For the first several years of Hip-Hop on the radio, rap records were something that you often had to make a concerted effort to listen for.
I read about “Rapper’s Delight” in Cash Box, the trade magazine, before I finally heard the Sugarhill Gang on R&B WCHB Detroit. I knew about “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five before hearing it on WBLS New York in a waiting room at Grand Central Station. But a woman on the next bench could already rap along with it, including the epic final verse.
I became a fan of WXYV (V103) Baltimore in the summer of ’82 because it was easier to hear “Planet Rock” than on any of the Washington, D.C., R&B stations. When I went back to Michigan that fall, WDRQ Detroit finished its transition to Urban, meaning that the Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force’s follow-ups and Tommy Boy labelmates (e.g., Planet Patrol) became easier to hear. (WGPR, which was already playing that music was just beyond my listening range.)
When I went back to the airchecks of ’80s/early-‘90s Urban radio that I had made over the years, it became clear that even on those stations that leaned into Hip-Hop, it was rarely the dominant flavor that it became in the mid-to-late ’90s. A few years ago, I wrote about and posted an aircheck of KDAY Los Angeles in the summer of ’84 — about nine months after its transition began — but much of the Hip-Hop component of the aircheck came from the station’s embrace of breakdancing, not just rap.
KDAY never entirely lost its R&B component, even when it was well-established as the cradle of West Coast Hip-Hop. MD Greg Mack is the station’s most celebrated alumnus, profiled recently as part of the Los Angeles Times’s Hip-Hop 50 coverage, but PD Jack Patterson, less heralded in KDAY coverage, gave the station its presentational slickness and mainstream feel.
For this story, I went back to two tapes of KDAY in its last days. Here’s the late Gary Dillard in November 1990. By this time, Hip-Hop had been part of Top 40 radio for several years. KKBT (The Beat) Los Angeles had finally brought Urban to a full-signal FM, although it launched with a more adult-leaning version. Dillard began as an intern at KDAY, and hearing him work his way up to afternoons was a sign of Patterson’s strength as a talent coach. Mack, meanwhile, had left for rival KJLH that year.
By the time of the 1990 aircheck, KDAY had been diluted by the greater presence of Hip-Hop but not quite replaced. There are still artists heard here that wouldn’t have been on any of the FMs. When KDAY was sold and changed formats four months later, the station’s J.J. Johnson took call after call from listeners bemoaning that there was nothing similar on FM. Johnson encouraged listeners to nudge The Beat and L.A.’s other Urban stations to play more Hip-Hop. Eventually, a Hip-Hop battle would develop between The Beat and KPWR (Power 106), which doesn’t even get a mention from Johnson.
Despite all of those listener calls, KDAY makes the odd decision here to spend the last hour celebrating the 18-year heritage of KDAY as an R&B station, not the last eight years, and Johnson plays mostly ’70s R&B oldies. I’ve included the aircheck anyway because the Hip-Hop legacy is what resonates for those callers.
By 1991, Urban radio was also competing with “Churban” stations, including the Jerry Clifton-consulted WPGC Washington, D.C. Those stations played more Hip-Hop than their heritage Urban rivals, which were also being flanked by the new Urban AC format. Many Churbans were phenomenally successful, although some rivals, such as WKYS Washington, D.C., or WYLD New Orleans, would rebound. (The WPGC/WKYS rivalry continues today.) WRKS (Kiss FM) New York and KMJQ (Majic 102) Houston battled back, only to be absorbed in duopolies and flipped to Urban AC.
The station that would merge with KMJQ was WPGC’s sister station, KBXX (The Box). This aircheck was made while I was in Houston for an R&B-radio conference, dominated by talk of the format battle. It was also about six months after Billboard’s first Soundscan charts began showing previously uncounted sales for N.W.A. and harder rap acts.
