Turn your radio dial to 94.5 FM this morning and you’ll find that The Boom, Dallas’ only classic hip-hop station since late 2014, is no more. The station’s changed formats — to contemporary and throwback R&B — and names, to Majic 94.5.
Here’s what you can expect to hear on the new station, according to Majic 94.5’s website: “Jill Scott, Maxwell, Music Soulchild, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Brandy, Bruno Mars, Monica, Faith Evans, Ro James, and so much more.”
While that doesn’t sound too terrible, it’s a colossal bummer to lose throwback rap programming on the radio. There’s a reason we named The Boom the best radio station in town in 2015. It was nonstop Golden Era hip-hop, including the now duly recognized material that wasn’t actually played on the radio during the Golden Era. The Boom had nostalgic appeal, but it also worked to define a canon, a hip-hop legacy that helped cement the genre’s timelessness for new generations. If you can still hear Led Zeppelin blaring across terrestrial airwaves, you should be able to tune in to Run-D.M.C.
We’re going to miss the thrill of coming across a Chronic-era Dr. Dre song, practically designed to rumble out of car radio speakers. We’ll miss tripping into the brain-bending warp of Missy Elliott rapping over a Timbaland beat, of Ice Cube assuring us that it is indeed a good day. We’ll find all of this elsewhere, of course, but there’s still something to be said for the out-of-your-hands discovery of turning on the radio.
