KJLH
Encyclopedia
KJLH is an Urban Adult Contemporary
radio station
serving the Los Angeles area
and offers More of a variety of Today's R&B & Classic Soul with a taste of Hip-Hop, Gospel and sometimes Smooth Jazz. The station, which is owned by Stevie Wonder's Taxi Productions
, operates at 102.3 MHz with an effective radiated power
of 5.6 kW
and is licensed to Compton, California
. Its studios operate from Inglewood
.
, but relocated to Compton, debuted with a R&B format in 1979, the year Stevie Wonder
purchased the station from its original owner, John Lamar Hill, thus the call letter's origins. It was Wonder who gave KJLH its on-air slogan to match the call letters, which stand for "Kindness, Joy, Love & Happiness."
During its first eight years, KJLH enjoyed modest success as a R&B/Urban station and a great familiarity with the African-American community. But it was hampered by the fact that the station was on a Class-A FM signal, which meant their signal was limited to the central and southern portions of Los Angeles County (Including Downtown and South Central Los Angeles), while in other areas like the San Fernando Valley the signal would either fade out or be scratchy, depending on where you would hear the station (despite a signal upgrade from 2.25 kW to 5.6 kW in 2000). They were also (At the time, from the late 1970s up to the late 1980s) one of five R&B/Urban stations in the market who targeted the African-American community during its tenure, along with AMs KGFJ
and KDAY
and FMs KACE
and KUTE
. Of the four that since flipped formats, only the KDAY calls have since been revived, but on the FM side
as the market's only Urban
/Hip-Hop station to date, and like KJLH they also have limited signal coverage.
In 1986 KJLH would pick up an unlikely competitor that would deal them their first major blow: KPWR
. When that station debuted Wonder retaliated by cutting new imaging and liners in the hopes of retaining their listener base, but that tactic backfired as they began to see its audience going over to the full-powered Power 106 and would never recover. Its second setback would be the 1990 debut of KKBT
, whose evolution to a R&B/Hip-Hop direction would result in KJLH going into a more Mainstream Urban direction in 1992 under the programing of Frankie Ross (who was terminated from the station in late 2003) and renamed the station KJLH Rhythm 102.3 but that tactic backfired also. KJLH went through a great deal of turmoil as a Mainstream Urban Station with poor ratings during 1993-95. In November 1995 former morning jock Cliff Winston was appointed to PD and bought KJLH into its current Urban AC direction and increased it's playlist with Urban Smooth Jazz Crossovers, R&B Oldies, Current R&B and Gospel crossovers and was one of urban stations in L.A. to embrace the Neo Soul genre which was popular at the time.
They would get more competition by 2001 when KCMG dropped rhythmic oldies to become KHHT
(Hot 92.3). That move would lead to rumors that KJLH would flip to an all-gospel music
format, but the station decided not to make a format change. But the rumors came back once again, as in 2006 more competition awaited KJLH as KKBT dropped their R&B/hip-hop direction to go adult R&B (and six months later change their calls to KRBV with a new branding), giving the market 3 stations with the same format, thus once again more speculation of KJLH abandoning Urban AC for Gospel Music, but as of right now, that has not happened.
Through all this, KJLH's selling point has been a devotion to the community it serves. It has an extensive lineup of religious programming, including gospel music weekday mornings and all day Sundays. KJLH is also the only adult R&B station with a continuous live and local air staff. Plus, most of KJLH's on air staff has been with KJLH longer than rivals KHHT and especially KRBV, which has seen multiple turnovers.
As of 2008, KJLH became the only Urban Adult Contemporary
Radio Station in Los Angeles serving the African-American audience again as both of its former competitors, KRBV and KHHT, has moved on to different directions, with KHHT evolving into a Rhythmic AC
targeting the market's Hispanic audience, while KRBV exited the Adult R&B format altogether in April 2008 when Radio One sold the station to Bonneville International, who upon acquiring KRBV, dropped their format for Adult Album Alternative
.
KJLH became the third Los Angeles Urban Contemporary
radio station to carry the Steve Harvey Morning Show
on August 10, 2009; this comes after KDAY eliminated the show. The former KKBT at 100.3 was the original home of the Steve Harvey Morning Show when it started out as a local show.
As of 2009
, when KDAY
flipped to classic hip-hop, KJLH added more hip-hop
in the playlist, still classifying the station as urban adult contemporary
. Even Mediabase
& Nielsen BDS still list the station as urban adult contemporary
. KJLH has tweaked towards an Urban Contemporary direction in August 2009 now focuses on R&B/Hip Hop product due to Los Angeles the one and only KKBT 92.3 The Beat (Later on 100.3 The Beat) and as of now KJLH is the only black owned Urban Adult Contemporary station in both L.A. and the United States.
