About Us/Programming Line Up

WHPB-Lp 98.5 The Wire is owned and operated by WHPB Inc a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization.

Our mission is to educate the urban community about issues that affect their well-being, utilizing all available resources to the best of our ability.

Paul Allen Billings aka (P.A.)

General Manager & Air Personality

President of WHPB 98.5 The Wire

Founder of Bestblacknews.com
Founder of Imara Entertainment (The Record Label for the Youth)
Board Member of Trinity Housing inc

President of The West Michigan Community Help Network a nonprofit organization that Paul Allen Billings founded after working as a Correction Officer for 13 years.
The West Michigan Community Help Network owes and operates (2) FM Radio Stations that are aimed at addressing the social ills of the community.
Through his two Nonprofits, Mr. Billings aka P.A. runs two Mentorship Programs. After The kids completes the Lifeskills classes offer by the Mentorship program they’re awarded a free trip to Ghana West Africa where Mr. Billings is a chief.

As of today over 30 kids have been to the Motherland, including four from Pine Hills, Florida.
Using radio as his platform, Mr. Billings hasn’t been afraid to interview some of our top Black Influencers like The late Dick Gregory, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dr. Maulana Korenga, Dr. Umar Johnson, Tariq Nasheed, Dr. Wade Nobles, Mayor Andrew Gillum, Mayor Jerry Demings, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Dr. Ava Muhammad, Anthony Browder and so many more.

Mr. Billings was also instrumental in helping Black Non-Profit Organizations get a license FCC FM Radio Station in St. Louis, Mo. Kansas City, Mo, And Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Mr. Paul Billings has been recognized Nationally and International for his work with the Youth. Most recently he received the Citizenship of the Year Award for the City of Muskegon, Michigan.

Paul Porter

Program Director
Founder of raprehab.com & industryears.com

Air Personality
For over 30 years, Paul Porter has been a prominent voice in American radio and television. From AT&T to Showtime, his baritone voice and on-camera talent has been recognized from coast to coast, his personality resonating on the airwaves of numerous radio stations, and for ten years as the voice of Black Entertainment Television.

A native of Jamaica, Queens, NY, Porter studied Communications at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. His early radio career is marked with several achievements. As program director and on-air personality at Washington D.C.’s WMMJ-FM, the third urban AC station in the country, the station’s ranking rose from 28^th to fourth in just nine months. He was also assistant music director and radio personality for NBC’s WKYS-FM and assistant program director and on-air personality on WHUR-FM, another popular D.C. station. After 12 years at various stations in Boston and D.C., he began his nine-year tenure at Black Entertainment Television as a voice-over talent for programs like “Video Soul” and “Midnight Love.” As the music video consultant, Porter successfully digitalized the company’s music programming, and its music library. And, in only one year as program director, BET’s music video viewership increased by 16 percent.

In 2003, after almost a decade at BET and other radio stations in D.C. and New York, including three years at WBLS-FM, he began work as an on-air personality at WRKS/KISS FM, an urban AC station, and the sister station of New York’s #1 hip-hop station, Hot97/WQHT-FM. Two years later, having been involved with the hip-hop music industry for much of his career, his focus took a dramatic shift after an incident involving a controversial song by Rah Digga, as he recalled on Fox’s “Hannity and Colmes.”

“I had a problem with a student out in Queens (she questioned the music I played on the air)…the (student’s) mother had got beaten up by the father… I figured since I worked there I could get something across, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Having protested the immorality of the music being played on Hot97/WQHT, Porter was promptly removed from the air, spurring his movement from endorser to activist. On January 15, 2005, he co-founded IndustryEars, a think-tank created to identify and correct injustices in the media. Since then, he has been using his voice and his experience to personally advocate for increased awareness and consciousness in the media industry. His various appearances on such television programs as ABC’s World News Tonight, America’s Black Forum, Hannity and Colmes and radio stations from Los Angeles to Miami, and such publications as the New York Post, Boston Herald, Vibe Magazine and The Source have shown audiences across the country that “Moral Responsibility is not an Option.” It is now his mantra. Porter founded RapRehab.com in 2011.

Currently residing in Florida, Porter will share his encounters in the music business in his forthcoming book, “The Same Songs.”

Email Address: porter@thewire985.com

Tahir RBG

Community Outreach Director

Assistant to the General Manager

On Air Personality

On Air Programming

BJ Murphy Morning Show

6am-10am Mon-Friday

Whitney Nichole

@Itswhitneynichole_

10a-2pm