The stations call letters would also be changed several times throughout the years from W2XWG when it first went on air in the 1940s to WNBC-FM in 1949.\u00a0 The last name change occurred in 1988 when media conglomerate Emmis Communications<\/p>\n bought NBC\u2019s New York area radio stations and the station went from WYNY to WQHT.\u00a0 Emmis swapped the stations, they made WQHT into a pop station again and moved the previous country format to 103.5 FM.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Long term success would be tough to find again as the competition among pop stations in New York City was intense and this would lead WQHT to once again re-brand their station to better fit the city.\u00a0 This re-brand was different though, as this would change WQHT forever.\u00a0 For this re-brand to take place, however, more racial progress had to be made as Dan Charnas stated in his book The Big Payback: The History of Hip-Hop<\/em>: \u201dRecord companies still maintained \u2018Black music\u2019 departments, despite the irony that all American pop music descended from African-American culture.\u00a0 But radio was even more backwards than the record companies.\u201d\u00a0 Record companies for years did not help promote the black artists they had signed, this made it even easier for radio stations to discriminate based on race.\u00a0 Radio stations would group all black artists as funk and disco artists as to avoid playing their records on the radio.\u00a0 Radio would continue this discriminatory behavior even past TV\u2019s capitulation to allowing black artists on MTV.\u00a0 This is why New York, although the birthplace of Hip-Hop, cannot claim to have the first Hip-Hop radio station.\u00a0 This distinct honor would belong to KDAY in Los Angeles which started in the early 1980\u2019s.\u00a0 For Hip-Hop to break into the New York City market it took a combination of factors not least the fact that WQHT was struggling in the Pop genre.\u00a0 With \u201cYo MTV Raps!\u201d piercing the television market and a vast amount of Hip-Hop radio talent networking throughout the city it was soon evident that Hip-Hop was worth taking a chance on.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n While Emmis was willing to take a chance on Hip-Hop it decided to be risk-adverse in who they were bringing to run the show.\u00a0 In the early 1990\u2019s Emmis gathered what now looks like the who\u2019s who of urban radio. \u00a0\u00a0In 1993 the station decided to directly capitalize on the success of \u00a0\u201cYo MTV Raps!\u201d by hiring it\u2019s hosts Ed Lover and Doctor Dre.\u00a0 After hiring them the transformation into a rap station was complete.\u00a0 Hip-Hop finally had its way of imbuing its sense of style and swagger onto the average person through a morning radio show.\u00a0 With this step, Hot 97 was now ready to compete with the juggernauts in the area.\u00a0 Hot 97 would also go on to hire other notable people such as Funkmaster Flex, Wendy Williams, and Angie Martinez early on in their respective careers.\u00a0 With some of these changes underway, success was already palpable inside of Hot 97 even before the ratings had officially came out.\u00a0 The Vice President at the time Judy Ellis said \u00a0 Artists soon too latched onto Hot 97 as a fixture in their communities dropping in on the station as the pleased.\u00a0 This led to high profile artists such as LL Cool J and KRS-One actually having paid positions at the station.\u00a0 Rappers would come by and interact with the hosts as well as record promos and bumpers to be played on air.\u00a0 This would also lead to some classic impromptu performances by these artists called freestyles. [4]<\/a><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> New York Radio Guide – Station Information for WQHT-FM. Accessed November 15, 2017. http:\/\/www.nyradioguide.com\/cgi\/info.cgi\/WQHT-FM.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> New York Radio Guide – Station Information for WQHT-FM. Accessed November 15, 2017. http:\/\/www.nyradioguide.com\/cgi\/info.cgi\/WQHT-FM.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/nyc-history\/files\/2017\/11\/WQHT.png\")