Urban Radio in Los Angeles

[e-dawg]

Based on Arbitron rankings and population. Los Angeles back population is 807,400 and rank 8th largest black market in the United States.

How come Los Angeles doesn't have a good Urban or Urban AC radio stations?

KDAY 93.5 - plays old school Hip-Hop/R&B music and doesn't play current.

KJLH 102.3 is a train wreck because their music is all over the place. (Old School, Hip-Hop, R&B and Gospel).

Los Angeles doesn't have a true Urban Contemporary radio station compare to San Francisco.

San Francisco black population is 435,900 and ranks 13th largest black market in the United States.

KMEL 106.1 - plays current Hip-Hop and R&B with old skool music.

KBLX 102.9 - plays deep cuts of R&B music.

Why does San Francisco has better Urban music than Los Angeles? At least San Francisco has Urban Contemporary which LA is lacking. Also, San Francisco ranks lower than Los Angeles, but it can support full market signal, compare to Los Angeles Class A rimshot signals.

Will Los Angeles ever have full power Urban Contemporary or Urban AC signal?

 

[BJordan]

@e-dawg KJLH also plays jazz in the mix too. They're changing their musical pattern because IMO it's because of the dissappearing black population. KJLH always played jazz in rotation since Cliff Winston's tenure there since the 90's. They played Boney James, Kirk Walum,etc in rotation. KDAY I appreciate.

 

[BJordan]

side note: KMEL 106.1 is a great Mainstream Urban. It plays a variety of R&B, Soul and Rap and Hip Hop old school & new school. KBLX is like the old KJLH from the 1990's in a way because they play strictly R&B without touching a rap song at all. KBLX was actually labeled as Adult Contemporary to appeal to a wider listener base according to sources. KDAY is actually better because they play alot of 90's Hip Hop & R&B music that KKBT "The Beat" and Power 106 used to spin long ago in a far away land. The only con about KDAY is that they don't play any slow R&B from the 90's.

 

[VIBE109]

VIBE 109 fills a void for R&B music and the urban format. The station just debuted - www.vibe109.com.

 

[wdb2003]

Based on Arbitron rankings and population. Los Angeles back population is 807,400 and rank 8th largest black market in the United States.

How come Los Angeles doesn't have a good Urban or Urban AC radio stations?

KDAY 93.5 - plays old school Hip-Hop/R&B music and doesn't play current.

KJLH 102.3 is a train wreck because their music is all over the place. (Old School, Hip-Hop, R&B and Gospel).

Los Angeles doesn't have a true Urban Contemporary radio station compare to San Francisco.

San Francisco black population is 435,900 and ranks 13th largest black market in the United States.

KMEL 106.1 - plays current Hip-Hop and R&B with old skool music.

KBLX 102.9 - plays deep cuts of R&B music.

Why does San Francisco has better Urban music than Los Angeles? At least San Francisco has Urban Contemporary which LA is lacking. Also, San Francisco ranks lower than Los Angeles, but it can support full market signal, compare to Los Angeles Class A rimshot signals.

Will Los Angeles ever have full power Urban Contemporary or Urban AC signal?

Go back to pages 4 and 5 we already talked about this e-dawg. KDAY use to play current music but it didnt work. KDAY current format is performing better despite being on a low signal and with the current state of Hip Hop music nothing today is worth playing. As for KJLH you can read the past post from that. LA and SF are different markets.

 

[BJordan]

There is nothing to discuss. Those tweaks and flips were already discussed.

 

[wdb2003]

VIBE 109 fills a void for R&B music and the urban format. The station just debuted - www.vibe109.com.

I havent heard it yet but ill give it a try. Is there a app or another way to listen on the iphone?

 

[BJordan]

VIBE 109 fills a void for R&B music and the urban format. The station just debuted - www.vibe109.com.

I havent heard it yet but ill give it a try. Is there a app or another way to listen on the iphone?

I'm right behind you wdb2003. BTW we have our iPhones and CD's to fill that void that urban radio in L.A. had left the past. What you guys(wdb2003 & E-Dawg) are looking for is an iPhone playlist or you can tune to KDAY and take break from KJLH. There is nothing new about this but we can discuss how these stations were back in day.

 

[wdb2003]

VIBE 109 fills a void for R&B music and the urban format. The station just debuted - www.vibe109.com.

I havent heard it yet but ill give it a try. Is there a app or another way to listen on the iphone?

I'm right behind you wdb2003. BTW we have our iPhones and CD's to fill that void that urban radio in L.A. had left the past. What you guys(wdb2003 & E-Dawg) are looking for is an iPhone playlist or you can tune to KDAY and take break from KJLH. There is nothing new about this but we can discuss how these stations were back in day.

I already know that I was responding to VIBE109 post about his station on how to listen to it.

 

[justpassingthough]

There was interesting article in Billboard a few weeks ago about the near disapearance of Urban hits from the top of the Billboard Hot 100. In the past decade, many of the year end Hot 100 charts were dominated by Urban artists like Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Outkast, Kanye West, etc- but this year has had only one hit (Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now") that was both a #1 hit on the Hip-Hop/R&B and Hot 100 charts.

So it could be said that LA is actually the trend setter on this and doesn't support an urban station, because top 40 and rhythmic radio aren't supporting urban crossovers like they did over the past 10 years. A quick glance at the top 20 of the Hot 100 and its mainly pop and rhythmic crossover- with heavy influences from dance and electro. Even core Urban artists have noticed this and are trending towards producing music that crosses over to top 40 but isn't appropriate for Urban stations (think Chris Brown "Beautiful People" and the like).

