Brenda Taylor, Kvng Josh and his sisters Gabi & Athalia Barrett with Dinahlynn Biggs
Catching up with Dinahlynn Biggs
Contributed By:The 411 News
Escaping the limits of radio signals to reach listeners worldwide
“Are you in the street?” was the puzzled response a partygoer taking a cell phone video of Saturday’s block party at City View Restaurant received. “For all of you doing Facebook Live, tell them, this is where our music started – in the streets,” said Dinahlynn Biggs, host of the Dinahlynn Biggs Radio Show.
“I’m giving back to my community, supporting new artists and new businesses,” Biggs told her audience, as passing auto traffic on 25th Avenue provided the backdrop for the entertainers she brought to the party. On center stage was the teenage singing group from Gary, Kvng Josh and his sisters Gabi & Athalia Barrett. From Chicago, Brenda Taylor, the daughter of the great blues guitarist Eddie ‘Playboy’ Taylor, who does it all – blues, gospel, R&B, rap.
City View, a new restaurant on the avenue, welcomed the attention and served up free samples from their menu.
In a way, the day was a telling moment of how times have changed … when a team of people was needed to send images across town or around the world from a television station.
How else but with the technologies of the internet could that scene, filmed by one person, from 25th Avenue in Gary be distributed and feedback received within minutes.
How else but with internet technologies could the Dinahlynn Biggs Radio Show have escaped the limits of a station’s radio signals to reach listeners worldwide.
In November 2017, after 12 years with WLTH-1370 AM Radio in Gary, Dinahlynn joined Chicago’s WOSD Radio. “It was a hard decision,” she said. “The broadcasting industry has changed. I felt it was time to move into the streaming aspect of radio.”
Black music put black radio on the map. Black music continues to grow. What has changed is the way that it and other popular music is being delivered. Instead of call numbers and letters, the address for WOSD begins with a “www.”
Biggs streamed her show on WLTH. Now she’s streaming in Chicago, the third-largest U.S. media market.
“It was a great fit,” she said. “By joining WOSD Radio, it has afforded The Dinahlynn Show with greater opportunities worldwide. As of 2018, I have been able to host the Black Women’s Expo with over 10,000 visitors per day, travel to Orlando to host a film festival, fly to Vegas to interview the last original member of the Temptations, and open up for the Dramatics. It may not mean much to some, but to a girl from Gary, IN it’s not too bad.”
Even artists are taking advantage of streaming; they don’t have to depend solely on a radio station to deliver and promote their music. If the young singers from Gary aren’t streaming yet, as their talents grow, they will be.
Brenda Taylor, Kvng Josh and his sisters Gabi & Athalia Barrett with Dinahlynn Biggs
City View owner Elemi Hazelett, Chanaé, and Alisa Alexander
Story Posted:07/27/2018
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