The race relations have heated up once again. The COVID-19 lock downs coupled with the murder of George Floyd, have only fueled the likes of Antifa, and Black Lives Matter (BLM) and other liked minded groups. Basically the new front groups of leftist radicals have picked up where the Black Panther Party (or simply Black Panthers), and Students for a Democratic Society or SDS (and its best known spin off The Weather Underground) have left off.
The arts and the media at large have also responded to the death of Floyd as well, especially in the radio and record industries. They have decided to drop the term “Urban Contemporary” regarding a music genre and radio format associated with media and music that is primarily targeted towards Black/African American consumers. I really don’t have a problem with the term Urban being retired, unlike Football teams being forced to change a name due to government, mob rule, media, and corporate pressure. For years Billboard has used the term R&B/Hip-Hop to describe the charts focused on the popular music geared towards African-Americans. But Billboard along with the defunct Radio & Records trade newspaper (and Billboard’s former rival) share in the guilt for using “racist” terms. It really should not be this way.
Regardless of skin pigmentation and heritage, we all have used certain terms that we now call racist these days. With that in mind, we should understand the history of African-American Media and music. After all knowledge is power.
The origins of African-American Media and music began in the very early 20th Century. The phonograph, a device to playback recorded material was finally made affordable and not just for the predominately rich who were mostly white. Due to segregation (enforced by Court decisions, Jim Crow Laws, Black Laws, and by President Woodrow Wilson himself and his administration), there were separate stores for the black people and the white people, and furniture stores were no exception. In those days, furniture stores were the go-to place to buy a phonograph. The electronics shop was yet to be conceived. Segregation also prevented black performers from securing long term contracts with major recording companies. The turning point however was when African American composer Perry Bradford convinced Fred Hager who was the executive of Okeh Records (founded by Otto Heinemann) to record Mamie Smith. Smith’s musical style did not appeal to mainstream audiences, but Bradford felt she would be successful with African American audiences.
Bradford would be proven correct as her single Crazy Blues (written by Bradford himself), sold 75,000 copies in the first month. As predicted correctly, those who bought the single were mostly African American/Black people. The song also peaked at #3 on the pop music charts of it’s time. That success gave birth to the genre that was first called “Race Music.” Eventually Okeh Records became profitable and famous because of the “race music” it produced. Okeh would be sold to Columbia Records in 1926 (which in turn would fold eventually into Japan’s Sony Corporation). Sadly Smith would meet an unkind fate as she died penniless (or so was reported) in 1946. It would take years for her to earn the respect for being an early influence on music for and done by African Americans.
In those days “Race Music” was seen as a style of music that promoted the pride and support of African-American people and their culture, but as the times changed along with the culture, the term “Race Music” would have to adopt new names. Race Music later on would be known either as Jazz, Blues, and later Rhythm & Blues music, and stayed popular among the Black Community (also all of the above was a precursor to mainstream Rock n Roll). When Jazz finally gained it’s own appeal to the white community, they developed their own styles, most notable Swing Jazz spearheaded by Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. Many African American artists were also successful with this early form of Crossover music including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.
In 1942, Billboard Magazine would start a music survey devoted to music for and by African-Americans. The chart was first known as The Harlem Hit Parade, and later changed it’s name to Race Records. The first use of the term R&B or Rhythm & Blues began in June 1949, and would continue to use that term (in spite of the charts being suspended in November 1963 and not reinstated until January 1965 due to the rise of Motown’s popularity) until 1969 when the survey was renamed the Soul Charts. In June 1982, the survey was renamed Hot Black Singles, and would be renamed Hot R&B Singles in October 1990. Hip-Hop would be joined at the hip in the R&B title of the survey by December 1999.
Radio & Records used the term Black Radio and that was likely spearheaded by such radio stations like AM1070 WDIA in Memphis which was the first station in America to be programmed for African Americans full time and still is to this very day. The original owners of WDIA were white men. Today WDIA is owned by iHeart Media and also owns three other FM stations in the Memphis market that target African-Americans. WDIA was actually named after the daughter of one of station’s owners; Diana.
This brings us to the term Urban Contemporary. Urban Contemporary was coined by legendary radio programmer Frankie Crocker, best known for his stint at New York City’s heritage R&B station WBLS, where he built the station’s well known legacy. During his time at WBLS, Disco music was growing in popularity reaching it’s zenith in 1978, thanks in part to the success of the box office smash Saturday Night Fever starting John Travolta. Urban Contemporary seem to fit the music style that was popular in the major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco etc. The name stuck. Crocker was not ashamed in calling WBLS the ‘Black Station.’ In fact he even used the term in the Voice Overs for the station “Stereo In Black,” and listed off many artists in the R&B and even Jazz genres...especially with the popularity of Jazz-Fusion and Jazz Funk at the time.
While WBLS was called the Black station, Crocker was anything but racist. He welcomed listeners that were not “Black” themselves and felt if they were listening to WBLS, then Crocker must be doing something right...just playing good music that not only honors the Black Community but getting people that were not part of the heritage by blood or pigmentation to come along, listen in, and appreciate what they might have been missing from the competition (including the legendary 77WABC back in it’s music radio days).
Ellis B. Feaster, a veteran radio broadcaster who has a YouTube channel devoted to classic radio air checks and currently handles morning drive on heritage Contemporary Christian music station WPOZ (Z88.3) in Orlando, Florida; told me personally via electronic messaging that Crocker programmed music and artists that were not considered to be R&B nor Urban. Artists outside of what is consisted to be R&B/Urban included The Police, Talking Heads, Devo, Daryl Hall & John Oates (who had a few major crossover hits on the R&B charts themselves), Kenny Rodgers (who’s #1 hit Lady was written by Lionel Richie and was still with the Commodores at the time), and even the legendary Frank Sinatra.
Still with increased competition especially coming from the original WKTU Disco 92 (who debuted with an 11.2 share and the highest FM rating of all time in the New York City market) and even a direct Urban/R&B competitor for WBLS, Crocker was forced to narrow cast and take less chances with artists that were not considered Urban/Black.
While their have been radio stations that were trying break free of the color lines, nobody really paid attention until Emmis Broadcasting (based out of Indianapolis) signed on KPWR a.k.a. Power 106 in Los Angeles in early 1986. The station originally played a mix of R&B, Latin Dance Club music (or Latin Freestyle as it was called back in the day), and rhythmic pop. Power 106 was an instant hit in LA. Meanwhile in New York City it was about a year (give or take) since the first WKTU signed off (a revived WKTU would sign on in 1996 and currently is still around), but their was still demand for the music that 92KTU was known to break. Emmis came to rescue in late summer of that year and signed on WQHT aka Hot 103 (later Hot 97) with the same music format as KPWR. With KPWR and WQHT, Emmis would help in the creation of the color blind format called Rhythmic Top 40/CHR, But Urban/R&B would still be a designation for African American listeners/customers only. Yet at the same time, Rhythmic radio would become more R&B and Hip-Hop focused.
Now it seems that Urban Contemporary is a bad term just as Race Music was. iHeartMedia along with the major record companies is working on dropping the term in favor of R&B-Hip-Hop and Adult R&B (although iHeart’s radio survey arm Mediabase has yet to follow suit as of this writing). As stated earlier, this is a fair statement and maybe will put to an end of the segregation in the format titles at least. However that does not mean we go out all over ourselves to prove that we are woke and better human beings. We still need to humble ourselves before God and let him make us into what he wants to the human race to be. Black Lives DO Matter, as well white, yellow, brown, and red lives. There is truly only one race, the Human Race. Don’t let these Marxists make you say and think otherwise.
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