The Beat is Dead

By Sam Adams

Friday October 30th marked the last day of St. Louis’ hip-hop station 100.3 The Beat. At noon the hip-hop and R&B format abruptly changed to Halloween music. The station ended with Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” and started the twelve o’clock hour with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” followed by the theme song to “Halloween” and “Ghostbusters”. Within an hour fans of the station flocked to their Twitters and Facebooks asking what was happening to The Beat.

Due to lack of listeners for the past few years, Clear Channel decided to pull the plug on The Beat and all of its employees. The station had low ratings due in part to its rival hip-hop station Hot 104.1. It is expected to change to a rock format in January to compete with 105.7 The Point.

At midnight on November 1st the 100.3 website changed from a Halloween theme to Christmas 100.3. At 6:00 a.m. Christmas music started pumping out into the airwaves. The holiday music will last until January 1st, when the format will make another change.

Employees that were let go from 100.3 The Beat at noon on October 30th included KiKi the First Lady, DJ AJ, Taylor J, Dwight Stone (D.Stone) and Selena J who is now solely on The Beat’s sister station Majic 104.9.