WMNF 88.5 FM is proud to announce that on-air hosts Steve “The Hitman” Williams and the late Kenny “K” Waters were recently inducted into the 2022-23 Disc Jockey Hall of Fame Tampa, a newly formed organization that celebrates influential DJs from the Tampa Bay area.
Steve “The Hitman” Williams, the long-time host of the Soul Party, plays R&B and soul and features guest DJs and interviews with local acts on Friday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. ET.
Oliver “Sir Jam A Lot” Crawford, Sr., president of the DJ Hall of Fame Tampa, says he founded the organization to celebrate the rich history and achievements of radio, street and club disc jockeys from the Tampa Bay area. His goal is to collect and share a digital archive of Hall of Fame members past and present, including recordings of their creative journeys, celebrity encounters, and their particular passion for the art of deejaying.
“We’ve toyed with and talked about this concept for multiple years,” Crawford said. “In addition, COVID has struck and has taken so many from our family of DJs. That is why NOW is the right time.”
Kenny “K” Waters was a Tampa-based DJ and founding member of alternative hip-hop group Digital Underground. He may be best remembered as host of WMNF’s very first rap show starting in fall of 1986. At the time of Waters’ passing in 1994, TampaHipHop.com recalled what made Kenny a force on the radio:
What he sought to do was play music that couldn’t be heard in the Bay area. Kenny K frequently played artists in the same class as Eric B. & Rakim, Dana Dane, Public Enemy and Kool Moe Dee. Had he not spun these now classics, surely a large amount of Hip-Hop fans in the Bay area would never have even heard them.
Creative Loafing’s Ray Roa reported that Waters’ “influence cannot be measured. Waters would play hip-hop from all over the country at a time when locals were being inundated, almost exclusively, by sounds from the Miami bass movement. His “Wax Attack” segments were the stuff of legend….” When Waters’ died in need of a liver transplant in 1994, hip-hop heavy hitters such Tampa’s DJ Sandman and Chuck D of Public Enemy offered tributes.
The Disc Jockey Hall of Fame Tampa 2022-23 list of inductees includes DJ Party Shaw, Arthur the Comic, and JT Tampa’s Dancing DJ.
For more information about the Disc Jockey Hall of Fame Tampa, contact Oliver Crawford, Sr., at (813) 445-9057 or [email protected].
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