L-A Radio: Inside Big Boy's Neighborhood

On February 4, 2015, two days prior to the launch of KRRL Real 92.3,Power 106 legend, Big Boy (host of Big Boy’s Neighborhood) was being sued by Emmis Communications for breach of contract.

According to reports, Emmis had a right to match any offer made by a competing station interested in the radio giant. Once Big Boy accepted iHeartMedia’s offer despite a matching pitch from Power’s parent company, Emmis broke out the lawyers.

“It was a tough decision,” Big Boy tells HipHopDX. “It was a decision that I made with my wife, with my family. There’s a lot of moving parts and I had to think about every moving part of that before I made a decision to leave a place that I was happy at, that I built my career and we built something beautiful together. But it was time for me as well.”

Emmis and iHeart reached a settlement in early 2016, but the ratings takeover was already complete.



Real 92.3 went live on February 6, 2015. Program Director Doc Wynter immediately rolled-out their signature “10,000 Joints In A Row” campaign which allowed for roughly a month’s worth of commercial-free radio. No shows. No jocks. All jams. The campaign had proven successful in previous launches in New York, Houston, Tampa, and Miami. It requires an extremely open-minded sales team to allow 30 days without selling advertisements, but immediately puts pressure on all competition. When looking to make a splash, it’s best to be aggressive.

“I was the architect of the ‘10,000 Joints In A Row,’ Wynter explains. “I’ve launched about 20 or so stations in the last 10 years. I always said, ‘Man, if I really really had the checkbook that I wanted, it would be 10,000 joints in a row. Then I would graduate to 10 joints in a row or $10,000. A couple times in some markets we’ve gotten 10 joints in a row or $1,000 one time a year![Laughs] In terms of this particular project, I asked [iHeartMedia] and they agreed to it.”