 

[Buckethead]

I think people are hung up on the definition of "Urban" music.

I would say it means music people in Urban areas prefer.

AMP and KIIS attract the preponderance of the Urban audience.

In the case of Los Angeles the "Urban" population is not predominately African American.

Or, am I wrong and "Urban" really means "black" or "Hip-Hop"?

If that's true then I think we need to look at the label in general as being inaccurate.

It wasn't long ago that we had the Billboard "Black" charts and "Race" music.

It's a mistake to think that "black" artists are only listened to by "black" audiences.

 

[justpassingthough]

As defined by Billboard or any of the other chart monitoring services, "Urban" music is hip hop and r&b. Of course, the urban areas of Los Angeles (and every other city) are multi-cultural and certainly there are Asians, Hispanics and Whites that listen to "Urban" music. However, in the context of this discussion, "Urban" music and radio means hip-hop and r&b, and "Urban" stations target Black listeners. Rhythmic music stations and the charts certainly have a large amount of crossover with the Urban charts, but they are going after a different demographic- more female, more than just Black listeners, more than just the urban core listeners (read:white girls in the suburbs).

At the heart of this discussion, which is true not only in LA but across the country, is "Black Flight" from the urban core. The once predominantly Black areas of LA (South LA, Inglewood, etc) are now predominantly Hispanics, who have come in to fill the void of middle class Blacks that have left for the suburbs in a similar pattern to middle class Whites leaving for the suburbs in the 1950s-1970s. It turns out what's old is new again.

This dispersion of Blacks away from most urban cores has had an impact on community- as community loses it tight knit focus when distance separates people that were once neighbors and had common interests in their community, up to and including radio.

 

[davideduardo]

If that's true then I think we need to look at the label in general as being inaccurate.

It wasn't long ago that we had the Billboard "Black" charts and "Race" music.

It's a mistake to think that "black" artists are only listened to by "black" audiences.

There is a need to "segregate" urban radio as a format from the songs urban radio may play.

Urban radio is generally a self-label by a station, supported by the criteria that MediaMonitors or BDS (today's equivalent of "the trades") uses to classify it.

An urban station will have an audience composition that is either predominantly Black, or considerably over-indexing against the black population in markets with smaller African American populations.

Urban music is a perception a feel. It's r&b, of course, but its also hip-hop but not all hip hop is urban. It's slow jams, but not all slow jams are urban, either.

The simplest definition is found in the ad, where "Urban" means a station or programming targeting, principally, Blacks.

 

[Buckethead]

Then there's the answer to the question.

It's less likely that an owner will want to limit their audience to a PORTION of less than 10% of the population.

 

[only1moore]

I just went to Mediabase. It shows KHHT-HD as a Urban reporter.

 

[pjc1961]

VIBE 109 fills a void for R&B music and the urban format. The station just debuted - www.vibe109.com.

I havent heard it yet but ill give it a try. Is there a app or another way to listen on the iphone?

Right in the middle of the webpage linked above is a reddish-orange "button" labeled "Mobile Streaming" - click on that and scroll down for iPhone instructions (along with Blackberry & Android).

 

[kilamanjero]

It is what it is. Diaspora of blacks from the South Bay to the Inland Empire as the reason for the failure of urban radio in LA is a crock of sh*t. None of the current companies operating stations in the LA radio market has the fortitude to try to do actual urban-leaning rhythmic or "de facto urban contemporary programmed" station like KMEL. "Urban" doesn't always equate to blacks, but blacks do make the majority of the listeners in most markets east of the Rockies. It could do well because the number of Asians, Hispanics along with blacks combined whom enjoy hip-hop and R&B music would be a good audience capture. CC blew that opportunity when they sold the intellectual rights of "The Beat" to Radio One in 2000. They could have dominated both markets with major crossover money makers on full market range signals (in this case 92.3) and used the "KKBT" calls for great billing.

 

[Nate Wesley]

I think people are hung up on the definition of "Urban" music.

I would say it means music people in Urban areas prefer.

AMP and KIIS attract the preponderance of the Urban audience.

In the case of Los Angeles the "Urban" population is not predominately African American.

Or, am I wrong and "Urban" really means "black" or "Hip-Hop"?

If that's true then I think we need to look at the label in general as being inaccurate.

It wasn't long ago that we had the Billboard "Black" charts and "Race" music.

It's a mistake to think that "black" artists are only listened to by "black" audiences.

That the OP purposely neglected to mention KPWR "Power 106" out of his first post seems to speak to what you're talking about.

 

[wdb2003]

I just went to Mediabase. It shows KHHT-HD as a Urban reporter.

KHHT HD 2 is just another CC jukebox. It carries The Beat HD channel from iheartradio.com On air its called 92.3 HD 2 Jamz. The HD 2 channel use to carry Slow Jams 24/7 and then the old Mega 92.3 format. I havent listen since last year when I got a new car it didnt come with HD. Dj's are on too but VT from Chicago WGCI FM. I heard Tony Sculfield one time. Its basically Mainstream Urban and but doesnt have a LA feel to it. Mostly what youll hear on a Mainstream Urban station in the south like KKDA in Dallas.

 

[wdb2003]

VIBE 109 fills a void for R&B music and the urban format. The station just debuted - www.vibe109.com.

I havent heard it yet but ill give it a try. Is there a app or another way to listen on the iphone?

Right in the middle of the webpage linked above is a reddish-orange "button" labeled "Mobile Streaming" - click on that and scroll down for iPhone instructions (along with Blackberry & Android).

Thanks for the info