Q: What kind of impact do you think KMEL Summer Jam made in the San Francisco Bay Area?
M: Well, Summer Jam, especially in it’s first five or six years, created a musical event that the entire Bay Area knew about. Previous to that, I don’t believe any single radio station had created that kind of event. You knew it was coming, you looked forward to it, and you would buy your tickets before you even knew who was on the lineup. If you liked the radio station, you knew you were going to like who was going to be at the concert, and you expected virtually everyone who’s a star to be there. If there were one or two people missing, you pretty much didn’t know it because there were enough stars to cover it. So I think the magnitude of the event, the ‘larger than life’ feeling to it benefited the radio station. It became such an icon that people would talk about it, make plans for it, even put together a new outfit for it. It was something that was anticipated, celebrated and spoken of afterwards. I mean, having a summer jam T-shirt was actually a desired commodity, and people would wear them to show them off and prove that they were at the event.
Q: At one point KMEL Summer Jam became a two-day event. How did that come about?
M: During that period of time, there was a) so much good music available and b) so many cooperative artists and record labels. We didn’t necessarily set out to do this two-day extravaganza. Summer Jam was a originally a one day event, but we quickly discovered that there was a wealth of talent available and that out of necessity we turned it into a two-day event. We expanded it early on in the planning process.
At that period of time too, you also had different elements of music coming together. You were still on the tail-end of what we now call the “freestyle” movement: the Exposes, the Stevie B’s, the Cover Girls and other groups. There was still a little bit of life left in “freestyle”. The “new jack” genre had come into full force by then, with Guy, Heavy D, etc; and then the hip-hop arena was really blossoming too. So, I think that also created a need for Summer Jam to be a two-day event. You were able to bring three different factions: R&B, “freestyle”, and hip-hop together, and they were all popular at the same time.
Q: Who were key individuals/organizations behind KMEL Summer Jam?
M: In my opinion, Keith Naftaly was by all accounts, the driving force behind KMEL Summer Jam and the reason there was a successful Summer Jam. He developed relationships with the record labels and in many cases with the artists themselves. Keith was highly respected by everybody involved to the point that they wanted to participate and support the venture knowing that it was for a very good cause. [Naftaly] was a visionary and I think he was able to convince people around him to be a part of that vision.
Q: What community services/causes did KMEL Summer Jam support?
M: We always tried to spread the monies out to a variety of Bay Area charities. The causes were always diverse in scope. It was always about ‘how can we reach a variety of communities and a variety of causes?
Q: What role did you play in making KMEL Summer Jam happen?
M: Keith Naftaly was the architect of the event itself. He was the executive producer of everything. But as time went on, I became the producer of the radio broadcast. What you heard at home if you were not there, was largely due to my efforts. What I tried to do year after year, was to do a better job of conveying this event to the listener. Even though there were 22,000 people at the event, there were hundreds of thousands of people not at the event trying to get a taste. That’s where I really took my pride, finding ways to turn our DJs into reporters live at the scene. To be descriptive, to convey the mood, the attitude, the clothes, the vibe, and the weather to the listeners at home and paint an audio picture of what was actually taking place. We didn’t start doing the broadcast until Summer Jam III in 1989.
Q: Was KMEL one of the only radio stations to simulcast a Summer Jam?
M: I think so. I think early on, the clout and the significance of the event was so commanding that the artists didn’t really object to it. An artist usually wants to control how they’re perceived and it’s difficult to do [on a simulcast]. We used to hire a separate sound engineer and we’d do a separate mix just because we wanted the product to sound as good as it possibly could on the radio. Some artists were more sensitive than others. But I think after getting caught up in the vibe of the event and the cause, they’d go with the flow and say, ‘all right, let’s do it’. At this point I couldn’t tell you specifically which artists backed out, but there were one or two performances that we couldn’t broadcast because they didn’t want us to. That was definitely the exception, not the rule.
Q: And the KMEL Summer Jam concerts were simulcast up until what year?
M: I couldn’t tell you exactly. I left in ‘97. We did put some live shows on in ‘96, but I know that with some of the hip-hop acts, you couldn’t put them on the air. The lyrical content became too challenging from a community and FCC standpoint.
Q: KMEL Summer Jam used to run from mid-morning to midnight. I would like to hear your thoughts on how the once “carefree” spirit of Summer Jam concerts might have changed over the years. For example, do you think there was a change in the vibe of the music industry itself?
M: Well, I think the tone of music did certainly change and evolve, and we definitely went into an era where the rap music was definitely harder and edgier and I guess more violent in it’s content. I still believe that music itself does not cause problems. I don’t believe the general listener, or the general audience causes problems. I still believe that it always comes down to a handful of individuals especially relative to the size of the audience. With Summer Jam, you’re talking about 22,000 people, and it really only takes 20 or 30 at the most to cause very disruptive behavior. It takes somebody to start it, and then there’s the mob factor that will kick in and people start to get rowdier because they see other people rowdier. But I never witnessed a massive group of people doing something violent or instantly turn rowdy. It would usually be a small group and then it might spread into larger numbers. But I never saw any audience turn negative or violent as a result of the music or the artists that were on stage. They were fans, and the response was always very positive about the music. The vast majority of people attending were extremely disappointed if any event was shortened or anything because of some kind of destructive behavior.
Q: Were there any special moments in your years being involved with KMEL Summer Jam that you consider priceless to this day?
M: Well, for me I remember walking out on stage for the very first time [at Summer Jam II]. That was the largest crowd I’d ever stood in front of. There was about 22,000 people out there and just that moment alone was almost overwhelming. I’d been in front of 8,000 or 10,000 before, but there was something about KMEL Summer Jam, and the energy that went with it. I had just joined the station, and it was kind of an ‘arrival’ for me because I was able to work the mic, relate to the crowd and get them to respond. It helped me bond with the rest of the staff. It proved that I ‘belonged’ and that I could contribute to the power that already was KMEL – because it was a very powerful station when I joined it.
Q: If anyone out there wanted to learn more about the Summer Jam phenomenon and the role KMEL played in it, what would you tell them?
M: I would tell you that my exposure to the national phenomenon is limited. It’s subject to what I’ve heard. But what I can tell you that the Summer Jam that [92.3 – later 100.3 The Beat] is doing in Los Angeles was a byproduct of KMEL because Keith Naftaly went down to the Beat and became the Program Director there [circa 1993]. Then we started piggybacking Summer Jams where one was on a Saturday at one location, and on Sunday was the next. So KKBT’s Summer Jam was a by-product of KMEL because the people involved were the same ones.
There’s no doubt I think, that KUBE up in Seattle found out about KMEL Summer Jam and the success of it and said, ‘we’ve got do something like that for our audience’. Then when everyone started doing them, that’s when it became more and more challenging because the artists could only be spread so thin, and the labels could only ask for so many favors. Then you got into the politics of the record/radio business, such as: why did you give that station this, when you didn’t do that for us?
Even the Bay Area changed, because when Wild [107— later 94.9] came into existence, you now had an extremely competitive situation in the Bay Area. The record labels all of the sudden got caught up in the politics of it all and weren’t necessarily as willing to go in one direction vs. the other. But Summer Jam wasn’t about industry politics in the beginning. It was about helping the community, and not losing sight of the fact that hundreds of thousands of dollars – and in a couple of situations – over a million, were donated to Bay Area charities.