New signals reach the airwaves for black Boston

Serghino René

Since the departure of WILD-FM last August, hip-hop and R&B listeners have been searching for a station to fill the void.

Amidst community outrage and confusion, the station’s abrupt exit left little alternative for their prime listeners, leaving JAM’N 94.5 (WJMN-FM) as the next best source for urban music, news and information.

But what started as a blur of community outrage and confusion has turned into a mixed blessing.

Low-powered FM radio stations like Touch 106.1 (WTCH-FM) and Choice 102.9 (WCFM-FM) were just a couple of radio stations that happened to step up.

Calling itself the “fabric of the black community,” Touch FM, located in the heart of Grove Hall, has been on the air since November with more than 50 volunteers working around the clock. Touch has a signal that extends for a radius of about 3.5 miles, but the station can be heard around the world since they recently began streaming audio from their Web site, www.touchfm.org. In the meantime, they are seeking other avenues for purchasing a stronger frequency.

Touch FM started with a simple vision that Charles Clemons Jr. had since his early days as a WILD intern in 1979. He always dreamed of owning a radio station, but it was only a couple of years ago that he decided to act.

“I didn’t like the fact that we had an AM station from sunrise to sunset, like that’s how our minds thought,” said Clemons. “[Black people] think 24 hours.”

Although WILD’s sale was unfortunate, that’s not what sparked the creation of Touch FM, according to Clemons. But while he said Touch would have started regardless, Clemons called its appearance just after WILD signed off “good timing.”

“When your heart is righteous, things happen when they are supposed to happen,” said Clemons. “There is a time and season for everything and I believe we were ordained to make this happen at this time. We’re here to serve a purpose and hopefully inspire other entrepreneurs in our community. We need a voice with more power.”

He collaborated on his idea with longtime friends John Laing Jr., owner of Laing Enterprises, and Leroy McLaurin, a former news photographer and, with Clemons, co-founder of the New England Urban Music Awards.

“We came together on a handshake and said, ‘Look, here’s what your responsibility is and here’s what your responsibility is — now let’s get it going,’” said Laing.

Clemons said the venture was less about the men involved and more about the needs of the community. All three men shared a similar vision geared toward achievement and progress.

“Mainstream media continuously promotes the negative things in our community, which is a small percentage amongst the good,” said Clemons. “Where are all the [stories about] positive things that are happening, like redevelopment, jobs and new businesses?”

That’s why there’s Touch Talk, which airs Monday through Friday mornings from 6-10 a.m. Clemons says the show offers information on finance, taxes, diet, health and social consciousness, as well as other community news and events.

“We need to hear things from our perspective,” Clemons said. “There are so many good things going on in our community and it needs to be told. It’s our responsibility to get it out there because nobody is going to do it for us.”

The founders wanted to take a slightly different approach in their format and offer another alternative to contemporary urban radio.

The station prides itself in being a family-oriented station that both parents and children can listen to without embarrassment. You won’t hear swearing, distasteful lyrics or the promotion of violence, and Touch’s music lineup is as diverse as the people the station serves.

“We wanted to play positive music, and that’s why you won’t here cussing and swearing on our radio station,” said Clemons. “It’s family-oriented. … You have the breakdown of the black family in our community and we are trying to put them back together. It’s a station where the young and the old can listen together and close that gap.”

Touch FM isn’t the only station stirring up Boston’s airwaves. Choice 102.9 FM has been the voice of the city’s Caribbean community for nearly 2 years.

But unlike Touch, Choice FM doesn’t operate in a legitimate radio studio. The Mattapan-based station reportedly operates on the second floor of a tenement building on Norfolk Street and is not yet licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

None of that appears to bother Gary Toussaint, who started the station.

“We’re here because we don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for the FCC to approve us, but we know this is an important station for the community,” said Toussaint.

Toussaint feels that Choice is a necessity for the Hub’s thriving Caribbean community. His mission has been to educate, entertain and promote Caribbean culture.

“It’s about unifying the people of the black community,” said Toussaint. “We are the West Indian/Caribbean voice of Boston.”

He explained that the station operates with over 20 volunteers and that some people spend 30 or more hours at the studio each week because they love what they are doing.

The genesis of Choice FM was a slow development. Toussaint said he listened to a number of commercial urban stations, but they only played Caribbean music from time to time, and what was played left him disappointed.

“Their version of Caribbean music was just reggae music,” said Toussaint. “To me, listening just to reggae music all day long wasn’t doing anything for me, especially since I wasn’t from Jamaica. I came from Haiti.”

He created a station that highlighted the diversity of the Caribbean people, offering selections of Haitian konpa, soca from Trinidad, reggae from Jamaica, Zouk and music from the other islands like Barbados, Martinique and St. Lucia.

Although Choice FM is considered a low-powered station, their reach extends into the Boston metro area for approximately 100 miles from the studio, and contains almost 100,000 potential listeners.

“Our station is known in and outside the city,” said Toussaint. “When weather is good, our signal reaches as far north as Canobie Lake [in Salem, N.H.]. South, we can reach the border of Rhode Island and Cape Cod because there are no conflicting stations.”

Choice FM’s Web site, www.choice1029.com, touts the diversity of its listeners, primarily made up of Caribbean families and high school and college students living in the Boston, Brockton, Reading and Woburn areas.

Toussaint emphasized that the station is more than just music. The station promotes good behavior at Carnival and sponsors fundraisers, including one that raised money for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

During the Caribbean Carnival, then-gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick paid a personal visit to the station to reach out to Boston’s Caribbean community.

“After we were done on the radio, we talked privately for a couple of hours discussing crime in the neighborhoods and ways to go about fixing the problem,” Toussaint said.

When Toussaint is not volunteering his time at the station, he’s busy promoting and managing major Haitian bands and vocal artists, including Wah Wah, Tokay, King Posse and Voix Des Eiles (Voice of the Islands).

“My work is all about the community,” said Toussaint.