issues, their chatter thrown in between a music mix that includes R&B, soul and contemporary. The shows are taped in advance but are sometimes updated as events unfold.
Their goal is to attract enough daily listeners – roughly 40,000, by their estimation – to make the station financially viable.
It’s another example of how the Internet is opening new doors for new media, said Dennis Wharton, a spokesman with the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.
“It’s not something that I would say is sweeping the nation, but there have been pockets of these types of program offerings that I have read about,” he said. “It’s something to keep an eye on.”
