Erbo and Peter Rosenberg out at Hot 97 | Matt Connarton Unleashed

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One more thing a radio more of a radio specific thing.
But this is also from Digital Musicnews dot com. Hot
ninety seven introduces new on air hosts after abrupt Ebro
firing New York listeners give a chilly welcome. Now, you
might be wondering, depending on where you are, why do
I care about what goes on at a radio station
in New York. Well, I'll tell you. Hot ninety seven

(00:21):
in New York City is the most powerful, most prominent, respected,
elite hip hop station in the entire country. Hot ninety
seven is you know you're if you're interested in hip hop,
even even a little bit, you probably know about Hot
ninety seven. And so they are again the most powerful

(00:43):
hip hop station in the entire country. And Ebro, Now
I did not preread this. I don't know what happened,
but I'm always very curious what happened to Ebro. I
know that he was very I recognize this picture. I
know that he was a prominent figure again in hip hop,
in radio in New York. He's a big deal. Let's

(01:06):
see what happened here. So Hot ninety seven introduces a
fresh group of hosts amid the cancelation of EBRO in
the Morning, and New Yorkers aren't too happy about it.
On Thursday, just after announcing the cancelation of Ebro in
the Morning, New York hip hop station Hot ninety seven
shared a promotional image on social media introducing a trio
of new hosts. The posts didn't specify whether the new

(01:28):
hosts will take over the morning show or when their
show might launch. Hm The post introduces Rondell Smith, Lana Harris,
and Million, labeling them as the new Hot ninety seven hosts,
alongside a coming soon banner, but giving out quickly. The
announcement followed the cancelation of longtime favorite Ebro in the Morning,

(01:51):
which was hosted by Ebro Dardin, Laura Styles and Peter
Rosenberg for years. Commenters on Instagram were decidedly unenthusiastic about
the news. By the way, Peter Rosenberg will be familiar
to wrestling fans because he also sometimes he does interviews
or sits on a panel at you know, WWE events,

(02:13):
Usually during the pre show you might see him. So
if you're a WWE fan, you've seen Peter Rosenberg at
some point, so you know Hot ninety seven kind of
is or was his day job. But he also is
involved in WWE as a broadcaster, and you know, and
he does a lot of a lot of interviews, a
lot of YouTube content and so forth. So so he

(02:34):
was part of that team too. So responding to this
to the announcement, one comment or wrote, congratulations, you played yourself.
I'll keep listening to podcasts unquote. The announcement of new
hosts follows a lot of shaky ground at the radio station,
as the cancelation of Ebro in the Morning has sparked
a lot of debate among fans and industry observers alike.

(02:56):
Hot ninety seven is notably not publicly explained decision, but
Ebro Darden has claimed that his outspoken political views and
critiques of major institutions may have contributed. Meanwhile, funk Master Flex,
who briefly filled in during the morning slot after Ebro's departure,
clarified on social media that it'll still be a while

(03:19):
before his long term role in mornings will take hold.
On the former Twitter x, he wrote that while he
received positive feedback from listeners, his deal for the morning
show doesn't start until twenty twenty nine. Okay, until then,
he will remain in his longtime five PM slot twenty
twenty nine. So he has a deal to take over

(03:41):
the morning show on Hot ninety seven and twenty twenty nine.
You know what that reminds me of. It reminds me
of back when when Jay Leno announced his retirement from
the Tonight Show the first time. I'm sorry he didn't
announce his retirement, but NBC was getting ready for what
they wanted to be his retirement, so they announced five

(04:01):
years in advance. Five years in advance. They announced that
Conan O'Brien was going to be taking over the Tonight
Show in five years, and then, of course five years came,
Conan took over, and you know, and then it didn't
work out, and Leno came back, and you know, eventually
Leno left again and it was Jimmy Fallon. But but
it just reminds me of that, Like, Okay, so it's

(04:24):
been established that funk Master Flex has taken over the
Morning Show, but not until twenty twenty nine, they can't say, hey, Flex,
maybe we should revisit this, Maybe we should have you
take over the morning show now, Like, what are you
doing in other New York related Oh? This, some other this? Oh, actually,

(04:45):
well this is relevant too for people who are interested
in politics. This part's relevant in other New York radio shakeups.
Power one oh five and iHeartMedia announced last week the
extension of their relationship with Media Mogul and The Breakfast
Club Charlemagne the God Again. If you're interested in politics
and political podcasters, you're familiar with Charlemagne. I mean, he's

(05:07):
not a podcast you know, they do politics on his
radio show, but you know, but he's become a pretty
influential guy over the years in politics. The multi year
agreement will see Charlemagne continue his nationally syndicated show on
weekdays from six to ten am, as well as weekends
with The Breakfast Club, alongside co host DJ Envy, Jess

(05:29):
Hilarious and Lauren L. Rosa. So all right, so Charlemagne's
not going anywhere, but he's been very, very successful with
his format. I think he originally was doing more of
a more you know, hip hop, you know, years ago,
was doing more just interviews with other figures in hip hop.
But then eventually it became I think now it's I mean,

(05:50):
I don't listen to him all the time. I just
you know, see whatever I see on YouTube. But it
looks like now it's pretty much all politics, I think
politics and current events that they do. But they've they've
been very very successful with that format.