KBLX Playing Lost Whitney Hit

• Or perhaps it is better described as a “found” Whitney Houston hit. Bonneville Urban KBLX/San Francisco is creating some chatter as it recently started playing “Just the Lonely Talking Again,” an album cut off of Houston’s 1987 Arista sophomore album, Whitney, the same album that spawned the massive hits, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional,” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go.”

Despite the immense success of that album, “This song was never played on Bay Area radio and is an exclusive on KBLX,” said OM/PD Elroy Smith, who tells RAMP that the excavation — and subsequent airplay — of this 30-year-old album track (produced by the Bay Area’s own Narada Michael Walden) sprang from a casual discussion with a co-worker. “He told me ‘You Give Good Love’ is Whitney’s most soulful song, and he asked me what my favorite soulful Whitney song was. My response was, ‘Just The Lonely Talking Again.’ Then I played it for him and he fell in love with it. I asked another co-worker, who has been at KBLX for close to 20 years, if she had ever heard it, and she said ‘no.’ I got very excited about exposing this song to the Bay Area, since it fits our brand perfectly.”

KBLX is now airing the song with a custom introduction voiced by Renel, legendary KBLX personality and public address announcer for the San Francisco Giants. “Our target audience is women, and this song resonated immediately when we debuted it,” said Smith. “The first caller was a woman, asking if that was really Whitney Houston, and where did the song come from. This song is vintage soulful Whitney Houston. It can compete — and would probably surpass in popularity — any current Urban AC song that is charting today.”