Talk:Quiet storm

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[edit] AN IMPORTANT CORRECTION AND GIVING A BROTHER HIS PROPS

Had to edit this entry to reflect the true origins of "quiet storm" music. Smokey's hit never would have become associated with this type of music had it not been used by Melvin Lindsey as the theme song for his radio show on WHUR-FM -- which actually defined the music category. Indeed, the popularity of his show is responsible for the category itself -- which could have been called "Golden Time of Day" music had he instead used that Frankie Beverly and Maze tune to introduce his programming time slot.

Further, Smokey had two previous solo albums before "Quiet Storm" -- they just weren't hits.

About the popularity of the music: it's still wildly popular. It's just not always called "quiet storm" music anymore. After all, that song was a hit almost 30 years ago. Same kind of music, basically -- just a different name. Peace. -- deeceevoice, June 27, 2004

Was turning the dial on my radio the other night -- and WHUR STILL has a late-night "Quiet Storm" show. Well, I'll be.  :-D deeceevoice 00:58, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC) ---

Comment accompanying edit: "Removed 'The music lives.' from the end of the article. It doesn't belong in a Wikipedia article. It's a totally irrational, biased statement of opinion that doesn't contribute to the article.)"

Dang, bwoi. Why you gotta be so hard? :-p Just merely a reaction to the first, off-the-mark version of this piece which made it sound like quiet storm music was near 'bout dead. Quiet storm was one of my first edits as a newbie. I probably wouldn't write something like that now; but, hey, I thought it was a nice touch -- and certainly not "totally irrational." Just a fact. lol But that's minor. As long as my other stuff stands, I'm cool wit that. deeceevoice 06:49, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Confusion over the origins of quiet storm

Yes, Cathy Hughes is often (mis)credited with the quiet storm. In fact, Smokey Robinson himself recently made the erroneous statement that the show began on one of Cathy Hughes' radio stations, which, disappointingly, Hughes did not correct -- which is clearly not the case. (In fact Howard University Radio owns the rights to the name "Quiet Storm," and any radio station using the name has to pay the University a royalty -- something probably worth noting in the article.) Melvin sat in for an AWOL deejay, the audience liked what they heard -- and Cathy had the good sense to give him his own show. She didn't originate the format. Melvin's job was giving audiences what they wanted, and he was good at it. And Cathy's talent was/is that she knew a winner/money maker when she heard one. (And, yes, Hughes was sales manager in '73, but became station manager two years later. A sales manager would have had no say-so in programming affairs.) deeceevoice 06:59, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I was there from the beginning with the "Quiet Storm," or as Melvin "Max" wanted the shows mood to be set by "Mr. Magic" by G. Washington Jr. I was the co-founder and co-producer with Melvin. We chose the music together; and Cathy would call in every so often and tell us to play a specific record (for some reason she liked "MacAuthur Park." Initially it was to be only a single night's job, Melvin being the Student Council President and me the President of the Film Society, we were running buddies on campus form Freshman year and this was the summer before our Senior year. The Sunday night that the show started, no name at that time --and the first song wasn't 'Quiet Storm," a DJ didn't show up, the Program Director (the former "AC from DC")I think was in Atlantic City and couldn't be reached and Cathy asked Melvin to find a student replacement to do the show; for one night. Melvin called everyone he knew and liked who was majoring in Radio at Howard University and asked them if they wanted to do it. Everyone said no for differing reasons. Finally, he called me and asked and I said no...so we began to talk and shoot the breeze because he didn't want to call Cathy amd give her the bad news. While we were talking one of us, I can not remember who --probably Melvin, said let's do it together (I had the license, Melvin didn't. Melvin had the voice, I didn't.) Later that day he came by and picked me up in his AMC Gremlin, and we stopped by his house and got most of the records from his collection and went out to my Uncle's house where I had stored my College trunks to get my Radio license.

The first night on the air Cathy, the GM, told us we didn't have to run the live commercials and if we missed any she would make good. That night we both were so nervous that I had a very difficult time queing the record and he had a difficult time talking; he only did the top and bottom of the hours' IDs and would announce the records we played after about three or four (He had nothing to say.) The show had no formal flow then, we just played what we liked and knew (mostly from Melvin's music collection, some jazz I knew and whatever Cathy called in). It was a long night and I think Melvin left to get somthing to eat during a long stretch of music. We had no idea if anyone was listening. When he returned he said as he was driving down the street he heard the show all through the city.

Next day, after doing DAC reports with the Chief Engineer (and being cursed out for playing poor quality records on the air by the Engineer) Cathy decided to put us in Drive Time. It was strange, the professional DJ's hated us because we were taking money out of their pockets, and the students, some liked the fact that we were on the air others thought we were selling out because there was a low-powered campus station just being started with student Barry Mayo as the GM (WHBC). During Drive Time the first record we played was a screw up. He announced one record (we had three turntables set) and I played another. We made it through and Cathy asked if we could do the weekends for the summer. About the third of fourth weekend Melvin wanted the show to have a signature, so about 9:00pm we would play Mister Magic by Grover Washington Jr., and from that point on we would play what has become known as classic Quiet Storm music. Later, Cathy changed that from Mister Magic to Queit Storm; then she wanted us to open the show with it.

Sometimes between the beginning and the middle of the summer Cathy asked me to sit in on this new show she was starting called the 'Morning Sound" with Jerry Phillips; just in case he needed some technical help; he didn't. It use to be fun watching him interact with his producer I can't think of her name, but it was funny; they would go at it. Melvin could imitate their battles exactly.

On night, myself, Melvin and Sheilah V. were riding through G'town to get something to eat (that was a big deal in college) and a local radio station was doing a 30 minute set on a single artist. Melvin and I both thought that was a nice idea and we began to "spotlight" single artist for an hour. DC loves the Isleys and Patti. Some nights when it was slow we would put on Issac Hayes' long songs; or ask the audience to give us a call (the phones would ring off the hook. Also Maurice Williams, the WHUR reporter that was killed at the district building use to do the news breaks and he use to call use "Dusty and LeRoy" because I use to wear a green brimmed army hat. Melvin use to like to play the same song by different artist back to back; I never really understood that. We use to spend a long time (too long sometimes) trying to find the next song to play; it had to have the right beat (there was no playlist-and it was also the time the New York Mix was a big deal going from one record to the next using the beat from one record's end to match the beat of another records beginning; hence music could go on forever and it would sound like the same song.)he would play the more contemporary songs, me the soft jazz and instrumentals. It was a nice summer. Never knew we were making history.

Around the end of the summer I was getting bored (I was a TV/Film Major) and Cathy saw she had a star in Melvin so she told him to stop saying my name at the end of the shows; we were a team. I could see the writing on the wall so I left to go home for the last month of the summer and Brett (a fellow student and student GM for WHBC) took my place as co-producer and engineer.

But for some reason my name never shows up on any of the "definitions" of the Quiet Storm Radio Show or in your definition (Jack C. Shuler). (Unsigned post, Nov. 3, 2006 - 159.142.156.173)Jack C. Shuler HU Communications (Dirty 30) Class of 1977.209.244.42.173 01:27, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your contribution. Why didn't you sign your post? I find it amazing that Hughes did not bother to correct Robinson's obvious mistake on her show. It's unseemly to take credit for something that you didn't do/never happened. I have a lot of respect for what she's genuinely accomplished, but, IMO, among those of us who know better, it just made her look bad. deeceevoice 17:28, 28 November 2006 (UTC)