| City of license | Berkeley, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | San Francisco Bay Area |
| Branding | "102.9 KBLX, The Quiet Storm" |
| Slogan | Smooth R&B Soft and Warm, The Quiet Storm |
| Frequency | 102.9 MHz |
| First air date | February 14, 1949 (as KRE-FM) |
| Format | Urban Adult Contemporary |
| ERP | 6,600 watts |
| HAAT | 393 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 28670 |
| Callsign meaning | K BLaX (play on the word Blacks, its target audience) or possibly stands for the station's city of license which is Berkeley (The call letters KBLS, which would otherwise honor its New York sister station, WBLS, were unavailable, assigned to another station in Kansas) |
| Former callsigns | KRE-FM (1949-1979) |
| Owner | Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (Urban Radio III, LLC) |
| Sister stations | KVTO, KVVN |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | kblx.com |
KBLX-FM is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station that broadcasts from San Francisco. The station is licensed to Berkeley, California, and is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.
Contents |
On February 14, 1949, KRE-FM signed on simulcasting KRE's programming. In 1979, it was relaunched as KBLX. It was one of the first true radio stations with an adult contemporary format, hybrid with an Urban Contemporary format to focus on The Quiet Storm R&B subgenre era at the time. At first, even though the call letters stand for Blacks per se the target audience, KBLX marketed the station as an adult contemporary format, rather than urban in order to attract a wider audience.
Throughout the 1980s, the station played an eclectic mix of R&B, jazz and soft pop, reflecting the diverse music culture of the Bay Area. KBLX was the inspiration for for the creation and launch of various adult contemporary radio formats across the country, from Smooth Jazz to soft rock AC to Urban AC (R&B), the latter which KBLX modified its format to years later. (The Urban AC terminology did not exist until 1988). Even then, for some time the station played mostly smooth R&B, rarely playing any uptempo R&B, current or old school. This was done to establish the station's own identity apart from competition from now-defunct Urban stations KSOL and KDIA, or its current competitors KMEL, KYLD and KISQ. But the station's musical selection was also forged by its intense competition with smooth-jazz arch-rival KKSF.
Even when KBLX modified its format to Urban AC in the 1990s, the station continued to play jazz music in rotation—and this practice of mixing R&B and jazz songs on radio playlists has occurred on few Urban AC radio stations in some markets. However, KBLX played more R&B songs than jazz; the end result was a gradual phasing out of jazz from its playlist in recent years. From then on, KBLX has evolved into a true Urban AC station today (much like its New York sister station, WBLS and stations in other markets) -- playing current and old school R&B, as well as uptempo R&B songs to match its competitors. Despite the changes, it still advertises itself as a "Smooth R&B" station, reflecting its "Quiet Storm" heritage handle —- although the station did re-integrate jazz vocals into its overall sound after KKSF switched from smooth jazz to rock in June 2009.
KBLX and its AM sister station, KRE (now KVTO), are the Bay Area's only African-American-owned and operated commercial radio stations. From its inception in 1979, KBLX simulcasted on KRE (later KBLX-AM) until 1994, when the AM station was re-launched as KVTO, with a World Ethnic format, primarily serving the San Francisco Bay Area's Asian community. KVTO is an affiliate of the Sing Tao Chinese Radio network and broadcasts in Chinese, Korean, Tagalog and Hindi.
...Chan Barry, Chris Lewis, BK Kirkland, Kevin Nash, Leslie Stoval, Chris James, Clifford Brown Jr., Talaya Trigueros, Les Williams, Steve Collins, Belle Nolan, Ed McClune, John Chung, Ed Lee : Roy Lee Freeman, Rob Singleton, Rick Holmes, Doug Lee Bob Jones
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