2djdramah said:
If Urban AC cannot be justified here in LA, then explain to me why Hot 92.3 is in the market? By your logic, hispanics do not like Urban AC because it is too R&B then why are they listening to Hot 92.3? That is what they play...........R&B...period. And they report themselves to the industry trades as an URBAN AC formatted station and that is what they are. So according to your logic, since Hispanics do not like R&B, then Hot 92.3 needs to go away as well. Oh snap....the station has been above a 2 as well for several books. Format oversaturation and not targeting blacks AND hispanics was RO's problem period.....the 8% you like to equate as being not important, was listening to everyone else, not V-100.
Simple distinction. 92.3 researches and programs predominantly to Hispanics, with Black and Other secondary. That is why the audience is about 2/3 Hispanic, and the Black composition is only a little more than the "other." In other words, like Power 106 and KIIS, KHHT is predominantly an Hispanic station. The music is selected principally for it's Hispanic appeal, and obviously nothing that is not liked by that group will be played no matter how well it does in the Black audience. As I said, what works in LA is a coalition type format where music that has common or similar appeal to several ethnic groups is played, and unless the songs are crossovers, they are not.
KRBV attempted to be a totally Black focused station. KRBV was about 80% black, with the remaining tiny amount divided among Hispanics and Other. It was not a coalition, and had to take its audience from the roughly 8 total shares available to Black focused stations.
Trades make the format distinctions for reporting; most of us don't really care what the format is called but do know who are target is. KHHR is very much more thythmic than R&B and the so-called R&B songs are pretty much crossovers.
The white population has dropped drastically and is shrinking faster than any other group in LA (funny how no one mentions that here)
"Other" population 12+ in LA 1998 5,433,000 and in 2007 it is 5,629,000.
Black 12+ was 831,000 in 1998 and is 831,000 now.
Other, of course includes anyone not Black or Hispanic...so some of the growth is Asian. But the Black population is declining... even more if you take it as a percentage of total population.
but there is still room for a country station in this market, not but five stations offering some sort of country product in thier playlists like the situation we have with R&B and in particular, old school R&B. Yes there is room for Urban AC in LA on one station maybe two at most.
No, there is, as there always was, room for perhaps one Black-only station. In this case, the community orientation and the image and reputation of KJLH will win. The Beat won when it did the no color line approach. KRBV has and had no hope as a Black (only) AC because there are not enough Blacks who like that format to make it work.
KRBV was, in Fall, in 12+ the #1 Black station with nearly a 13 share. It was followed very, very closely by KTWV (which many consider to be more of a Black AC than KRBV ever was), Power, KJLH and KHHT with KDAY, KFI and KIIS following and KTLK and KOST rounding out the top 10 and accounting for about 73% of all Black listening. Also note that, of those 73 share, about 37 are going to coalition or general market stations (Power, 92.3, KOST, KFI, KTWV, etc.). In other words, of about 8 Black total market shares, only something like 35% is going to stations specifically targeted at Black audiences such as KDAY, KRBV and KJLH. That means there is at least one station to many with this non-coalition, no color line approach. I agree with you, though, that Radio One was not smart enough to see this... ultimately causing them to lose about $260 million on the sale price of KRBV.
