KDAY in Redondo Beach and KWIE in Ontario, are a pair of synchrocasting radio stations based in South Los Angeles that airs a Gold-leaning classic hip-hop format 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. The station has obtained a construction permit from the FCC for a power increase to 4,200 kW.

From 2004 to 2008, KDAY and KWIE in Ontario, California were a pair of synchrocasting radio stations serving 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 hybrid Urban/Talk outlet targeting 18-49 year olds, while KWIE flipped to a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary format covering the Inland Empire. In September 2009 KWIE dropped the Rhythmic AC format and returned to simulcasting KDAY.

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.

Wolfman Jack did a program in the early 1970s at the original KDAY(AM) (licensed to Santa Monica) after his departure from border blaster station XERB (then at 1090-AM which is now XEPRS).

History

The "Original" KDAY

93.5 KDAY is a resurrection of the original R&B/dance/pop and Hip-Hop station of the 1970s and 1980s, KDAY AM 1580 During the 1980s KDAY featured a plethora of R&B, Hip-Hop and 80s L.A. Disco/HI-NRG. KDAY also helped bring the West Coast rap scene into prominence. Its musical director, afternoon host Greg Mack, transformed N.W.A. from an unknown group to one of the most prolific musicians of the hip-hop generation. It also had earlier launched the careers of N.W.A. core members Dr. Dre and DJ Yella with their World Class Wrecking Cru, a popular mix show of the time.

AM 1580 was sold in 1991 to realtor Fred Sands (who also owned iconic heavy metal station KNAC); it officially went off the air on March 29th of that year. Hours before that, phone calls were streaming into the station as the on-the-air DJs encouraged KDAY listeners to protest against the shutting down of the station. It was too late and KDAY turned into business-oriented radio station KBLA later that day. The last song played that signaled the end of the original KDAY was "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'" by MC Breed. After that, silence came to one of the AM band's last new music stations in the Los Angeles market.

Currently, KBLA is 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 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 . Technically, the Steve Harvey Show plays R&B music on an Urban AC format, which backs up KDAY's Urban 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 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 . 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 classic hip-hop 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. From that point, the station 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 3.4Kw to 4.2Kw, 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 hybrid Urban Contemporary/Urban Talk approach (a direction similar to Urban AC but featuring current adult-friendly R&B music with less Hip-Hop product and on-air talk personalities) 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 12AM 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.

Despite the changes, there had 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 one that featured syndicated shows and an Urban Adult Contemporary/Talk format, claiming that the owners had ruined the legacy of both KDAY and "The Beat". Those upset with that new approach predicted its demise as it was already tried before (and failed) at KKBT, while also feeling that Los Angeles could not support two Adult R&B outlets (referring to KDAY's main competitor, KJLH; KHHT is a Rhythmic AC aimed at Hispanics). 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. The new changes resulted in R&R and BDS removing the station from the Urban reporting radio panel in its August 29, 2008 issue.

Changes

There had been hints of possible changes coming over the past several months, which became evident in its decision to replace Mo'Nique's syndicated show in October 2008 for more music-driven local content. Another move would come with Theo's exit several weeks later. As a result, KDAY made a shift back to Urban and was reinstated to R&R/BDS' Urban panel in January 2009. The following March, KDAY re-added local air personalities to its lineup, with DJ Dense taking middays and Tha Goodfellas, who had been handling afternoons and weekends, was moved to the 7–10 pm slot. The Steve Harvey morning show was dropped on May 29, 2009, but later resurfaced on KJLH. In addition, Michael Baisden's nationally syndicated show which aired in the afternoon drive was dropped on August 6, 2009. Keith Sweat's nationally syndicated show The Keith Sweat Hotel was next in line to be dropped from KDAY.

At the Fresh Fest concert in Downtown Los Angeles's Nokia Theatre, hints were made on stage that a full-blown format flip to resemble the original KDAY's Classic Hip Hop sound would occur on August 17 at 7:30 am, when they drop the branding of The Beat and become simply KDAY. The new logo was shown on all stage banners and screen graphics.

As promised, the change came that very Monday morning with Boyz II Men's "End Of The Road" signaling the wrap of the old The Beat format and Snoop Dogg's "Gin & Juice" being the first song under the new KDAY format. Station spots in between songs indicated that the previous syndicated fare was a programming mistake that did not reflect what Los Angeles fans were looking for and that the station would "never do that again."

In a press release, the station's PD/OM, Adrian (A.D.) Scott, explained in detail: "The landscape of Los Angeles radio has been ever changing over the last several years and the programming at 93.5 is taking an exciting turn for the better. “The Beat” will be dropped as focus is placed on the brand equity in KDAY and its deep musical roots. Los Angeles has been missing the west coast sound. By eliminating syndicated programming, KDAY can now focus on its strengths as a local, independent station that connects with the diverse culture that is Los Angeles. With a mix of the old school and the new music that is enjoyed today, I feel we have a unique and winning recipe." While they may have returned to the format, KDAY still plays many classic hip hop songs without live DJs on the air. In September 2009, KWIE, after splitting from KDAY to broadcast a Rhythmic Hot AC format to target the Riverside-San Bernardino market, returned to simulcasting KDAY's format.

In November 2009, station management at KDAY made more changes by bringing in veteran programming consultants Bill Tanner and Steve Smith to help evolve the station alongside PD Scott, new OM Brian Bridgman and new GM Zeke Chaidez. In a interview from All Access, Tanner explained what was in store for KDAY pertaining to the future adjustments for the format: "Brian, Steve and I have offered some refinements based on our many years of experience in Los Angeles," then added that "We’re just getting started with the music. We will be adding jocks and more surprises in the weeks ahead."

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. One of the station's early owners was game show producer Jack Barry, who later stated that he bought the station specifically because it would require him to have a license from the FCC, and that if the FCC would be willing to grant him a license, it would effectively show that he no longer was "tainted" by the game show scandals.

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 such as Radio Rangarang (Persian), Radio Omid (Persian) and Radio Naeeri (Armenian). 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 (La Mejor) and later KZAB.

References

1. http://www.donmccoy.com/story.html
2. Don McCoy's Magic House - Life Story
3. KDAY Says R.I.P. to Rap Format. Los Angeles Times. February 27, 1991. Retrieved on 2009-08-19.
4. yes.com
5. From Radio-Info Los Angeles message board
6. From Radio-Info Los Angeles message board
7. KDAY goes back to independent programming From The Daily Breeze (August 18, 2008)
8. from Los Angeles Times (August 12, 2008)
9. From Los Angeles Times (August 14, 2008)
10. From R&R
11. "KDAY Continues To Evolve" from All Access (November 30, 2009)

See also

• KWIE

External links

• 93.5 KDAY's official website
• Magic Broadcasting LLC official website
• Harvey Is Back On-the-Air in L.A.
• K-HDZ HeadzUp FM A Alternative Hip-Hop Radio Station streaming 24/7 in a mixtape format