KDAY
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| KDAY/KWIE (pronounced K-day) | |
 |
|
| City of license | KDAY: Redondo Beach KWIE: Ontario |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | KDAY: Los Angeles KWIE: Riverside-San Bernardino |
| Branding | "THE BEAT OF L.A. 93.5 KDAY" |
| Slogan | SoCals Only Radio Superstation, THE BEAT 93.5 KDAY! (Make Every Day A 93.5 THE BEAT KDAY) |
| Frequency | 93.5 (MHz) |
| First air date | KDAY: early 1970s KWIE: unknown |
| Format | Urban Contemporary |
| ERP | KDAY: 3,400 watts KWIE: 5,000 watts |
| HAAT | KDAY: 132 meters KWIE: -40 meters |
| Class | KDAY: A KWIE: A |
| Facility ID | KDAY: 10100 KWIE: 10099 |
| Callsign meaning | KDAY: K DAY (related to former slogan) KWIE: K Wild (previous format on now-KRQB) Inland Empire |
| Owner | Magic Broadcasting (KDAY: KDAY Licensing, LLC KWIE: KDAI Licensing, LLC) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 93.5 THE BEAT KDAY |
KDAY in Redondo Beach and KWIE in Ontario, are a pair of synchrocasting[1] radio stations based in South Los Angeles that airs a Urban Contemporary format, playing Hip Hop and R&B. To date, they were also the only pure Mainstream Urban station in at least two markets: LA/Orange County and Riverside/San Bernardino. The stations are owned by Magic Broadcasting and both broadcast at 93.5MHz on the FM dial.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] The 93.5 frequency
The two stations now simulcasting at 93.5 were once distinct stations, one licensed to Redondo Beach, California and the other licensed to Ontario, California.
[edit] KDAY
The 93.5 in Redondo Beach signed on in the early 1970s or earlier as KKOP and played mellow pop music and even copied the playlist of the now defunct KNHS 89.7 of Torrance. Later in the 1970s the call letters KFOX were assigned to the station, which like its predecessor at 1280AM (now KFRN) played country music. This format continued until the mid-1980s, when the owner decided to sell blocks of air time to various producers; KFOX evolved into a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual format. In the mid-1990s, this became "Radio Korea USA" with an all-Korean format. This continued until 1999, when the Church of the Foursquare Gospel, which, as a condition of selling 96.3 KXOL-FM moved the KFSG call letters and format to 93.5, which was acquired by 96.3's new owners, Spanish Broadcasting System, specifically for the purpose of relocating KFSG. In 2002, the lease arrangement with Foursquare ended, and SBS switched to a Spanish-language outlet, first as KMJR, then as (La Mejor) and later KZAB.
[edit] KWIE
The 93.5 in Ontario was KNTF from the early 80's until 1990 when it became "Thunder Country" for a very short time. The jocks were Lee Scott in the morning, Kevin O'neil middays and Doug Vincent in the afternoons. In the early 1990s, this became hot a/c KRZE, "The Breeze." Soon after it aired a block programming primarily purchased by Korean broadcasters. In the mid-1990s, it began simulcasting the Redondo Beach station in its various formats, first as KRZE, then KREA, KFSB, KNJR, and KZBA.
[edit] The "Original" KDAY
93.5 K-DAY is a resurrection of the original R&B/pop and Hip-Hop station, KDAY AM 1580 of the 1970's. During the 1980s KDAY featured a plethora of R&B and West Coast rappers and helped bring the West Coast rap scene into prominence. Its musical director, Greg Mack, transformed N.W.A from an unknown group to one of the most prolific musicians of the hip-hop generation. It also launched the careers of Dr. Dre and DJ Yella with their World Class Wrecking Cru, a popular mix show of the time. AM 1580 KDAY was sold in 1991 and turned into a business-oriented radio station. It is believed that KKBT succeeded the KDAY format, as it primarily focused on hip-hop music. Today, 1580AM is KBLA, a Spanish-language evangelical Christian station.
[edit] The "New" KDAY
KDAY was resurrected as an FM station in summer 2004, with a new campaign "Hip-Hop Today and Back in the Day." During its first few weeks, KDAY aired continuous music with no commercials and no disc jockeys. Shortly after, KDAY signed on some of Southern California's most popular DJs, including former West Coast female rapper rapper Yo-Yo, The Baka Boyz and Julio G, all of which previously were at KKBT. Today, as its campaign suggests, KDAY plays a variety of hip-hop and R&B from the 80's, 90's, and now.
