BY MR DAVEY D • AUGUST 7, 2018

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..

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