July 2, 2020

Looking Back: Charlamagne Tha God and The Morning Beat on WPHI 100.3 The Beat

Urban Radio Nation charlamagne tha god, iHeartMedia, iheartradio, Power 105.1, Radio One, the breakfast club

We are taking a look back at Charlamagne Tha God's brief stint as morning host at 100.3 The Beat (WPHI) in Philadelphia. Here he does a couple of promotional videos with then program director Elroy Smith, now with 102.9 KBLX in the Bay Area, and Izzo Ya Know, the evening host at the station.

As radio is an ever changing industry, we still wonder if Radio One, the owners of WPHI, had or now have any regrets over firing Charlamagne back in 2009. Probably not, it's just the nature of the beast. Radio.

Charlamagne is undoubtedly the number Black radio personality in the country. He would have increased Radio One's bottom line exponentially if he still worked for the company. But a part of us feels that he would not have remained with Radio One and would have found his way back to the New York media market in some capacity with either Power 105.1 or Hot 97 after generating buzz as a co-host on The Wendy Williams Experience on WBLS. Perhaps a syndicated show out of Atlanta or Miami with Reach Media, which at the time was solely owned by Tom Joyner, and not Radio One, may have been a possibility, but that would be speculation at best.

As we look back, his firing was one of the best things that ever happened to radio, the Hip Hop culture, and for Charlamagne himself. It made him better. As you know Charlamagne's career has skyrocketed since he was teamed up with DJ Envy and Angela Yee to form The Breakfast Club at Power 105.1 in 2010. Yes, it's been 10 years of the Breakfast Club. iHeartRadio would hate to lose him.

At the end of the year, all three member's contracts with iHeartRadio is up. With six months to go, we expect there will be changes to The Breakfast Club come 2021.

Will Charlamagne stay with iHeartRadio, get his own show outside of The Breakfast Club, or move on to other video and audio platforms? We think the chances are less than 50% that he stays with The Breakfast Club. But we shall see.

See our previous post on this subject.