The following was written by Cedric Hollywood,
program and music director of Miami’s WEDR’s 99 Jamz.
In a news article on AllHipHop.com (https://allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=2848),
Luther "Luke" Campbell asserted that the local radio infrastructure
in Miami, Florida no longer supported the local Hip-Hop scene.
He singled out the only two commercial Hip-Hop
stations in the city, 99 Jamz and 103.5 The Beat.
Hollywood has been a staple in the radio community
for years and did not agree with Campbell’s views of the local radio industry.
The following was written by Hollywood for AllHipHop.com.
The meeting [between local Miami artists, DJ’s
and the commercial stations) was called by The Underground Pipeline (a coalition
of independent local record promoters & producers).
They invited radio. We [99 Jamz] showed up in
force. Clear Channel’s 103.5 The Beat didn’t show. Luke was invited
as the guest speaker. All of his speech was based on the fact that we are not
playing his recently released songs!
They are not up to his usual standards. I have
not even heard one club play them either. Even he doesn’t get a free pass.
We’ve played over 100 local songs in the
past few years. It is impossible to play every local song. We are directly responsible
for the Iconz, and just recently Jackie-0 & Pit Bull getting signed.
[What] everybody there seemed to want to know
is what to do after they record a song. The crime is – why hadn’t Luke
already told them.
On the DJ’s we hire, no commercial station
in America has all local DJ’s. Our company [Cox] approves
all DJ’s hired.
They wanted proven ratings winners to fight the
new station [103.5]. We do have local jocks on the air. Luke has a personal
agenda is upset because we won’t rehire him as a DJ! [Luke had The Uncle
Luke Show].
The more discussion about this, the more the
truth comes out. Jerry Rushin, DJ Khalid and myself were personally attacked
in the
meeting and Jerry Rushin started Luke! Financed his first project and now he
[Luke] lives in a house on a golf course! Jerry still can’t believe it!
He has never called or spoken to Jerry or me
about any lack of local airplay. What he did do is run to "The Beat"
thinking they were gonna play his music and give him a radio show.
They did not play his music or give him a radio
show. They played him! Got him to big them up in the Miami Herald and not only
are they not playing Luke, they aren’t playing any new local songs!
Let’s let the real truth come out!
Luke needs to stop using The Underground Pipeline
for his personal agenda. They are too important for that and we plan to work
with them with no problems.
Only God knows when we’ll work with Luke
again. The man is bitter. All he has to do is make a hit!
