Based on rotations, more a Spanish language Hot AC
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New Urban on the way to Houston ?
- Thread starter wprt949
- Start date
Based on rotations, more a Spanish language Hot AC
Make that four urban stations under CBS, as KTWV in Los Angeles gradually redirected its format from smooth ac to urban ac as of last month.
CBS has two Urban stations.
It has, in Charlotte where it has an urban, an Urban AC as well.
If we follow the definition of an Urban AC as having primarily Black appeal, KTWV fails the test. KTWV is an r&b flavored AC with some smooth jazz cuts added in, and is not primarily targeted at African Americans; it is targeted at a coalition audience of Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites and African Americans in roughly that order. Since this blend is unique to KTWV, and the trades, BDS, MediaBase and such have to have some name to give it, they are labeling it Urban AC but it is only loosely related to that format.
I'm aware you're just referring to the hip-hop/rnb focused urban outlets but Atlanta is full service and Charlotte is mainstream. I was basing this on five overall urbans including mainstream, ac and full service. DC and Hartford are rhythmic-billing urbans, so they don't count. The rhythmics in Sacramento, Orlando, Tampa Bay and Phoenix are a whole different convo.
I consider KTWV to be a non-traditional urban ac, but so were a few others before a change of ownership like KBLX in San Francisco 1980s-2012 and WGPR in Detroit before 2011. Its even tougher for urban acs than other urbans to toughen it out in some places in longevity due to declining ratings, financing or a combo of both. Even some stations like WALR and WAMJ in Atlanta hardly play rnb/soul music before 1980 anymore primarly due to the age skewing younger in the rapidly growing market and outnumbering those age 45+.
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Nielsen Audio has two definitions; Urban and Urban AC. They do not distinguish between different urbans based on whether they have a particular flavor of morning show or how many PSAs they run.
The real time monitoring services and the trades tend to slap the "closest fit" title on ambiguous formats.
In any case, the fundamentals are based on several specific factors: current rotations, currents vs. gold percentages and demographics.
A station with "hot rotations" playing hip-hop and r&b will generally be called "Urban" and one playing r&b, fewer currents and in lighter rotations will be called Urban AC. The audience composition can be used to make a final determination... and that is why the rhythmic stations are not generally considered Urban.
While I can see "Urban AC" being the closest match, the fact is that the station will not and can not target African Americans primarily. It makes a lot more sense to call KTWC "Hispanic AC" than it does to call it "Urban AC".
The biggest issue is that Urban ACs don't tend to attract a coalition (listeners other than Black) and have cumes that are as much as 95% African American. Urbans tend to attract, depending on the market, lots of Hispanics and a good number of non-Hispanic whites in some cases. That is why markets with low African American population percentages can support an Urban, but generally can't support an Urban AC.
Even so, there are still exceptions to the rule. I won't keep on rebutting my position on Los Angeles anymore; that aside, San Francisco, Tulsa, Hartford, Cincinnati and Oklahoma City are examples of markets that can still support an urban ac to this day, but I'm skeptical about Austin and the Twin Cities since both recently launched urban acs. It's tough but anything is possible. Tampa Bay and Lexington still have full service urbans despite losing the ac competitor.
Tulsa and Hartford's commercial urban AC's are on AM signals. Tulsa's is a daytimer, though I believe it now has nominal nighttime power. Oklahoma City's is an AM daytimer that has a recently-signed on FM translator, and Austin's is an HD2 on an FM translator. At least in Tulsa, OKC and Austin, I can't see urban AC ever getting a full-power FM signal. It's likely a forced buy in all three for advertisers who want to buy higher rated stations in the same cluster.
Hartford is 11% African-American, and Cincinnati is 12%. In Cincy, Old School 100.3 gets about a 4 share, which is roughly what Mojo got when it was a straight-ahead urban AC. Houston is 17% African-American. There's really no set percentage for which urban AC, or any other format, is viable. Viability is determined by what the advertising community will support. However, as David points out, urban AC's audience is almost always at least 90% African-American, and it focuses on 25-54 females within that community. In KMJQ's case, it's usually top-3 in 6+ listening but lucky to get into the top-10 in cume. So, that high share is a very TSL-driven share, and TSL isn't a sales metric. Making significant money off of a second urban AC in Houston would be really difficult. Though I suppose it wouldn't be impossible, I can't imagine any of the major broadcasters wanting to try it.
Hartford is 11% African-American, and Cincinnati is 12%. In Cincy, Old School 100.3 gets about a 4 share, which is roughly what Mojo got when it was a straight-ahead urban AC. Houston is 17% African-American. There's really no set percentage for which urban AC, or any other format, is viable. Viability is determined by what the advertising community will support. However, as David points out, urban AC's audience is almost always at least 90% African-American, and it focuses on 25-54 females within that community. In KMJQ's case, it's usually top-3 in 6+ listening but lucky to get into the top-10 in cume. So, that high share is a very TSL-driven share, and TSL isn't a sales metric. Making significant money off of a second urban AC in Houston would be really difficult. Though I suppose it wouldn't be impossible, I can't imagine any of the major broadcasters wanting to try it.
For right now...
Of course, TSL and cume are the only things the PPM measures. Share / rating / AQH persons are different forms of expressing the derivative of the two measured qualities.
A station can get a salable rating with low cume and high TSL, High TSL and lower cume or average TSL and cume... at the end of the day, agency metrics are all ratings based so it's about how much you can get for each pair of ears.
That said, the PPM is much more reactive to cume, and low cume and high TSL formats like smooth jazz died because of that cume focus. Hard for a format that is of more limited appeal even within the ethnic group it appeals most to.
I know this is late given that RD has been out of commission but I'm glad Houston has urban competition with KQBT 93.7 The Beat (launched as of NYE 2013). It is musically programmed better than KBXX but too bad it is using VT on some jocks. But it does have The Breakfast Club.
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