Star 94 recently started using a new slogan, dropping "Hits from 2K to Today" for "Today's Hits Without the Rap."

It's an interesting liner because I remember hearing it back in the early 1990s on stations when rap had far greater negative connotations among surburban housewives (Star's target audience) than they do today. But I guess fans of "rap" often don't even use that term anymore. It's now called "hip hop."

Star has played rap songs in the past in its regular rotation, including hits by Will Smith, Timbaland, Shaggy, Sean Paul, OutKast and Eminem. Yes, I recall hearing Eminem's 2002 hit "Lose Yourself" on Star 94 (which spun it 268 times, according to Mediabase 24/7, the last ime in 2007). And Outkast's 2003 hit "Hey Ya!" was a huge crossover hit, spun a whopping 3,403 times by Star, the last time April 3. More recently, Star has certainly played songs with rap element by acts such as Black Eyed Peas ("Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling").

But Star has softened its sound the past couple of years, an easier move since top 40 itself has gotten softer (e.g. the Lumineers, Imagine Dragons, Mumford & Sons and Adele) and it now has two top 40 rivals Q100 and Power 96.1 which skew younger and are more likely to play a hip-hop songs by Nicki Minaj or Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. In radio parlance, Star 94 has now embraced the sound of "Hot AC," which is by definition an older skewing pop station than traditional top 40.

And even if a song has a rap contributor, record labels offers versions minus the rap. Star has played Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie," for instance, with Jay-Z's rap excised and Katy Perry's 'California Gurls" minus Snoop Dogg's contribution.

The station does play a handful of R&B pop artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna and Alicia Keys.

Here's program director Scott Lindy's justification for the slogan:

"Today's Hits Without The Rap" is what Star 94 has been for many years.  We didn't change the music, just what we say about it.  Many of our listeners were saying that already and we saw that come back in some research as well.  If our biggest fans say that about us, we might as well say it too!

We don't think rap music is negative and really have nothing bad to say about that genre, it's artists or fans.  Our point of differentiation is that we specialize in Today's Hits Without The Rap." 

Star isn't the only station that uses this slogan. I found several that use a similar tactic: Hits 102.7 in Rapid City, S.D., Fresh 94.7 in Washington D.C., Now 1005. in Sacramento, Calif. and 96.3 WDVD in Detroit.

 Sean Ross, vice president of music and programming for Edison Research, said there is an entire generation of adults in their 20s through 40s who grew up with hip hop and rap and have no problem with the genre. "You'd practically have to be out of the demo now to be the kind of person who cannot abide by someone talking to a beat," Ross said. "But Star is a research-driven operation and if they see something, they see something."