Long before he took over the airwaves in Houston, Texas, Benjamin Thompson aka Madd Hatta began his career as a highly respected rapper/producer. Originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, Hatta spent his younger years in the state, graduating from North Carolina A&T State University. It was during his college years where he’d catch the radio bug while at 90.1 FM (WNAA-FM) on campus.
“I’ve always been one of those dedicated people. What I enjoyed early on about radio is the goal to get people to listen? Can you get people motivated and want to be a part of it? Just that curiosity from day one was my catalyst. I wanted to learn from as many people as I could how to be a professional radio host. Back at the University, there wasn’t a lot of airchecks, but a man by the name of Larry David introduced me to the world of airchecks and video checks. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been introduced to what being a great jock is. Airchecks were very essential to my early days of learning to be a jock,” says Hatta.
He arrived in Houston in 1993 for the night shift on 102 Jamz (which is now Majic 102.1). He would later move to afternoons on 102 Jamz and spend time in morning drive time at 97.9 The Box (KBXX-FM), Houston’s hip-hop station. There he hosted The Madd Hatta Morning Show for 20 years. At KBXX, he established a highly successful and top-5 rated morning show. In addition, Hatta also spent time as a DJ on sister station KMJQ-FM’s Club Majic show, mixing hip-hop, old-school funk and soul. His mix show became a #1 rated show in the Adults 25-54 demo. I was curious to know what he attributed to that success.
“I’ll be honest, success in radio is community driven. I was working at 102 Jamz in Greensboro and another influential person by the name Brian Douglas was always trying to make us go into the community and do this and do that. When you’re a young jock you really don’t understand why, but as your time in radio progress it makes all of the sense in the world. As a staff we were opposed to our boss’ views, but in a way that unified us to do that work. Years later it helped us develop the work ethic and understanding for what we do. We’re not on the radio for us, we’re on to service our community. It’s much deeper than just serving our own ego,” Hatta explains.
Hatta was adamant that you have to have a great team around you in order to be successful in radio. You’ve got to be passionate about the product you’re putting on the air.
“I don’t have the longevity I’ve had in radio without having a great support team. Jimbo, J Mac, Rob G, The General Steve Nice, it was a cast of characters that really created the vibe that we had in the city. You’ve got to be able to pick the right people that can bring the best out of you and vice versa,” added Hatta.
For someone that has enjoyed great success in his radio career, I was curious to know how he preps his shows. I asked him to put me into the studio prior to an on-air shift.
“If you’ve done mornings, you know that you kind of develop this routine where your daily life becomes your show prep. Things you see, hear, or randomly think of throughout the day, I tend to write it down to remember it for my show and it becomes a habit. Once you’ve done it for so many years, your brain is always in show prep mode. Like this morning, they were talking about the girl that got killed, my brain immediately went, who can I talk about this from the city to get more information for my show. Anything can be show prep if you think it would be interesting to the audience. I feel like all shows need live phone callers because that is what helps drive the show. I grew up in the era where the phones were a very important part of the show,” explains Hatta
He’s been recognized for his many achievements for his time in the radio industry, but also for his contributions to his community. One’s that he recognizes are when he received a Community Hero Award from Top 50 Black Professionals & Entrepreneurs of Texas. Also, in 2014, Madd Hatta was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. Although these are incredible achievements, Hatta mentions it’s not about awards or recognition.
“This is going to sound bad, but I’ve never been good at receiving any kind of recognition for what I do. I believe that when you do what you love and God blesses you to where you can take care of your family, that’s really the big prize,” says Hatta.
What impressed me the most talking to Hatta, during all of these years in radio, he has also maintained a record label Paid In Full Entertainment. A label that signed the talents of rappers Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, and many others. While also simultaneously being a Program Curator for two 24/7-365 digital music platforms: Klassic Joints Radio, featuring classic hip-hop, and Super Throwback Party, offering the best hip-hop and R&B of the 1990s to 2000s.
Check out Madd Hatta on Houston’s only R&B station Magic 102.1. Despite being best known for his morning show on The Box, Hatta began his career in Houston radio on Majic 102.1, and now he is back where it all started. As someone that could relate to going back to where you started in radio (I am now back at Federated Media where I started 10 years ago), Hatta shared with me what led him back to the airwaves on Magic 102.1.
“The station came to me and said, they think the way I left radio was never really explained, shared Hatta. “One day I was in, the next day I was gone, which happens for a lot of different reason in today’s world of radio. They told me, it would be a great idea to go back to where it all began for me and to go out on a high note if this indeed my final run in radio. Everybody doesn’t get that opportunity, so that made me consider it and after a few years of thinking about it and working more on the Operations side, before I went back to the jock side. For a little bit, it was weird to be back. I won’t lie to you, but my passion has once again returned and am loving playing great music, and serving my community in Houston once again.”
Dedrick Hendrix is a music features writer for Barrett Media. Hendrix currently works for Federated Media in Fort Wayne, IN. His industry experience includes programming and hosting on Urban AC radio, and working in sports/talk as a sports producer/host. He has also covered music for Consequence of Sound, Glide Magazine, Billboard, and other outlets. You can follow him on X @DCHendrix, and on Instagram @officialdchendrix.
