REPORT Radio One stops playing K. Michelle after she bailed on fan event
It seems Love & Hip Hop Atlanta star K. Michelle did not get Woody Allen’s memo about 80 percent of success being just showing up. Earlier this month, the singer bailed on a fan event hosted by radio station WKYS 93.9 FM, and now it is reportedly biting her in her famously ample ass: as the station’s parent company, Radio One, has reportedly banned K. Michelle from being played on its 52 radio stations!
The event that K. Michelle skipped was an April 1 breakfast that was going to be broadcast live on the WKYS morning show “The FAM with Lil’ Mo and DJ QuickSilva.” According to WKYS, there were 50 disappointed fans on hand–one of whom later revealed that she missed a chemotherapy appointment in order to meet K. Michelle!
From Always A-List:
Reps for the 32-year-old singer told Radio One that she wanted to stay a Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC the night before the appearance, but because the [hotel] was sold out she had to stay in the nearby city of Baltimore, Maryland.
Supposedly, K.Michelle did not want to wake up early and make the hour-long commute to Silver Spring, Maryland where the WKYS studios are based “because she wanted to sleep,” her rep also told the Radio One team.
Always A-List confirmed the K. Michelle ban by speaking with a few Radio One higher-ups. “Several Radio One executives spoke to AlwaysAList.com and confirmed that you will no longer hear any songs by K.Michelle—past, present or any artist that features her on a collaboration—due to her bailing on several Radio One promotional events while she was in the Washington, DC earlier this month,” reports the site. (It is unclear why “events” is plural, as they only reference the April 1 breakfast in the article.)
K. Michelle’s latest album, More Issues Than Vogue, dropped late last month, so the nation’s largest network of urban-oriented radio stations bailing on her is really bad timing.
A rep for K. Michelle’s label, Atlantic Records, confirmed with Always A-List that there was “an issue in DC,” but they refuted the reports of their singer being banned by Radio One. The label rep says that K. Michelle and her current single, “Not A Little Bit” are still receiving airplay on Radio One stations in Detroit, Houston, Raleigh, and Richmond.
Both K. Michelle and Radio One have remained officially mum.