Citadel launches satellite format aimed at Gen-Xers, features classic hip hop

[Nate Wesley]

As first reported by Dana Hall in R-I's Urban First newsletter, Citadel Media has created a new 24-hour urban format for stations. According to Ms. Hall and the CM website, "Classic Hip-Hop and R&B" will dive into music from just a few years ago all the way back to the early 1980s. The bulk of the music will come from the 1990s, taking square aim at everyone 25-49 who was down with that fresh to def sound (see what I did there?) when it first hit the radio.

I'd like to a real sample to give an honest assessment of the service, but I think this is a positive. Really, there should have been a turnkey urban format featuring well-tested hip-hop years ago. There are still a lot some rural areas and small cities (at least in my home state of Alabama) with no local urban music outlet at all, with these folks making due with out-of-market stations 30 or more miles away, or CHRs playing nothing but crossovers. I could see this format acting as a flanker format, adding choice to the HD-2/HD-3 outlets for big "Hot" and "Jamz" stations out there, or even breathing new life into some silent or FM-simulcasting AM stations.

Thoughts?

 

[Scholarm1111]

It does look interesting, does it have any affiliates yet?

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

Boy, I swear this is the format that has always been missing from radio. 93.5 KDAY in LA and 92.7/99.3 THE BEAT in Phonex are the only 2 stations with a similar format.

 

[bucwhyl]

The two personalities that they hired are from K104. Barbie Doll Peaches is a former K104 personality and Steve Nice is currently a mixer on K104. It would be nice if DFW had this format on one of these frequencies, (94.5).

 

[J. Rob]

This is about 5 or 6 years overdue

 

[nivlekbrad]

The two personalities that they hired are from K104. Barbie Doll Peaches is a former K104 personality and Steve Nice is currently a mixer on K104. It would be nice if DFW had this format on one of these frequencies, (94.5).

K104 could benefit from this format.

 

[Word!]

Boy, I swear this is the format that has always been missing from radio. 93.5 KDAY in LA and 92.7/99.3 THE BEAT in Phonex are the only 2 stations with a similar format.

WSRB is doing this from 6PM to 5am

It's cool........... *hesitates*.......... but not all the time for me. I truly miss Soul 106.3 and 102 The Groove. The R&B roataion of Soul 106.3 stayed from the laste 80s to current, and of course the Diz mixes reminded me of the Groove. I was happy to hear some Outkast from their first CD which is something Chicago always overlooked when it first came out.. but Real Radio isn't my fav. format.

Generally its low ratings wherever its been done, remember WFOX 97.1 Jamz? Yes they had no staff and it was a jukebox but it just didn't work, you can only play so much of "Regulators" and "Poison" blah

Question is does satellite radio have statistics on how much TSL they have per channel? I'd love to see a breakdown of that!

 

[Nate Wesley]

I'm sure everyone's had a chance to sample the online stream of KDOK '1240 The Beat' (good looking out, nuff_said and everyone else who found it). They're apparently using the Citadel CHH&RB format. Though I've heard a few selections I'd delete--I like its sound overall. It sounds like a pretty polished refresh of what Cox tried to do with Atlanta's '97-1 Jamz', though with no new songs.

In rated markets that have Mainstream Urbans and/or Urban ACs on FM, this seems like a nice third choice when one or both of them are in a break. (It'd be a great choice for their HD subchannels--assuming people might actually spring for hybrid digital radios!) Most likely, this will be a way to put Hip-Hop on small town radio, or markets too small to be rated.