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KDAY

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KDAY
Broadcast areaLos Angeles
Frequency93.5 (MHz)
Branding93.5 The Beat
Programming
FormatUrban Adult Contemporary
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
early 1970s
Call sign meaning
K DAY (related to former slogan)
Technical information
Facility ID10100
ClassA
ERP3,400 watts
HAAT132 meters
Links
WebcastListen Live
Website93.5 The Beat

KDAY (93.5 The Beat) in Redondo Beach, California is a radio station based in South Los Angeles that airs a Urban Adult Contemporary format, offering a conservative balanced R&B direction aimed at African-americans in the 18-49 range. The station is owned by Magic Broadcasting and broadcast at 93.5 MHz on the FM dial.

From 2004 to 2008, KDAY and KWIE in Ontario, California were a pair of synchrocasting[1] radio stations serving the LA/Orange County and Riverside/San Bernardino. But on August 14, 2008 both stations ended their simulcast as KDAY increased its signal coverage and began focusing on the Los Angeles area as a Urban Adult Contemporary outlet targeting 18-49 year olds, while KWIE flipped to a Rhythmic Oldies format covering the Inland Empire.

History

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 1970s and 1980s. 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. Today, 1580AM is KBLA, a Spanish-language evangelical Christian station.

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 Adult 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. Due to sinking ratings, a month later, long-time hip-hop/R&B station KKBT, 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. Weeks later, rival KKBT signed on Tom Joyner, 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[citation needed]. Technically, the Steve Harvey Show plays R&B music on an Urban AC format, which backs up KDAY's Urban Adult Contemporary format . 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 Adult Contemporary 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 Adult 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); that station is now KSWD. Since then the station has used the slogan "The Beat of LA," a nod to the popular hip-hop station during the 90's and early 2000s. Michael Baisden, host of the syndicated afternoon show Love Lust and Lies, returned to Los Angeles on KDAY on August 18, 2008 as KRBV previously aired the show until the format switch.

On August 14, 2008 KDAY was upgraded from a Class-A station to a full-powered station, thanks to a new tower that gave the station more coverage in the metro. The new tower will replace its former one, which had been in use for fifty years. Another move was the alteration of its Mainstream Urban format, as KDAY tweaked its direction to a Urban Adult Contemporary approach targeting a 18-49 audience, with most of its programming being filled by syndicated shows during the day, except for DJ Theo's slow-jam show "Theo After Hours," which airs live from 8PM to 12 Midnight weekdays. The move also ended the simulcasts of both KDAY and KWIE as the latter flipped to Rhythmic Adult Contemporary and targeted the Inland Empire on the same day[3].

Despite the changes, there has been criticism from listeners over KDAY's decision to move away from being a station that once supported Hip-Hop and a live airstaff to a station that now features syndicated shows and a Urban Adult Contemporary format[4]. But according to station management, the decision to tweak the format was due to Arbitron's plans to implement the PPM in the Los Angeles radio market and where they feel they can tap into certain areas where they can attract the African american audience[5][6].

The 93.5 signal itself

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.

Competition

The following stations compete with KDAY for essentially the same audience:

  • Los Angeles/Orange County: KJLH

Personalities

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 1960s. 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. Carlin asked that his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame be placed outside the KDAY studios.

References

  1. ^ Don McCoy's Magic House - Life Story
  2. ^ yes.com
  3. ^ From Radio-Info Los Angeles message board
  4. ^ From Radio-Info Los Angeles message board
  5. ^ from Los Angeles Times (August 12, 2008)
  6. ^ From Los Angeles Times (August 14, 2008)
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