1580 KDAY Archives

Greg Mack Shares More KDAY History and Discusses Racism In Radio

By: Timsanchez818Category: FeaturesJanuary 10, 2014

We now conclude our two-part story with radio legend Greg Mack and for those who might dispute that, yes he is a legend. Back before the artists that you now refer to as legends became legends, they needed a home to be heard and 1580 KDAY was that place whether it was an East Coast rapper or local West Coast ones just looking for some love and to have their new songs played. The fire caught on at stations in other cities that were initially reluctant to give Rap a voice but the success of the format caused them to take notice and embrace the change. After 1580 KDAY left the airwaves (the weak AM signal couldn’t keep up with the FM stations that were adopting the Hip-Hop format), Greg Mack left programming and ventured in to the radio station ownership field and is currently back behind the microphone hosting his own R & B show every Saturday night on 94.7 The Wave. Read on as Greg challenges rappers and artists to become radio owners, gives his feelings on the current 93.5 KDAY station and talks about the racism that still exists in radio today. Put your reading glasses on once again and jump in to Part 2 of this AllHipHop.com exclusive. Click here for Part 1 Tell me about the time that you first heard “Boyz N Tha Hood” by Eazy-E before you premiered it on KDAY. I was at the Casa Camino Real and Dr. Dre came to the club and said, “Greg. I’m working with this new kid and I just did a record with him. He’s going to invest in me. I want you to hear this record and give me your thoughts.” We left the club and went to the car and popped in the cassette. We listened to it and I told him that it just might work but he needed to clean it up if he wanted it on the air. He agreed to clean it up and I agreed to try it out on the air. The kid was Eazy-E of course. That was about midnight and the next day by 2 pm, Dr. Dre had me a clean version. We played it and by nightfall it was the most requested record. People reacted to it quickly and it stayed number one for a long time. Even when Dre did a song with me and Eazy called “Radio,” it was the same thing. He called me and told me that he needed a DJ on it, so he had me listen to the record and I asked him what he wanted me to do. He told me to just talk and pretend we were on the radio. I did my part and he told me that was it. I was like, “In the first try?” And he said, “Yeah. That’s what I wanted. You nailed it.” I left, never signed anything, never got any royalties on it (laughs). I didn’t know that “m####” was going to be a platinum record. We were just cool like that. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3l5O2i3gUc&w=420&h=315] When N.W.A. started fighting with each other, were you involved in any way? You were cool with all sides. It was like you said, I was cool with everybody. I never got involved in the business side of things. Nobody ever came to you with their problems or frustrations? Yeah but only about this b*tch or that b*tch or lend me some money to help me pay for this abortion – but never really anything on the business side. I’m just a radio guy and people seem to forget that. The music side kind of propelled my name out there but that’s because the people that I played became stars. Salt-n-Pepa wouldn’t have hit if I didn’t play their B-Side “Push It” and the same with J.J. Fad if I didn’t play their B-Side “Supersonic.” I get all of that but that’s my DJ side. I didn’t go in to the studio and create anything. I don’t know how to make a hit. I’m just the radio guy. So many legendary acts came to you to break their records. Aside from N.W.A. there were acts like Salt-n-Pepa, Will Smith as The Fresh Prince, J.J. Fad and so on. Digital Underground, 2Pac, Big Daddy Kane – we can go on and list about 40 to 50 names. I’ve got a story about each and every one of them too. Big Daddy Kane, people don’t know that he was so shy and quiet. I’ve got so many stories. I’m praying that God allows me to write a book one day. There’s so much behind these people than what you see. What’s funny is that it’s all good stuff. There’s really no drama. A lot of the rappers are really good people but there’s an image that they have to uphold to keep street credibility but when you get to know them, they are really good people – even Suge Knight. I knew him before the world did and he’s a really good guy. It’s the same with Jerry Heller – he’s a great person. A lot of people in the business that have been characterized as evil, are actually good people. In Hip-Hop, a lot of bullsh*t gets said and people would rather believe the bullsh*t than hear the real story. I remember when MC Hammer and 3rd Bass had their beef, I had the group come to the station to get on the air with me and Hammer (who was on the phone) and we talked about it and I was under the opinion that we squashed it all. About 6 months later I was at a convention and their DJ Richie Rich came up to me and grabbed me by the collar. He was like, “Motherf*cker you almost got us killed! You set us up!” I was like, “What the f*ck are you talking about?” Come to find out after they left the studio that […]

