The obvious answer is that "well its not an RB song" BULLSHIT. "Lets go Crazy" wasnt an RB song by those standards of belief and yet was played more on RB than Pop radio. So Prince is kidding himself with this "rb radio gives me love", they only give you love for the typical Prince jam....

Satisfied
Call My Name
Future Baby Mama
Somewhere here on Earth
Ure Gonna C Me

R&B radio does give him love lastdecember because those songs you listed is more in tune with R&B. I think you should be asking R&B radio directly, why they are not playing C&C.

There's a lot of Prince's rock-toned songs that most R&B stations haven't played over the past 30 years, doesn't mean they don't show him love or made him irrelevant. R&B stations still show Prince love and plays his songs, even though most are his classics, but so do the rock stations. Everytime I go into my supermarket or the mall, there's a Prince song playing from a rock-flavored or light rock station. Let's face it, most radio stations play to certain demographics.

I'd like to hear "Old Skool Company" on one of those stations which would be more fitting to the R&B stations anyway.

Even though BETJ is a cable tv station, they played his "Fury" video, umpteen times over the course of a year, on their cable station and that is more of a jazz cable station. As a matter of fact, they played a lot of his vids from back in the day, whether it is a rock-flavored tune or R&B.

By the way, have you heard C&C on any rock stations yet? Just wondering since you brought up the issue. Just my 2 cents.
[Edited 4/23/09 17:51pm]

I haven't heard it on R&B or Rock/Pop stations-these days the only Prince love are the HITS and that's a shame.

2elijah said:

He should be tossing up the challenge, much in the way he tossed up the challenge back in 1998 to Vibe magazine to give love to Chaka and Larry, to no avail of course. His play is very select with RB radio, in some markets he gets zero whether its a lite song or a classic, and then there are others that play the singles like "Call my Name". The thing is that is what Prince is choosing to release, if you look back over the last 5 years and 4 albums, he has chosen all the singles, and they arent challenging they are all in the same mode, same theme, etc...He isnt challenging with his singles anymore, which makes me think, why even bother sending them over, when you are just turning into this RB AC one note artist, and im sure he does not wanna be known that way. He may show diversity on the records, for some part, but his singles, which used to be diverse and he used to dictate, he does neither anymore

radio doesn't play anything that isn't paid for.

LOL 25 years after Purple Rain and this guy is still trying to "keep it real" Please R&B radio never forgave him for daring to (gasp) play a guitar.

Amen LastDecember... radio in my area hasnt played him in YEARS...outside of the classics. This is sadly true of most older acts outside of a few like Madonna, U2 etc. and even they may only get the first single play like Madonna did w/4 minutes. (justin helped) I also TOTALLY agree that the choices for singles have not been the best of choices. He needs some help in that area for sure...but i doubt he thinks so.

emesem said:

Ok and how much R&B radio do you listen to? You can hear guitar all over R&B dusty radio from Cameo, Parliament, Funkadelic, The Isley Brothers, Confunkshun, the Gap Band, Zapp, Frankie Beverly and Maze, the Ohio Players, and PRINCE just to name a few. R&B brothers have being laying down guitar for ages. No one is playing guitar today, but back in the day it was standard. So why would Prince not be forgiven for playing guitar? so please check your facts.

This thread makes no sense to me. Why would Crimson & Clover be on an R&B station when it does not fit the current format. Yeah, back in the 1980s when "Let's Go Crazy" was out R&B played songs like that not just from Prince but from all kinds of artists. There was more variety in all kinds of music then, so the formats were not as rigid as they are now. It's 25 years later and the format has changed. So, of course when they play Prince today they are going to play the R&B cuts that fit into their current format. That is common sense.

That said, as some other posters have pointed out, have you heard Pop/Rock radio playing anything from Prince lately? So as he said, R&B radio has shown him love, they always have. He doesn't need to try to "keep it real," whatever that is supposed to mean, because the fact is real that R&B radio has had his back.

nickgso said:

I'm curious about where you live because geography seems to play a role in this as well. What radio formats do the stations in your area follow? I live in Chicago, and we have three main R&B/Urban stations. Two of them follow the "hits and dusties" format. Those are the stations that play both old and new Prince. Also, those stations have the Steve Harvey and Tom Joyner morning shows. Both of those guys have played songs off Prince's recent albums.
[Edited 4/24/09 16:01pm]

I wish it would be played...There's no reason why a top 40 or classic rock station couldn't pick it up.

U can't be serious.

Did they get paid or what?

Let's just keep it real about LGC. The r&b stations in my area did not play LGC that much. They played Erotic City. Many stations edited the song from the 12in version to where it was mostly instrumental.

I remember K104 in Dallas having an edit that contained the verses, instrumental, then the closing "erotic city".

Stanley is so right about radio today. They don't play what they don't get paid to play. R&b radio has taken on a new face in today's world. Up tempos are forbidden and slow and mid-tempo cuts are the songs that get radio play. If a song has a loud guitar solo, you can hang it up. It will NOT get airplay.

Radio is very generic now to appeal to the average woman that is 25-34. When you typically ask those women what are their favorite songs, they typically say a slow or mid-tempo song.