Chuck Arnold
Music
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How WBLS, led by Frankie Crocker, became a New York radio institution celebrating 50 years of classic R&B and rap
ByChuck Arnold
Published Nov. 8, 2024, 11:20 a.m. ET
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When legendary WBLS DJ Frankie Crocker broke McFadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” — the 1979 Philly soul classic that has provided the soundtrack to many a cookout — he might as well have been establishing a theme song for the enduring legacy and listenership of the New York radio institution.
Because there has been no stopping WBLS since Crocker turned the station into the No. 1 R&B destination on the dial — and an influential tastemaker nationwide — in the ’70s.
“At the time that I started, Frankie was program director, so I got an opportunity to just really kind of see how he operated,” Cynthia Smith, the current WBLS program director, told The Post.
“And he was all about gut and hits, and he played songs that people wouldn’t really think that maybe ’BLS would play or break. But that was just his way.”
5WBLS DJ and program director Crocker poses for a portrait in October 1983 in New York City.Michael Ochs Archives
And as WBLS celebrates its 50th anniversary at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Friday with DJ Cassidy’s Pass the Mic Live! — a star-studded concert featuring everyone from Charlie Wilson and Chaka Khan to Bobby Brown, SWV and Keyshia Cole — Crocker’s spirit lives on 24 years after his death.
“His legacy is that strong that sometimes people even call up to the front desk and say, ‘Hey, I want to speak to Frankie Crocker,’” Smith told the Post. “Frankie Crocker’s reputation has just, you know, transcended, and it continues to be present. I have huge shoulders that I stand on.”
DJ Cassidy, having grown up on WBLS in New York City, will be channeling the airwave vibes of Crocker as he passes the mike from act to act as part of his popular franchise.
“He kind of created a vocabulary of music that hip-hop DJs went on to play,” he said of Crocker, who championed everyone from Bob Marley and Blondie to Grace Jones and a young Madonna.
“There’s so many non-hip-hop records that I played as a young hip-hop DJ that Frankie is credited for breaking — records like Alicia Myers’ ‘I Want to Thank You,’ like Shannon’s ‘Let the Music Play.’ The list goes on and on.”
5DJ Cassidy described WBLS as “not only a New York City institution, but a hip-hop and R&B institution.”FilmMagic
Longtime WBLS mixmaster Chuck Chillout — who will join other spinners Marley Marl and Kool DJ Red Alert on Friday night — also studied from the Crocker playbook.
“I got a chance to hang out with Frankie,” he said. “His whole thing was ‘Chuck, I want to hear what’s happening in the street so I can play it across the radio,’ because there were certain songs that were playing in the club that were not playing on the radio. I was just happy to hang out with him and to learn as much as I could.”
Although Crocker was initially resistant to hip-hop, he ended up embracing the genre in a groundbreaking way with the first rap show on a major radio station in 1982: “Rap Attack” hosted by Mr. Magic.
And when Crocker played your record, it was like getting a blessing from the Godfather.
5“People record our mixes off the radio and send it to people all around the world,” said WBLS DJ Chuck Chillout.Heidi Gutman/Peacock via Getty Images
“He was the one that broke ‘The Message’ and ‘White Lines,” said Melle Mel of the Furious Five (formerly Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five), who will perform on Friday night. “He was actually manipulating the market.”
In fact, Melle Mel said that Crocker was “bigger than radio” at one point.
“He was more than a DJ. Frankie was, like, a rock star,” he said. “He personally made ’BLS the No. 1 radio station. He was that much of a personality.”
5“He was more than a DJ. Frankie was, like, a rock star,” said Melle Mel of WBLS legend Crocker.Michael Ochs Archives
Indeed, Crocker helped build a WBLS brand that has gone global.
“Still to this day, people record our mixes off the radio and send it to people all around the world,” said Chillout, “because when I travel around people are like, ‘Yo, I got a tape from you,’ and I’m all the way in England or Japan or South Korea … They may not know English, but they know them records, and they know WBLS.”
And whether it’s MFSB’s “Love Is the Message,” the S.O.S. Band’s “Take Your Time (Do It Right)” or “Before I Let Go” by Frankie Beverly and Maze, those Crocker classics are still a part of the fabric of WBLS today alongside more contemporary tracks by Usher, Chris Brown and Victoria Monét.
5Melle Me will perform with the Furious Five as part of Pass the Mic Live! celebrating WBLS’ 50th anniversary.Getty Images
But the heritage station has remained true to the legacy that Crocker began five decades ago, which will be celebrated on Friday night.
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“This night represents all of what has been the soundtrack to our listenership,” said Smith. “Music that we were playing back then, we’re still playing some of it now, and it is just as popular today as it was when you heard it the first time on WBLS.”
For Cassidy, it’s a full-circle moment taking him back to his musical foundation that he got from WBLS: “Looking back on my years as a listener and knowing the history, it is crystal clear that the station is very much not only a New York City institution, but a hip-hop and R&B institution — and a pop culture institution.”