Styles: So what was it like working on the Steve Harvey show?

Dev: Exhausting. I have to give a shout out to my folks Mykestro, Techniec, Glasses Malone – because they would be up around the same time as me doing their thing – like at 6 a.m. We would be on AIM all of the time trying to keep each other awake. Working on the show was really exhausting. I have a lot of respect for Steve Harvey and what he represents. He tries to stay in the community and community is my number one passion – using the means that you have as a musician, radio or TV personality to get in the community and change people’s lives is what it’s about.

Steve Harvey is very community based but he’s not my demographic. He is not somebody that I would choose to listen to. I would roll up to work listening to Big Boy on Power 106.

Styles: [laughs] Your boss doesn’t know that, does he?

Dev: [laughs] I’ll tell him. But working for the Steve Harvey show was exhausting because many times I would be just finishing my 12 am to 5 am slot – then take an hour nap in my car and then do the 6 am to 10 am show with Steve. It was cool but I tuned out most of the time until it was my time to talk on the mic. Then at other times I would try to take a nap in the studio on the couch. After I stopped doing night shifts, I would go out to the clubs and sometimes I would leave them at like 3 or 4 in the morning – go grab something to eat and then go straight to the studio – and I would be asleep on the couch between talking on the radio.

Styles: In L.A. we have your station KDAY and Power 106 that reaches the urban market.  Power of course has the top spot. What does KDAY have to do to reach the spot that Power has?

Dev: One of our biggest differences is the signal. The signal right now as it is isn’t as strong as Power 106’s. But to me, it’s not a mind-frame of competition between us. Power is a dope station. To me they are not someone that I look to as competition. What’s dope about KDAY is that we are kind of like the heritage station of Los Angeles – especially now that The Beat is no longer here. We are a station that some people are loyal to just based on our roots and based on the people that they see out in the community. So when those people keep us on their dial, they really keep us on their dial – without a lot of switching around. Unfortunately our demographic has been skewed a little because we are going through some changes – and the politics of radio are crazy. It’s been a huge learning experience for me being at the station and seeing what a station with a smaller signal has to do just to try to stay afloat.

We are working on our signal right now with a new tower that we are building. In the next month or so we are actually going to have a signal that is the same as Power 106 and KIIS FM. It was a 2 million dollar deal that went through and we’ve been building it all summer long. It’s over in Baldwin Hills, just outside of Inglewood. We are finally going to have a signal that you can hear everywhere – in the Inland Empire, the Valley – everywhere you go, we will be there.

Styles: I know you are doing the Zombie Radio show and that’s where you get to break a lot of artists. When I was growing up, KDAY was the place where artists got their break. Why does Zombie even exist? Shouldn’t KDAY be that kind of outlet?

Dev: Here’s the thing and I completely feel where you are coming from, because that is the same question that I had in my head when I first started hopping in to this. Los Angeles is the number two radio market and it’s the number one sales market in the nation. So freely breaking new music or doing it in the desired time slot, unfortunately doesn’t translate in to money. When KDAY first started, it was a rinky dink signal in the middle of L.A. and they were the first people to ever think about playing Hip-Hop. Their money didn’t come from advertisers or other forms that now comes to radio. It was more like some guys that had a signal for cheap that started playing all of this dope music. But in today’s market, advertisers don’t attach their money to that. When KDAY first came back it was so gangsta rap and so heavy in Hip-Hop but they also lost a lot of money with that format. Advertisers are really scared to attach their names to stuff that people don’t know.

I had to come to the understanding that people like you and me Styles – we want to hear that – but we are a minority of the people that think that way. Most people when they turn on the radio, especially with all of the choices they now have with Sirius and XM, they want to hear something that they can relate to and groove to while they are driving – or sitting at their desks at work. There is now a thing called the Personal People Meter or PPM’s. It has completely changed the way that radio stations are being ranked. It’s a contraption that a person wears on their waist that picks up a frequency. It shows how often people turn a dial and what they are turning to. Most people that are getting these PPM’s are not in our demographic. They are not people like us that love Hip-Hop or love new music. They are people that want to hear something that they can relate to and sing along to – and they will turn it if it’s not that. A lot of radio stations are having to change with their formats. The info from PPM’s are going out to all of the advertising companies and they will see what you are doing.

