ITL 30

If DJ NABS built a legend on Atlanta radio, Smokin' B helped build the room he did it in — and much of the blueprint the whole format still follows. A programmer, producer, and on-air personality who came up in Milwaukee's mobile-DJ scene of the late '70s and early '80s, alongside future station owner Steve Hegwood, Smokin' B carried that hustle south and became one of the foundational architects of hip-hop radio in the South.

He was there when the city's airwaves barely made room for the genre. During his V-103 years, he recalls a stretch when the afternoon drive allowed only two rap records — Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" and E.U.'s "Da Butt" — and he spent the years that followed helping pry that door wide open. He also reimagined how radio could engage a city: he's credited with pioneering the "Radio Row" concept — gathering personalities from multiple stations into a single room to interview artists at major festivals and events — and with launching the now-iconic "hot car phone check-in," pulling listeners stuck in Atlanta traffic straight into his show. Both became templates others still borrow.

When Hot 97.5 first signed on in the mid-1990s, broadcasting from a transmitter trailer in a cow pasture in Tyrone, Georgia, its crew nicknamed "Jurassic Park," it was Smokin' B who put the station on the air with his own turntables. He rose to program director of what became Hot 107.9, breaking new artists like T.I. and Young Jeezy and steering Atlanta rap through its bass, crunk, and trap eras.

Today Smokin' B works with Streetz 94.5 in a consulting role and holds down the airwaves at 87.7 The Vibe, still championing the homegrown Atlanta hits that national playlists overlook — and still fighting to keep Atlanta radio sounding like Atlanta.