A lot of folks point to the 1996 Telecommunications Act and say its the key mark in the sand… I disagree and allow me to give some context..

First I was one of those people who actually spoke at FCC hearings when this was being proposed and covered the 96 Act on my radio show here in SF.. I worked at KMEL which later went on to become a Clear Channel station..

KMEL was a unique station in the sense that it was really the first Top 40 station that laid out a solid successful blue print for how Top 40 stations could play Hip Hop and not lose advertising dollars or be stuck with the stigma of being a Black station.. That Blue print was later picked up by Hot 97 under Steve Smith who was from the Bay Area and worked at Hot 97 in San Jose and later Power 106 in LA..

One of things that was notable about those times in the early 90s.. leading up to 96 was the role Black/Urban radio played and the challenges they faced..

One of the key aspects was there was alot of hatred from some Black program directors for Hip Hop.. This was well before that 96 act and with the exception of a few places.. Rap/ Hip Hop was limited to weekend mix shows which many of us vigorously recorded and passed around..

Complicating this situation was the challenge that Black Urban stations had with securing advertisements if they got identified with playing too much rap.. hence many found there was an economic squeeze to move in a certain direction..

Lastly we had those Black music/ Pop division in the record labels.. Black divisions serviced Urban stations while Pop divisions serviced crossover stations with a much bigger budget..

In the early 90s… say 91 – 92 we saw a number a pop stations emerge and go full throttle in playing Rap.. Ours (KMEL) was one that led the charge.. This resulted in some misgivings among urban stations who felt like they were at a disadvantage because stations like ours were deemed crossover and not stigmatized with Black /urban label..

Some of this came to head at the Gavin Convention when Urban and Pop stations basically had a face off.. The argument made by urban stations was that the CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio) outlets were Urban stations and thus should be classified as such and not get these big pop budgets.. Urban programmers claimed they were warming up all this good Black music only to have CHR outlets get the credit and promotional budget from the labels..

The CHR stations made the argument that Hip Hop was basically crossover music.. and 2 they were playing Hip Hop without hesitation and restriction.. They accused urban outlets of being too cautious and many of them straight haters to Hip Hop.. They also said that it was not their fault these urban outlets didnt have an effective sales team to sell ads..

There was a call for CHR to be classified as urban.. CHR responded and said Hip Hop was crossover and the compromise was for some CHR to be called Churban.. That contentious meeting was the last time urban PDs showed up at Gavin en masse.. Many simply opted to go to the Urban Network convention..

Around that time we saw a switch in formats with many urban outlets becoming adult contemporary and using the slogan we don’t play rap…

So we saw this squeeze early on with playlist shrinking on the urban side.. Later we saw the shrinking of the list on the CHR side before 1996 as labels began to flex muscles and insisted on playlists and heavy on air rotation that centered around the groups they signed and were pushing..Around time you still had a ton of local based labels who were able to shine, but as major labels began to sign acts we saw those local homegrown/regional labels in various markets becoming viable competition..

I recall some of those big labels folks who sat in music meetings and pretty much demanded that stations scale back on regional play.. The logic was the labels had paid for advertisement, sponsored promotions and trips and basically put money on the table that was not being matched by their regional and local counterparts..

I cant speak for every market but the ones I’m familiar with before 96.. had tighter musical rotations being applied both on mix shows, Hip Hop specialty shows and regular programming.. I kept alot of our old playlists and the playlists of other stations if folks wanna ever see those how stark those changes were..

I would also add that when we saw the shutting down of Yo MTV Raps and a limiting of music requests on the Box that added to the centralizing of music..

There is no doubt the 96 Telecommunications Act put a nail in the coffin to all this.. But from where I sit we were already headed in that direction for many of the reasons I mentioned and number of other reasons that I don’t have a lot of time to lay out..

What stands out in my mind is being at new Music Seminar and other conventions in the 80s and early 90s where artists from Queen Latifah to Chuck D to many others were forcely and aggressively speaking out about the lack of airplay they were able to receive and talking about how wack and overly cautious program directors were when it came to rap..

The fact that we saw 5 year opening for Hip Hop on Crossover/pop stations was always borrowed time.. They would dance with Hip Hop as long as it was trending and in style with that pop audience.. But the goal in those outlets was to never nurture the essence of Hip Hop but to find the best pop formula..

Its funny how in looking back there were artists like the Snap, Heavy D, Redhead KingPen and some of the early New Jack swing that was deemed pop and even soft compared to the hard hitting Hip Hop produced by others.. 25 later those pop sounding Hip Hop songs that fused R&B are deemed bonafied classics.. that we all wax nostalgic over ..

Lastly I’ll close by saying that some of what I wrote I think changed from region to region.. If there is one thing the 96 Act killed was a regional sound and style.. There was a time you could go to Washington DC and listen to the radio and it had a different sound a rhythm than a station like KDAY in LA.. and KDAY had a different sound then KUBE in Seattle and that sound was different then the sound on WGCI in Chicago.. Nowadays you cant tell what city you’re in listening to those outlets.. They all sound the same musically and even personality wise thanks to voice tracking and syndication..