Sirius and XM are two of the dopest things that new artists have now. It fits the format that you are already in to and they don’t have to rely on commercials and advertisers to pay bills.  

Styles: Does FM radio allow you to truly be who you are? You seem to have so much more to offer.

Dev: I’m friends with a lot of other DJ’s and radio personalities in other markets and that is something that a lot of us are facing right now. Luckily I am able to still be myself when I am on the air. I talk like myself and I say the things that I want to say on the air – I am just not able to play everything that I want to play. It’s just like regular work – you can still have your personality but you might not really be pushing a product that you want to push or doing the exact job that you want to be doing. I love my experience and my station has been very good to me but of course I’d rather be playing a Bishop Lamont record, a Glasses Malone record, a U-N-I record - or even some tracks off of Game’s CD that they wouldn’t necessarily release as singles. I am truly passionate about the West Coast and the new artists that are coming out but that doesn’t mean that I can play them every day at work even though I want to.

Styles: Let’s say that I am a West Coast artist and I have a really dope record that I want to get played. What is the best way for me to go about getting it on your station?

Dev: Artists need to understand this: radio is not the end-all to be-all. If you are a new artist, radio is important but what is more important is you building a fan-base that can translate your music in to money. The advice I give a lot to artists is to make sure that every DJ in the club or in Southern California has your record or CD. Make sure that you are out grinding and getting your music out to every DJ that has a mix-show. Make sure that people know who the hell you are. Brand new artists think that the only way to get by is getting on the radio or getting a deal. Deals aren’t paying what they used to. An artist signs a deal and doesn’t even getting any real money out of it – and they end up getting benched for years and years – with no rights to your merchandising and masters. What you really need to worry about as an artist is getting yourself known and having a fan-base that can translate your work in to money. The radio will come when you have a fan-base. When your record is one of the top records getting played in a club that is going to translate in to you getting radio spins. You don’t always have to rely on the KDAY’s and Power’s of the world. Hit up the Sirius and XM stations or the digital outlets.

Styles: To get on the radio though, do you always have to have a party record?

Dev: I don’t think so. You just have to have something that people can identify with. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a partying record. Honestly, I hate those records. I hate those songs that come with dances to them. Those songs get on my nerves. I’m probably like Souljah Boy’s arch-enemy. I hate music like that – and we are smarter than that. Rap consumers and young people are smarter than that.

As long as you stay true to yourself as an artist and make a song that people can relate to – a song that people want to hear. Not every song in the club is something that you want to dance to, but a lot of them are stuff that you would like to sing along to though. What’s everybody’s favorite song that comes in the clubs? “Ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none” by Snoop Dogg! Which to me is “horrible” but unfortunately we all know it by heart.

Styles: You know you love it………shush! 

Dev: [laughs] Unfortunately I sing along to it and I know I shouldn’t! Back to the point, that song isn’t one that necessarily has the dopest beat to dance to but everybody likes to stop what they are doing and sing along to it. I think that is what sets records apart – the one’s that people can get in to and feel.

Styles: What determines the playlist? Do you guys get to set it up or what’s the real process?

Dev: What determines the playlist is a lot of the A-list leading artists and the bigger singles that are doing well all across the country. People will say, “I heard that song 6 months ago in New Orleans. You guys are late out in L.A.” But we are the number two market, so of course we are not going to play it right away. We want to see what it does. A lot of records have to prove themselves in order to get played in the number one and two markets.

For the most part the way they structure the list is by what’s hot. Our PD has a lot of love for new artists. I am not going to name a list because I don’t want the one’s who haven’t been up here yet to get jealous. But there have been a lot of new artists that have come up here and have done events with us or have gotten spins on our mix show – shout out to Mr. Choc, DJ Dense, AD, Fa Sho, DJ East Los – they put on as many artists as they can. Unfortunately with the PPM’s  around it’s business first.     

