Angela Yee Leaves The Breakfast Club: A Smart Move

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Thanks for bringing the radio industry to life Angela Yee with your announcement. I had seriously given up.

I was not going to write any more radio stories after reporting on so many deaths in the industry month after month, week after week, damn near day after day.

angela yee
(Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The DiscOasis)

This last round of five industry people dying in a two-week period helped me to decide that radio, as we know it, is BAF (boring as fk) and I was no longer moved by it so I was lucky enough to be picked up as a news site by Facebook and I moved my site TheIndustry.biz to a news format with a music industry emphasis. I’m finally excited about our direction again.

When I say Radio is BAF that pertains to the radio industry which is boring, it’s not progressive, and it’s stagnant it does NOT pertain to the people in radio who I feel are being stifled by their bosses and the corporations. The biggest winners in this shift are the syndicated shows, they are going to take over in the next year or two.

There was no good news, few black people are being promoted and there is no growth, no black people starting their own industry businesses nothing but depressing news or even worse, no news at all. It literally was making me sick.

I am a hustler and I was not able to get my people to move and it frustrated me until I realized I had to let it go. To see us stand idly by and wait for shyt when we are FREE to move? I don’t get it

Full disclosure, Radio stories get little to no traction, people don’t read them outside of the industry and we only get news of white industry people being promoted and people don’t read that either. Diversity is, without question, pure lip service. To make matters worse, radio people are afraid to be interviewed and to talk about their successes, especially on the black side.

As stated Radio Facts got picked up as a Facebook news site and I saw an opportunity and ran with it. While the site is doing better than ever at this point we still do have fans who are interested in the industry, especially the music side but when it comes to radio, hands down, syndicated shows like Steve Harvey, Rickey Smiley, DL Hughley, Ebro and The Breakfast Club are what people want to know about most and what people respond to and read most.

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club has always been my favorite syndicated show. All of them have been repeatedly supportive of the TheIndustry.biz brand over the years and a lot of our ancillary products like The Power Play List and Women of Color in Media magazines were largely successful because of The Breakfast Club.  

I have come to know Charlamagne, Yee, and Envy well over the last 10 years and I have been a fan of the show and all three of them individually. 

They have done an amazing job of bridging the gap from older more conservative black shows that were terrified of stepping outside of the box like having someone like Flame Monroe or Dr. Umar Johnson on their shows. 

The platform has been the most progressive even MORESO than other shows like Steve Harvey who is still super successful today but still very conservative. 

I completely understand Yee leaving but it appears a lot of people online, per comments, think that she is making a mistake. They obviously don’t understand the inner workings of Radio right now. 

Because She’s More than a Giggly Sidekick?

This certainly doesn’t describe Angela Yee and what she has contributed to The Breakfast Club she is much more than a “giggly sidekick” but we do have some in the radio industry who will be remembered that way. What an incredible honor.

Having your own show is something that ANY jock who is a part of a team should want and the way they should want to be remembered. 

That leverage and equity can’t be overlooked when an opportunity arises and I applaud her for leaving. Her timing could not be better as well. 

20 years ago once you hit 40 your industry career was over and you were booted out if you had not reached a certain level of the C-suites ESPECIALLY if you were black. 

Is the industry still discriminatory today towards women and blacks? Is Fried Chicken delicious? But I digress, let me take this advocate hat off because there is no reward for the advocate, just a thank you in the dark and a shun in the light. I’m not interested in doing that shyt anymore. You will have to find someone else to be the homeless army of one. 

On Facebook I came across some people who thought Angela Yee leaving The Breakfast Club is a mistake, this was my response…

“There is always the untold back story. I’m sure it was a long and arduous process and they could simply be tired of working together or she may be tired of getting up at 3 am every morning. Yee and Charlamagne had a pretty bad relationship for a minute after he didn’t defend her in an interview. 

Radio is an industry that’s only appealing to an older demographic these days and it’s not what it used to be, even 5 years ago, in terms of power and influence. Streaming and podcasting have taken over. She is the oldest of the three of them and she’s hosted her own show before this. It’s probably how she wants to wrap her career. Being a sidekick is actually a demotion from what she was 15 years ago. 

She will make more money and be more in control of content and she played the long game and this is how she probably wants to be remembered. She will be the first black woman with her own syndicated show for the entire iHeart corporation. That speaks volumes.

 The most significant thing is several people in that time slot will lose their jobs around the country but that’s the direction that radio is headed in. It’s an industry that sat idly by while podcasting and streaming came into play. 

iHeart is one of the more progressive companies so she’s In good hands. They’ve been together for 13 years that’s a lifetime in radio. She probably felt she has gone as far as she could go with the show. It’s actually a smart move.”

I love The Breakfast Club and both shows will do well. Not sure if they will replace Angela but each of them has done an amazing job at expanding their brands and understanding that radio is a springboard, not a recliner. 

That’s the most important thing focusing on what comes AFTER radio.  Kudos also to Thea Mitchem and iHeart for being progressive and opening the door for more black women and Black shows to prosper. 

I can only hope to see more black men, black women and black LGBTQ people in the radio industry demand more for themselves too. Move or BE moved! I’m done back to the hustle.