Wasn't the flip of KHHT from Rhythmic Oldies to Urban Contemporary prompted by iHeart's hiring Big Boy? They figured he's an important enough LA radio personality that they'd take their least performing FM and build a new Urban station around him. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Perhaps if Big Boy weren't available, KHHT would have gone on as Rhythmic Oldies, earning $20-something million per year, as David tells us.
The format seems to be successful in other West Coast markets as a draw for Latina women in their 40s. For a short time, San Diego had three stations in the format, XHRM, KSSX and KIFM, although KIFM is now Very Soft AC. While KSSX isn't doing that great, XHRM is always top 10, year after year. (KSSX leans more Rhythmic, while XHRM leans more Pop.) KISQ is often around #10 in San Francisco and the same is true for KHYL Sacramento.
And isn't KTWV almost a Rhythmic Oldies station with an occasional Smooth Jazz instrumental? About 80% of The Wave playlist are songs that would fit on a Rhythmic Oldies station. The difference is most of those same songs were vocals we heard on The Wave when it was Smooth Jazz: Sade, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie. I suppose a true Rhythmic Oldies station would play more titles that never crossed over to the pop charts, while nearly all vocals on The Wave did.