Styles: Do you often face criticism when you go out to clubs and shows from people that criticize the way that the station is run or by artists who feel that they have been shut out?

Dev: Luckily I don’t but I know a lot of people who do. My reputation speaks for itself. New artists know that I’ll deal with them and if I can put them on or link them up with someone; that I always do. I am not one of those people that expect anything back from it because I have a genuine love for music. If you are a real person with me, I’m the same way with you.

Artists need to understand that it’s not always in the control of the DJ. You hear stories of people wanting to kidnap DJ’s or threaten them. When it comes down to it, a DJ or a radio personality is just doing their job. Just like what you are trying to make money at what you do, we have bills to pay too! It’s not that personal to where you think that we don’t want to support you – it’s just not that personal! If you want change, you’ve got to show the corporations and the people who own stations that people who love Hip-Hop will spend money. We’ve got to show these advertisers who think that minorities don’t have money to spend that we spend money too and our dollars matter – and that we want to be able to hear the music that we like. When that kind of change happens is when you can finally see all of your favorite underground artists on the radio.

Styles: Tell us about your Zombie Radio outlet so that artists can know more about it - and how they can get on it.

Dev: Zombie Radio is my baby. I can’t stress enough how passionate I am about the West Coast and new music in general. The show itself goes from an hour to two hours and it also consists of an in-depth artist interview. The show is also about me and Tony as if you were chillin’ and vibing with us in our living rooms. We talk about current events, Hip-Hop and new music. We play stuff that you won’t hear on the radio stations. To submit music to us, you can hit us at up at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or you can hit me up on my Myspace page. I always check it even though I may not get back to you on time, but I will get back. The show is weekly although Tony and myself have been really busy. We’ve been taking little hiatus’ from it. We are working on a few deals right now where you will be able to hear the show from your car. I can’t give out any info on that but we are working on it.

Styles: You just answered my next question for me. I was going to ask you about taking the show to higher levels.

Dev: [laughs] I can’t reveal too much about that. There are other things we are working on like a new documentary which I am so happy about. I can’t give out the name yet because we are copyrighting it before anybody else steals it. It will be done in about 6 months and it’s about what’s going on in the West Coast. The West Coast has been stagnate since 1996 when 2Pac died. We’ve had one major artist come out in the rap game and that’s’ The Game. There’s been a lot of stagnation, lack of unity and radio politics that have kept people off. This documentary goes in deep about all of that. Is it the OG’s that don’t put people on? Why is there a lack of unity? It’s going to answer a lot of questions that we all debate and talk about – reasons why the West Coast isn’t the force that it used to be.

I’m also working on this new show website called The Left Event with Tony and Bombai who is also our music director at KDAY. It’s going to be a West Coast lifestyle type of show.

Styles: When it comes to radio, people talk about Payola. It’s been said that it’s not being done directly anymore but through 3^rd parties. Is there any truth to that?

Dev: It probably is true, although I am not involved in it. I think it’s wrong to take people’s money when they really hope that you are going to help them accomplish their dreams. I don’t think that’s right. As illegal as it is, I’m sure that it does go on in radio though. There is always going to be an artist out there who has an investor with extra cash and think that they can buy their spins – and there will always be a DJ out there that will take that money.

Styles: Have you ever been approached to take someone’s money?

Dev: I have been. I have been approached. People will hit me up to try to get me to link up with certain situations. Back when The Goodfellas had their “Hate It Or Love It” segment which would only equal one spin, I had this one cat hit me up and he wanted to give me a substantial amount of money for it. I was like, “Naw. It’s cool. I’ll get you on the show. Keep your money and spend it on something that can advance your career.” I am not with that type of stuff. Not that I am so by-the-book but I want to deal with an artist because I believe in them, their talent and because I like their music. You don’t have to pay me to do those things.

Styles: I understand now that you are now hosting mixtapes for artists too.

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