THE BIG MIX : Pop Music : Pop Goes African : Sounds a continent away make waves on U.S. radio

“Everyone quiet, please.”

The noise level in the KCRW-FM control room instantly subsided as closing time for “The African Beat” radio program approached. The strains of “Aki Special” by Prince Nico Mbarga suddenly went silent in the monitor speakers as C. C. Smith, co-host of the Saturday afternoon show, faded down the track and flipped open the mike.

Smith and co-host Solomon Egbuho (who has acquired the on-air nickname of Solomon Solo), ran down the closing credits. But the moment Smith cut off the mike and the vibrant song again blared out of the studio speakers, a handful of studio guests and Solo--who was wearing traditional white Nigerian robes with avocado green trim--exploded out of their seats in an exuberant dance.

“Seven days a week, we’re going crazy,” the ebullient Solo, 35, said after the show. “Hey, Saturday, 2 to 5, come on now. Let’s get loose. Put your hand on the radio and get healed.”

Pop music sounds from around the world are fast becoming a more integral part of the American pop scene. But for most Angelenos, the first exposure to the vast variety of international pop styles will come from specialty radio programs like “African Beat” that are broadcast on local National Public Radio affiliates like KCRW, college stations and independent FM stations like KPFK-FM.

The process of discovery that American pop fans often undergo is reflected in C. C. Smith’s own experience. She had met Roger Steffens, founder and former co-host of KCRW’s “Reggae Beat” program, at the 1981 Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica. She became the reggae show’s telephone volunteer, and, one afternoon in 1981, Smith announced the program’s calendar over the air.

“I never had any plans of being on the radio and it knocked me out,” said Smith, 40. “It was really exciting to hear your voice feeding back in the earphones, so I immediately signed up at Pasadena City College for a couple of radio courses.”

Smith went to KPFK-FM for a few shows before returning to KCRW and picking up experience behind the mike on some less-than-prime-time shows at the station. She had just settled into a blues programming slot when Nigeria’s King Sunny Ade came through town on his first American tour early in 1982.

“(KCRW program director) Tom Schnabel saw him, said this is the next big thing, and bingo! C. C. is doing an African show,” Smith said with a laugh. “I knew nothing about African music at all.”

Smith teamed up unsuccessfully with a pair of African co-hosts before Solo called one day and offered to bring some Nigerian records to the station. Solo had produced high school concerts in Nigeria and a cousin owned a record label there.

Solo, who came to the United States in 1975 to attend the Aerospace Institute in Chicago and moved to Southern California three years later for graduate school, had maintained his musical interests here by working as a deejay at Nigerian social functions around Los Angeles. He officially became the show’s co-host in 1983. The program currently runs from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

Smith said that selecting the material for the “The African Beat” is often a haphazard process. Smith sometimes just grabs a handful of records when she leaves her Glendale home, or supplements them with new selections she might purchase at Rhino Records in Westwood on the way to the studio on the Santa Monica College campus.

Solo will bring in records he buys on trips back to Nigeria, and sometimes listeners help out. One fan who runs a safari company in eastern Africa picks up records from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia and comes on the show when he returns here.

It is an expensive proposition. Even though American labels are starting to release more African pop material here, much of the music Smith and Solo program is only available on high-priced import albums--and those expenses come directly out of their pockets. There is also the constant battle to keep abreast of current developments in Africa and to maintain a geographical balance of the music presented on the show.

“I try to keep a perspective on what’s happening all over the continent,” Smith said. “Sometimes I’ll do a show that’s geared to a particular country--an hour of Senegalese music, say, and then an hour of music from Kenya. Zaire and Nigeria are the two main producers of music right now in Africa so it’s easy to program that.”

The focus of “The African Beat” has broadened in recent years to include zouk and other forms of Caribbean music. Smith’s curiosity led her to travel to Guadeloupe and Martinique, the islands where zouk was born, and she also became fascinated with Haitian compas music. Both styles have strong links with much current African pop music.

“It was really exciting when we first started learning about (leading zouk group) Kassav’,” said Smith. “When I first heard their hit ‘Zouk-La-Se Sel Medikaman Nou Ni,’ that really changed my direction.

“A lot of African musicians are having the zouk influence now because all the people from the Antilles and Africa are meeting in the Paris studios. That musical form is changing African music and the cross-fertilization continues.”

That expansion in Smith’s interests has also been reflected in her other international pop venture--editing The Beat. The magazine started off in 1982 as a one-page newsletter listing the records played on “The Reggae Beat” program. Now it’s a respected monthly publication with some distribution in foreign markets, 3,000 paid subscribers, a 12,000-copy press run and an editorial policy that Smith claims makes it the the only magazine to cover reggae, African, Caribbean and world music on a regular basis.

The Beat has developed a tougher, more analytical stance than many magazines in the international field. It recently published an extensive article on a New York City trial concerning an early Bob Marley publishing deal that brought to light the occasional use of strong-arm tactics by the late reggae giant and his friends that run counter to his heroic public image.

Hosting the radio program and editing the magazine was so time-consuming that Smith quit her job as a law librarian three years ago to “sink or swim” with her international pop projects. She’s hopeful that an investor will help put The Beat magazine on a fully professional footing that would allow its writers to be paid and enable the magazine to rent a proper office. But there is no question that Smith is in it--both on the air and in print--for the long haul.

“It would take something really major to change me out of this path right now,” she said. “It’s wonderful to see the music catching on, considering that when we started five years ago we had a hard time finding records at all.”

The impact of the “African Beat” show cuts even deeper for Solo. He described it as taking a trip to Nigeria every week for three hours. And it’s a particularly important cultural connection with their homelands for L.A.-based Africans who, like Solo, are raising children who were born in the United States.

“Whatever it takes to make sure this keeps going, I’ll put in my 150% because this is the outlet that we have to preserve,” said Solo. “What I’m getting out of it is like a rejuvenation.

“Even if you’ve had a very rough week, you come in here and it takes away all the suffering. It takes me 15 minutes to come from Inglewood to this place and that’s the greatest 15 minutes in my life. It’s so fulfilling you can’t believe it.”

This special issue was edited by David Fox, Sunday Calendar assistant editor.