Houston had already had stations that went deeper into Hip-Hop than their rivals. Current station owner Steve Hegwood did a KDAY-type format on AM at KYOK, then on rimshotter KHYS. Under PD Robert Scorpio, The Box went harder than WPGC or other Clifton outlets. There are three songs in 45 minutes here from Houston’s Geto Boyz. I also remember hearing “No Vaseline” by Ice Cube. KBXX was more heavily bleeped than any station I’d ever encountered; today, that’s what a lot of radio edits sound like.
By 1992, Top 40 was starting to retreat from Hip-Hop and some stations were changing formats outright, rather than deal with the genre as the music became harder, less of a novelty. A lot of Mainstream Urban outlets played only a very adult-friendly title or two during the day. In Norfolk, there was a battle between Steve Crumbley and the late KJ Holiday’s WOWI (103 Jamz) Norfolk, Va., and WMYK (K92) with PD Morris Baxter and MD Damon Williams. I was in Norfolk in late summer 1992, I was impressed by the presence of Hip-Hop all day long, and on the WOWI summer-show lineup. (As it happens, KDAY’s Norfolk sister, a heritage R&B outlet that happened to be called WRAP, had done a similar format in the mid-’80s.)
As I drove out of town that weekend, I remember hearing the premiere of a new record from hometown hero Teddy Riley. That song was “Rump Shaker” by Wreckx-N-Effect, and it was several days before the song was even officially released. More than a year ahead of New York, Tidewater was the market where Hip-Hop felt most front-and-center on the radio to me. (Williams remembers K92 being one of the first FMs to image around Hip-Hop in the way that many eventually would.) On this tape of both stations from spring 1993, WOWI is playihg some house/dance (which had long been a part of the station), but K92 is playing a remix of “Bonita Applebum.”
I moved away from New York for 18 months in the summer of 1993 as a battle brewed to see what station would embrace Hip-Hop the way Norfolk had. WQHT (Hot 97) was in the process of phasing out the dance product in its Rhythmic Top 40 format under new PD Steve Smith when heritage outlet WBLS suddenly flipped to a Clifton format modeled on WPGC. WQHT, inspired by the success of sister Power 106, accelerated its transition and became the station “where Hip-Hop lives.” When it became “blazin’ Hip-Hop and R&B,” the decision to image around Hip-Hop first was felt throughout Urban radio.
WQHT’s transition paralleled that of Top 40 rival WHTZ (Z100), which was finding new market relevance during the Top 40 doldrums of 1993 by playing more Alternative product. At first, that was Tears for Fears and OMD. By 1994, it was more likely to be Pearl Jam and Hole. Similarly, on this tape of market veteran Fred Buggs from November 1993, Hot 97 has the “where Hip-Hop lives” branding, but you still hear a lot about Salt-N-Pepa, LL Cool J, and K7. Wu-Tang Clan would soon become a big part of Hot 97’s statement, but it took another year or so for them to become a core artist.
Hot 97 and eventual-sister WRKS were also part of the move to celebrity DJs. On this tape of Monie Love from September 1994, you can hear the station people remember taking shape, including a sample of Dr. Dre & Ed Lover’s signature morning “Roll Call” feature. (I apologize for the aircheck quality, but it was worth sharing anyway; by that point the station has also evolved to a busier imaging style that exacerbates the noisiness.) WRKS is about to be flipped to Adult R&B, but at this moment, they were also battling back, including giving away tickets to a Back to School concert featuring the Notorious B.I.G.
By 1995, I was back in the New York area, WRKS had made the transition to (an equally influential) Adult R&B outletr. Legendary PD Frankie Crocker had returned to WBLS and was trying to recreate the anything-goes spirit of that station in the early ’80s, but Hot 97 was the station where anything could happen — a brand new release, the next reggae crossover, a surprise Lenny Kravitz title. (You can still hear that particular song, “I Belong to You,” on mix shows in New York.) Soon, WUSL (Power 99) Philadelphia adapted similar imaging — “Bangin’ Hip-Hop & R&B” — and finally Hip-Hop was first-billed on most younger-leaning outlets.