Exclusive: Greg Mack Breaks Down The History of 1580 KDAY

By: Timsanchez818Category: FeaturesDecember 30, 2013

No story about KDAY can be complete without going back to the beginning of where it all started and to do that you have to talk to the man responsible for putting together the format that would alter radio to this very day – Mr. Greg Mack. In the early to mid-80’s on an AM radio dial known as 1580 in Los Angeles, at a time when the music industry regarded Rap music as a passing fad, Greg Mack took a major step for street born genre by creating radio’s first Hip-Hop format. One could hear a rap song on the radio here or there or maybe on a Saturday night when programmers felt it was safe enough to play, but never could one wake up to the sounds of Run-DMC, The Fat Boys, and Whodini until 1580 KDAY made that all possible. In addition to being a force for Hip-Hop on a whole, KDAY was an outlet for local talent to shine as the station helped to create just about every West Coast star that came from the 80’s and early 90’s. In conclusion of our KDAY coverage of the past few weeks, AllHipHop.com sat down with the legendary programmer in a two part series to let him tell his story. Put on your reading glasses and get a Hip-Hop history lesson! You came to Los Angeles via Houston. First off, I was naïve to the streets when I came to Los Angeles. I’m proud to be a country boy and a lot of the rappers, gang bangers and people in the streets gave me a pass. They were like, “He doesn’t know he’s not supposed to wear Red or Blue so I’m not gonna whoop his a**.” When I first moved to South Central, I lived in mom’s backhouse. One day I was checking the mailbox and this lady came out and jumped on me because she thought I was taking her government check. I got her off of me and threw her over the fence. A crowd had gathered and I wondered what the big commotion was and they told me that this lady was my neighbor. I apologized and told her that I wasn’t trying to take her check and that I was only checking the mail. Later on some Crip approached me and asked me why I beat up his mom. He had a jheri curl and his hand on a gun. I had to explain the situation to him. Take us back to the beginning of your start at KDAY and how Hip-Hop became a music format for radio. I was a music programmer at Magic 102 in Houston so when I came to KDAY, I knew I could do the job. I did notice that everybody out here played their music loud, so if you wanted to know what everybody was in to, all you had to do was roll your window down and listen. I heard groups like Run-DMC and Sugarhill Gang and said to myself, “I think the people here like rap.” None of the stations would play rap except for a few times late at night. I met with KDAY managers Ed Kirby and Jack Patterson and told them that I would play the hits in rotation but I also wanted to experiment with Rap. They told me that I had to limit it to the night time and that’s how it started. Immediately with the first Arbitron ratings, they shot through the roof! After that they agreed to let me play a little bit of Rap in the afternoon, and then more as the kids began to eat it up. The record companies were p##### off at me because I was giving so much time to Rap when they were spending money on promoting their R & B artists. The major record stores were mad too because they weren’t carrying Rap – they thought it was just a novelty. The mom and pop stores and the swapmeets were making a killing because they were the only one’s willing to carry Hip-Hop. Even some in the community gave backlash saying that I was corrupting the youth by playing that music. I used to work with artists and actually made them change some of the lyrics for radio. I didn’t edit them or play them backwards. I had them go back in to the studio to change a verse. The argument was that even if you play a word backwards, the kids can still figure out what they were saying, and the artists would go back and change it. Even to this day I don’t understand why artists won’t do that anymore – just change the verse. Do it for the kids. You created the Mack Attack Mix Masters by taking local DJ’s from the party’s and clubs and putting them on radio. Where did this grand idea come from? I have a mentality of “there are no roadblocks, only hurdles.” When I came to Los Angeles, my sister told me about party’s that were being thrown by a crew named Uncle Jamm’s Army. I went to one of their shows at the Sports Arena and I could not believe my eyes. There were 8 to 10 thousand kids with nobody performing but the DJ’s. I had never seen anything like it in my life so I decided that I needed to get these guys to be a part of what I was doing at KDAY. I tracked down Rodger Clayton, the head of Uncle Jamm’s Army, and explained to him my idea of bringing them on to the radio. He told me that they didn’t need radio and that they were successful without it. I took that as a hurdle to my plan. The next Monday I had a meeting with people who were promoting their records and a guy came in by the name of Lonzo Williams who was promoting his group The World Class Wreckin’ Cru. I asked […]

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