Sister Act
Chicago is a city of firsts. It’s the home of the first steel-frame skyscraper, the first atomic reaction, and the first daytime TV soap opera. It’s also where the term “jazz” was coined, back in 1914.
And on August 12th, the Windy City became one of the first major media markets in America to boast a reggae show on mainstream commercial radio.
“Reggae Link Radio” airs Sunday nights from 9 to midnight on Crawford Broadcasting-owned WPWX-FM, Power 92.3. In addition to reggae artists such as Elephant Man, Sean Paul, and Sizzla, they also play dancehall, calypso, and other Caribbean styles as well as local acts such as Zion and Twilite Jonez.
“I’ve been doing radio on college stations for several years, and as far as I can remember growing up here, I never heard a reggae show on commercial radio,” says DJ Petina, who co-hosts “Reggae Link Radio” with younger sister Silky and Kingston, Jamaica native DJ Lenky. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a mainstream station taking on reggae programming.”
At age 14, Petina, who grew up in Evanston, began interning at Northwestern University’s WNUR-FM (89.3) where she learned from Mobay One, a longtime host of “Reggae Vibrations,” which has been on the air for more than 25 years.
It was a natural fit for Petina. “I grew up listening to reggae,” she explains. “My parents and older brothers emigrated from Jamaica, and we used to go back every summer to visit our family. We grew up with the music and culture.”
In 2000, she and Silky became hosts of “Reggae Vibrations.” The “Ladies Of Reggae” are one of the few sister duos on the radio and continue to spin reggae, roots and culture, dancehall, and lover’s rock on WNUR Saturday nights from 9 to 11.
Last April, Petina contacted WPWX about doing a reggae show. Kingston native Joe Neish, owner of a pair of Caribbean-themed restaurants called Uncle Joe’s Tropical Cuisine, was also making some of his own inquiries. Neish, who immigrated to Chicago in 1969 and also used to be a reggae DJ, advertises on the station and wanted to know what it would cost to do a weekly hour-long radio show.
“There are lot of English-speaking Caribbean people in Chicago, and I thought it would be a good idea to do something like this across mainstream radio – to give you the feeling of being back home for a couple of hours,” says Neish, noting there are some 70,000 people of Caribbean descent in Chicago.
“Sometimes while driving I’d hear reggae over commercial radio. They might play one or two songs. I always wished they’d play more. So I thought I’d try to get reggae on commercial radio.”
He signed a three-year contract to purchase the airtime each Sunday and then sell commercials to advertisers. As the show’s executive producer, he hopes to attract more advertisers, sponsor a park festival next year, and eventually take the show into other markets. He says he’d also like to get more airtime for the current show.
Over the summer, the show – dubbed “Voice Of The Caribbean” – helped sponsor Caribfest and the Chicago Reggae Festival.
So far feedback has been positive. “People have been saying that this is something Chicago’s Caribbean community has needed for a long time,” says Petina, who earned a journalism degree from Northwestern and works as a liaison for an international humanitarian organization. “Non-reggae people are also excited about it. The reaction on Myspace has been great.
“I think it’s a great opportunity not only to fill the void for reggae and Caribbean fans but to expose the music to a wider variety of listeners as well.”
Listeners from as far away as Jamaica, Brazil, Columbia, and Barbados have called the show and rep’ed their country during a segment called “Island Linkup,” which streams live at www.reggaelinkradio.com. Local bands can contact the show via www.myspace.com/reggaelinkradio or e-mail tracks directly to the Ladies Of Reggae at ladiesmusic@hotmail.com.
MAKE WAY FOR BONNIE: Move over, Jerry and Oprah. Chicago native and former Northwestern University Hospital oncology and emergency room nurse Bonnie Hunt has agreed to host a syndicated daytime talk show next fall. Hopefully it, which will air here on WMAQ-Channel 5, will fare better than the Second City alumna’s short-lived but clever Chicago-set sitcoms: 1995’s “The Bonnie Hunt Show/Bonnie,” on which she played a struggling Chicago TV feature reporter, and 2002’s “Life With Bonnie” – on which she played a Chicago morning-TV personality. Not that her qualifications end there. Hunt is said to prefer improv over scripted work – apparently she repeatedly turned down offers to join the cast of “Saturday Night Live” for that reason – so maybe this will finally be the perfect fit. It helps Entertainment Weekly called her “the hands-down best [talk show] guest in America,” and that she has done time guest hosting “Late Show With David Letterman” and “Live With Regis And Kelly.” Speculation is the show will originate from Los Angeles or Chicago. Here’s hoping it’s the latter.
– Cara Jepsen