In April 2006, KDAY began moving away from a Rhythmic Contemporary leaning direction to an Urban Contemporary approach as the station refocuses its target audience towards African Americans. This was probably in response to competitor KPWR tilting back from Urban to Rhythmic in order to successfully target Hispanic listeners. A month later, long-time hip-hop/R&B station KKBT, due to sinking ratings, eliminated hip hop from the format in favor of becoming a mixture of Urban AC and urban talk radio, similar in format to KHHT and KJLH. (Only afterwards did KKBT "The Beat" change its calls and name to KRBV "V-100".) In addition, KDAY brought Steve Harvey on board on Memorial Day weekend 2006. Harvey had been released by KKBT the previous year; just weeks later, rival KKBT signed on Tom Joyner, a friend of Harvey's, to carry his syndicated morning show there, but in December of 2006 KKBT would ax Joyner due to low ratings for Joyner, partly attributed to Harvey's success. Technically, the Steve Harvey Show plays R&B music on an Urban AC format, which backs up KDAY's Urban Contemporary format, rather than Mainstream Urban or Urban Top 40. Since the format altering, KDAY added slow jams during nighttime and gospel music on Sunday mornings.
On July 23, 2007 KDAY/KDAI temporarily moved from an urban format to a rhythmic format under the consultancy of Harry Lyles and newly-installed PD Theo. In a statement to the website All Access, Lyles commented to the changes: "I am very excited and thrilled to be working with Don McCoy, Roy Laughlin and Theo. All we're doing is playing to the taste of Los Angeles and if we play what they want, they will listen. With PPM coming, this will make things a lot more interesting in Los Angeles." The format turnback might have been spurred by Magic's sale of KWIE. The KDAY call letters were originally intended to be dropped in favor of the station changing to Wild 93.5 and picking up KWIE calls in its place. For a time, the station only referenced itself as "93.5" in the promos until it can come up with a name and calls to fit the rhythmic format. This happened in July 2007, when the sale of KWIE "Wild 96.1" was completed to Liberman Broadcasting and that station became KRQB. The KWIE call sign moved to the Ontario station, which was KDAI.[2]. After the sale was completed, it turned out that the format altering was only temporary so they could have the KWIE listeners in the Riverside/San Bernardino area migrate to the 93.5 signal, as KDAY reverted back to Urban Contemporary the following August.
On April 8, 2008, Radio One inked a deal with KDAY, which saw the station pick up the former "Beat" logo and several syndicated shows from Radio One. The move came after Radio One sold KRBV to Bonneville International, who in turn dropped KRBV's Urban AC format the previous day (April 7, 2008).
[edit] Competition
The following stations compete with KDAY for essentially the same audience:
[edit] Personalities
- The Steve Harvey Morning Show with Shirley Strawberry, Nephew Tommy, Ann Tripp, & Carla Ferrell.
- The Wendy Williams Experience (Live) 11 AM - 3 PM with Charlamagne Tha God, Goose, Trev Hollywood & Tarin Donatien.
[edit] Trivia
- Tupac Shakur gives a shout out to KDAY in the song "To Live & Die in LA"
- Julio G, was a DJ for the fictional Radio Los Santos radio station in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Radio Los Santos is loosely based on K-Day.
- KDAY was also referenced in the cover art for the Frank Zappa album Overnight Sensation on a Stage Pass.
- In the movie The Wood, it showed actor Sean Nelson who was playing as Mike when he was young in 1986 turning on the radio and hearing a DJ playing a Biz Markie song and saying "you got it on right here on AM 1580 KDAY"
- KDAY was also referenced in "Rappcats, Vol. 3" by Quasimoto/Madlib
- Comedian George Carlin got his West Coast break at KDAY with original comedy partner Jack Burns as a morning team in the early 1960's. The pair spent much of their down time rehearsing their sketches for local coffee house performances. When those performances went well, they soon left radio for touring and television.
[edit] External links
- 93.5 KDAY's official website
- Steve Harvey Is Back On-the-Air in L.A.
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KDAY
- Radio Locator information on KDAY
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KWIE
- Radio Locator information on KWIE
- K-HDZ HeadzUp FM A Alternative Hip-Hop Radio Station streaming 24/7 in a mixtape format
[edit] References
|
||||||||||||||
