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The History of Freestyle Music (continued)
Written by Joey Gardner
Reproduced with permission of Tommy Boy Music & Timber! Records
The same response greeted the Cover Girls at their first performance at the Devil's Nest. Dressed in sequined gowns, Caroline Jackson, Sunshine Wright and then lead singer Angel Sabater nervously took to the stage to perform "Show Me" for the first time. By the first few notes of the intro to the song, the crowd was screaming and pushing to the stage to get a closer look at the Cover Girls. By the song's end, the whole audience was singing the chorus and the Cover Girls, no longer nervous, exuded the confidence of twenty-year veterans of the business. To the Devil's Nest, they were the Supremes - their Supremes. Although Freestyle was not conceived at the Devil's Nest, this is where it was born.
By the spring of 1986, Freestyle was exploding in New York clubs. New York radio however, was not impressed. Nor were radio stations around the country. With the exception of HOT 105 in Miami, and Power 106 in Los Angeles, who made the first singles by TKA, Nayobe, and Expose #1 hits in South Florida and Southern California respectively, radio station program directors ignored Freestyle.
Power 106 (KPWR) and Hot 105 (WQHT) were pioneers of a new type of station that were starting up in early 1986 - crossover radio. These were CHR stations that leaned heavily toward Dance music. The target audience for Power 106 and Hot 105 was the large English-speaking Latin population of these two cities. The success of those stations brought attention to the large hole left in New York radio when WKTU signed off the air three years earlier. On August 13, 1986, WAPW, a fledgling CHR station in New York, changed its call letters to WQHT and switched its format to that of its sister station in L.A. (Power 106). WQHT (Hot 103) began playing much of the hits by TKA, Sweet Sensation, and Expose in the same rotation as Pop superstars like Michael Jackson and Madonna. Freestyle tracks like TKA's "One Way Love" and Sweet Sensation's "Hooked On You" received new life and the success of these tracks as well as the just- released "Show Me" by the Cover Girls helped get them added to stations around the country. Freestyle was now getting national attention.