Power 106 sounds more like a CHR/Pop than a Hip Hop station

[kilamanjero]

That's because the suits at Emmis believe that Hispanics only listen to "hip-pop" rather than actual hip-hop, R&B, and other forms of urban format music, which is far from the truth.

Nah. The folks at Emmis do music research, and I'd suspect they play what their target core wants to hear.

Otherwise KMEL would have been long gone in the SF Bay Area. Anybody can say why Power 106 is way it is with the demographics, which I understand better than most since I work with statistics and demographics daily, but LA could support an urban-leaning rhythmic crossover like WZMX in Hartford.

The tastes of East Coast Hispanics are radically different from those of LA or the Southwest. First, the musical heritage in the east includes a large dose of Afro-Antillean material and the root commonality of that music and urban/r&b is of course obvious. The West Coast Hispanic is predominantly of Mexican origin, and the influences, historically, are not even remotely similar.

If West Coast Hispanics aren't into the urban format then explain how KMEL is still thriving and in the top 10 of the Bay Area ratings...

 

[davideduardo]

If West Coast Hispanics aren't into the urban format then explain how KMEL is still thriving and in the top 10 of the Bay Area ratings...

KMEL does not cover Santa Clara County particularly well, which is why they average about 17th there. Of course, that part of the market is about one-third Hispanic, while the remainder of the market, with the one county pulled out, is around 17% Hispanic. LA, by comparison, is 42% Hispanic... just the math explains the difference.

Another way to look at it is that the whole market, including Santa Clara County, is around 22% Hispanic. KMEL's AQH audience is (rounding) 36% Black, 40% Other and 23% Hispanic. In contrast, KYLD is 30% Hispanic...

In other words, in San Francisco a station in the rhythmic CHR arena can do OK by focusing more on Blacks and less on Hispanics, while in LA the opposite is true.

 

[kilamanjero]

If West Coast Hispanics aren't into the urban format then explain how KMEL is still thriving and in the top 10 of the Bay Area ratings...

KMEL does not cover Santa Clara County particularly well, which is why they average about 17th there. Of course, that part of the market is about one-third Hispanic, while the remainder of the market, with the one county pulled out, is around 17% Hispanic. LA, by comparison, is 42% Hispanic... just the math explains the difference.

Another way to look at it is that the whole market, including Santa Clara County, is around 22% Hispanic. KMEL's AQH audience is (rounding) 36% Black, 40% Other and 23% Hispanic. In contrast, KYLD is 30% Hispanic...

In other words, in San Francisco a station in the rhythmic CHR arena can do OK by focusing more on Blacks and less on Hispanics, while in LA the opposite is true.

The thing is even with the breakdown of the AQH shows that KMEL targets "Other" more than blacks, but is still an urban that even airs Sunday morning gospel. That's why I'm saying an urban with a heavy rhythmic lean or an urban-leaning rhythmic can exist in LA because even in San Francisco there aren't enough blacks to be the primary target for KMEL to survive there. The formula and target programming of the station is key at the end of the day, but I stand by my point that an urban (with major crossover appeal) can still survive in the LA market in this day and age.

 

[davideduardo]

The formula and target programming of the station is key at the end of the day, but I stand by my point that an urban (with major crossover appeal) can still survive in the LA market in this day and age.

Not when 55% of 18-34's are Hispanic.

 

[kilamanjero]

The formula and target programming of the station is key at the end of the day, but I stand by my point that an urban (with major crossover appeal) can still survive in the LA market in this day and age.

Not when 55% of 18-34's are Hispanic.

That's your opinion. However, some Hispanics and other ethnicities along with black have shown they will listen to the urban format in other places if targeted, so I stand by mine.

 

[musicman3355]

Houston is around 32% Hispanic and KBXX along with urban AC KMJQ do pretty well. They're both in the top 5.

I know it's not as huge as LA's 42% of Hispanics, but that's still a huge population. So I honestly think an urban can work here if it's done right (and I don't count putting in top 40 songs in a playlist being "done right").

 

[wdb2003]

It can work only on a full power signal

 

[davideduardo]

Houston is around 32% Hispanic and KBXX along with urban AC KMJQ do pretty well. They're both in the top 5.

Houston is 17% Black. The only two African American targeted stations get about a 12 share combined.

KMJQ has 90% Black AQH and KBXX is 63% Black. KMJQ is less than 5% Hispanic, and KBXX is 18%, meaning one under-indexes by 50% and the other by 85% against the Hispanic population.

 

[BJordan]

KMEL is the only Urban on the Westcoast. Remember when they were classified as Rhythmic but leaned urban.

