Cosign, cosign, COSIGN.
1Xtra makes me so irritated. I can't listen to it for more than a few minutes, unless Sarah Love love is on.
Saddly, the only good people on the station are Sarah Love and Bailey (Drum & Ba**). Sarah
Love is the
only person that plays UK Hip Hop and underground US Hip Hop. Bailey is
like the only true person who plays Drum & Ba**. When the station began in 2002, I refused to
listen because I predicted that it was going to be a UK version of a US Top 40 rap station (like
Hot 97 in New York, or Hot 93.7 here in Connecticut.)
A year later, I started to listen to 1Xtra when I got into UK Garage but I also started to listen
to the Drum & Ba**, Bhangra, and Nu-Soul shows. I heard that when the station began, they
hired DJs from pirate station. I saw this as BBC's way of "giving back to the community" but
every year they got rid of the DJs. But in 2007, they really added gasoline to the fire when
not only did they axe the DJs who were devoted to the music, they also axed the diverse
programs and replaced them for commerical DJs who already have shows on BBC Radio 1
(Westwood, Trevor nelson). This has show that the station that the BBC created to appeal
to a "Black" audience has gone down the toilet. As of 2007, 1Xtra has been a joke!