C1 Radio Show…”the Dessert of Gospel Media”

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

From student of the culinary arts to Stellar Award-nominated radio show host is not a typical career trajectory.

But then again, Andre “Crazy One” Griffith is not typical.

Griffith is host of the C1 Radio Show, which airs Thursday evenings at 10:00 p.m. ET on WNHU, 88.7 FM in New Haven, Connecticut.  The show’s eclectic mix of Christian hip hop, rap, R&P (rhythm and praise) and reggae can also be heard on USTREAM Fridays at 1:00 p.m. ET and its 9:00 a.m ET Saturday morning show premiered on Hot Joy Radio last week.

With several media platforms, times and days of the week, the C1 Radio Show is garnering a growing following in the U.S. and abroad.

“How I ended up in radio is anyone’s guess,” laughed Griffith during a recent conversation with TBGB.

“I really never had a desire to do radio,” Griffith explained. “I wanted to be an artist. I traveled the country with a group of guys called Sanctified Family. We joined up with another group of guys and formed Maestro Movement. Then I went solo, rapping by myself. I went to culinary arts school.

“In 2008, the program director of the gospel block called the New Gospel Exchange at my home station, WNHU, called me and asked if I wanted to do radio. I’m thinking to myself: an artist with a radio show. That’s good publicity! That brings people over to what I’m doing. So I said yes.”

The C1 Radio Show was born.

C1 stands for “Crazy One.” Griffith explained how he earned his nickname.

“People used to call me ‘crazy drazy’ in high school…and they did not mean it in a good way! I was five foot three, ninety-seven pounds back then. I was this little kid trying to DJ, and everybody thought it was either cute or it was crazy, and that I would never make it as a DJ because of my high pitched voice and my style, which was not typical of hip hop. I was pretty much a geek!

“I took that name and embraced it. I called myself DJ Crazy Dre. But when I got saved, I didn’t want to go by DJ Crazy Dre anymore. Still, I was the outlandish one, the crazy one, the wild one of the group. And if you think about it, the Scripture calls us a peculiar people. The Bible also says that He takes the foolish things to confound the wise. Both are synonyms for ‘crazy.’ So ‘Crazy One’ become solidified into what I do.”

Pulling on his foodie background for metaphor, Griffith calls the C1 Radio Show “the dessert of gospel media.”  “A lot of gospel media wants to feed you, get you inspired, give you a word,” he said. “My show is the dessert of all that. My focus is entertainment.”

He continued: “In gospel radio and gospel media, we tend to overemphasize the drive to save souls. Yes, we are out to reach people, but we also want to show the general populace that we can have a good time in a Christian manner. C1 Radio Show is about having a good time in the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord. We do have segments where a word goes forth, but it’s meant to be entertainment. It’s meant to be light and fun.”

The C1 Radio Show is known for playing music “not played on mainstream gospel radio or mainstream radio, period,” Griffith said. Artists heard on the show include members of the 116 Clique (Lecrae, Tedashii, Trip Lee) and independent artists such as PRo and Lil’ Prophet.

“We’ve got a variety,” said Griffith. “We play music by Pure Star Movement and Switchfoot. We go into gospel reggae, gospel rock, gospel rap, R&P. Sometimes I might even play Japanese gospel…I’m crazy like that!  We also have funny segments, informative segments, inspirational segments, but for the most part we are the Christian version of your local hip hop and R&B station.”

The biggest initial hurdle for Griffith was promoting the show. “I’m an independent artist, I’m not Yolanda Adams, I’m not Donnie McClurkin, so if someone said, ‘Crazy One has a radio show,’ the response would be ‘Who?’”

But it didn’t take long for listeners to notice. In 2010, the C1 Radio Show was nominated for a Stellar Award. “That was a shock, to be honest,” he said. “It was very exciting and very surprising.”

Today, the C1 Radio Show has expanded from terrestrial radio to Internet radio. “The challenge of being on multiple media platforms,” Griffith said, “is making sure your show is fresh and dynamic for each medium without changing who you are. You have to maintain what made you what you are.”

He recently added a Saturday morning show to his stable of programming. The C1 Radio Show premiered on the number one Internet Gospel Radio Station, Stellar Award Nominee Hot Joy Radio, on September 17th at 9:00 a.m. ET with “C1 Saturdays.”

“We are basing the new show on the thing we loved growing up,” said Griffith.  “Getting up on Saturday morning, getting our favorite bowl of cereal, and sitting in front of the TV, watching our favorite morning cartoons. We want to bring that essence to our Saturday morning show.”

Besides adding a Saturday morning program, what are the C1 Radio Show’s long-range plans?

“To take over the world!” laughed Griffith. “Seriously, my goal for the C1 Radio Show is to be the number one radio show in the world. You should never go into anything without trying to be the best at it. If you’re not trying to rule your space, then you really shouldn’t be doing it.”

C1 Radio Show can be heard on 88.7 FM WNHU, C1 Radio Show via UStream.tv and HotJoyRadio.com. Each show is available via podcast on iTunes by searching C1 Radio Show.