 

[AM FM listener]

Is an Urban station really Urban if it attracts only 36% Blacks? I have seen KMEL classified as both Rhythmic and Urban, depending on the which trade I'm looking at. For that matter, I have seen KPWR classified as Urban sometimes. However, I have recently visited Atlanta and Washington, DC, two towns with much larger % Blacks. The Urbans there (e.g., WKYS, WVEE) sound very different to me than KMEL and KPWR. Even WPGC, which sometimes gets classified as Rhythmic, sounds way more Urban than KMEL.

 

[KPWRairchecks]

Power 106 has never been an Urban station, although they sounded their most urban when they first launched in 1986. The trades back then even claimed they were Urban. They even stole Brenda Ross away from KJLH.

 

[mandella]

Urban is just a term, and the actual format seems to vary from market to market depending on ethnic composition. Is V103 in Atlanta urban or blk/urban. Is The Box in Houston Urban or Chrurban? What exactly defines an Urban station? Is it playlists, presentation, staff ethnicity? Is Black still considered a format?

 

[BJordan]

Would Power 106 play a Faith Evans hit? I want to hear Soon As I Get Home on Power 106 take me back to November 1995 lol

 

[kilamanjero]

Urban is just a term, and the actual format seems to vary from market to market depending on ethnic composition. Is V103 in Atlanta urban or blk/urban. Is The Box in Houston Urban or Chrurban? What exactly defines an Urban station? Is it playlists, presentation, staff ethnicity? Is Black still considered a format?

Urban is more or less a format the spins songs that are R&B, soul, hip-hop, and gospel usually it does target blacks but other non-whites ethnic groups and some whites are included as well (depending on the market).

 

[davideduardo]

Urban is more or less a format the spins songs that are R&B, soul, hip-hop, and gospel usually it does target blacks but other non-whites ethnic groups and some whites are included as well (depending on the market).

What non-Black and non-white ethnic group exists in the US that is significant enough to be targeted by urban radio?

 

[BJordan]

Power should play Make Um Say Uhh by Master P from 1998

 

[kilamanjero]

Urban is more or less a format the spins songs that are R&B, soul, hip-hop, and gospel usually it does target blacks but other non-whites ethnic groups and some whites are included as well (depending on the market).

What non-Black and non-white ethnic group exists in the US that is significant enough to be targeted by urban radio?

There have been a couple of markets where Latinos are targeted by urban radio stations that bill themselves as "rhythmic".

 

[davideduardo]

Urban is more or less a format the spins songs that are R&B, soul, hip-hop, and gospel usually it does target blacks but other non-whites ethnic groups and some whites are included as well (depending on the market).

What non-Black and non-white ethnic group exists in the US that is significant enough to be targeted by urban radio?

There have been a couple of markets where Latinos are targeted by urban radio stations that bill themselves as "rhythmic".

I was trying to point out that "non-white" is an improper classification for Hispanics, most of whom are classified by the Census as "white." This falls under the distinction that "Hispanic" is a cultrure an not a race or ethnicity.

 

[AM FM listener]

Urban is more or less a format the spins songs that are R&B, soul, hip-hop, and gospel usually it does target blacks but other non-whites ethnic groups and some whites are included as well (depending on the market).

What non-Black and non-white ethnic group exists in the US that is significant enough to be targeted by urban radio?

There have been a couple of markets where Latinos are targeted by urban radio stations that bill themselves as "rhythmic".

I was trying to point out that "non-white" is an improper classification for Hispanics, most of whom are classified by the Census as "white." This falls under the distinction that "Hispanic" is a cultrure an not a race or ethnicity.

I once heard that there are only four distinct races: white (native Europeans), black (native Africans), yellow (native Asians) and red (native Americans). Everything else is a hybrid of two or more of those four.

Popular music radio formats are kind of like that. In English language programming, I would say there are six primary formats -- CHR, AC, Oldies, Rock, Urban and Country -- and a bunch of hybrids blending two or more of those six.

 

[davideduardo]

I once heard that there are only four distinct races: white (native Europeans), black (native Africans), yellow (native Asians) and red (native Americans). Everything else is a hybrid of two or more of those four.

The Census, with some fuzziness in definitions, views its counting function as following those definitions... Asian, white, Black, Asian. But they also make a distinction for Native Americans.

Of course, additional fuzziness is encountered because "race" in some other languages either means "group" or "tribe" or it means what the English definition covers and also can be used for any subset that is an affinity group. "Raza" among Mexicans can also mean "the people" or "the common man" so we often hear the word in different contextual situations used in different ways.

A friend who is also a cultural anthropologist, when confronted with forms that have a "race" field to fill, simply puts "human." That's not a bad solution, either.