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
serving the Los Angeles area
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
and offers More of a variety of Today's R&B & Classic Soul with a taste of Hip-Hop, Gospel and sometimes Smooth Jazz. The station, which is owned by Stevie Wonder's Taxi Productions
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
, operates at 102.3 MHz with an effective radiated power
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
of 5.6 kW
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
and is licensed to Compton, California
Compton, California
Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city to incorporate. The city is considered part of the South side by residents of Los...
. Its studios operate from Inglewood
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
.
History
KJLH, whose signal was originally licensed to Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, but relocated to Compton, debuted with a R&B format in 1979, the year Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
purchased the station from its original owner, John Lamar Hill, thus the call letter's origins. It was Wonder who gave KJLH its on-air slogan to match the call letters, which stand for "Kindness, Joy, Love & Happiness."
During its first eight years, KJLH enjoyed modest success as a R&B/Urban station and a great familiarity with the African-American community. But it was hampered by the fact that the station was on a Class-A FM signal, which meant their signal was limited to the central and southern portions of Los Angeles County (Including Downtown and South Central Los Angeles), while in other areas like the San Fernando Valley the signal would either fade out or be scratchy, depending on where you would hear the station (despite a signal upgrade from 2.25 kW to 5.6 kW in 2000). They were also (At the time, from the late 1970s up to the late 1980s) one of five R&B/Urban stations in the market who targeted the African-American community during its tenure, along with AMs KGFJ
KYPA
KYPA is a Korean-language radio station in Los Angeles, California. It is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting.KYPA is one of three radio stations in the greater Los Angeles area that broadcast entirely in Korean; the others are KMPC and KFOX.The format includes various shows that serve the largest...
and KDAY
KBLA
KBLA is a radio station licensed to Santa Monica, California, with an Spanish religious radio format. It broadcasts at 1580 kHz with 50,000 watts day and night. Most of this station's signal is dumped over the Pacific Ocean, however, in order not to interfere with radio station KMIK KBLA (1580 AM)...
and FMs KACE
KRCD (FM)
KRCD is a commercial radio station in Inglewood, California, broadcasting to the Los Angeles area on 103.9 FM.KRCV is a commercial radio station in West Covina, California, broadcasting to the western sections of the Riverside-San Bernardino area on 98.3 FM.KRCV & KRCD air a Spanish-language...
and KUTE
KSCA
KSCA is a commercial radio station in Glendale, California, broadcasting to the Los Angeles, California, area on 101.9 FM. As of 2007 KSCA is the most listened to radio station in the Los Angeles Metro Area....
. Of the four that since flipped formats, only the KDAY calls have since been revived, but on the FM side
KDAY
KDAY in Redondo Beach and KDEY in Ontario are a pair of synchrocasting radio stations based in South Los Angeles that airs an Classic hip-hop format aimed at African Americans in the 18-49 range. The station is owned by Magic Broadcasting, LLC and broadcasts at 93.5 MHz on the FM dial...
as the market's only Urban
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
/Hip-Hop station to date, and like KJLH they also have limited signal coverage.
In 1986 KJLH would pick up an unlikely competitor that would deal them their first major blow: KPWR
KPWR
KPWR is a commercial radio station located in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area on an analog signal and in HD Radio...
. When that station debuted Wonder retaliated by cutting new imaging and liners in the hopes of retaining their listener base, but that tactic backfired as they began to see its audience going over to the full-powered Power 106 and would never recover. Its second setback would be the 1990 debut of KKBT
KKBT
KSWD is a Bonneville International-owned radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. The station currently broadcasts a wide-ranging classic rock format...
, whose evolution to a R&B/Hip-Hop direction would result in KJLH going into a more Mainstream Urban direction in 1992 under the programing of Frankie Ross (who was terminated from the station in late 2003) and renamed the station KJLH Rhythm 102.3 but that tactic backfired also. KJLH went through a great deal of turmoil as a Mainstream Urban Station with poor ratings during 1993-95. In November 1995 former morning jock Cliff Winston was appointed to PD and bought KJLH into its current Urban AC direction and increased it's playlist with Urban Smooth Jazz Crossovers, R&B Oldies, Current R&B and Gospel crossovers and was one of urban stations in L.A. to embrace the Neo Soul genre which was popular at the time.
They would get more competition by 2001 when KCMG dropped rhythmic oldies to become KHHT
KHHT
KHHT is a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA with a Rhythmic Oldies musical format. It is owned by Clear Channel Communications.-KFAC:...
(Hot 92.3). That move would lead to rumors that KJLH would flip to an all-gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
format, but the station decided not to make a format change. But the rumors came back once again, as in 2006 more competition awaited KJLH as KKBT dropped their R&B/hip-hop direction to go adult R&B (and six months later change their calls to KRBV with a new branding), giving the market 3 stations with the same format, thus once again more speculation of KJLH abandoning Urban AC for Gospel Music, but as of right now, that has not happened.
Through all this, KJLH's selling point has been a devotion to the community it serves. It has an extensive lineup of religious programming, including gospel music weekday mornings and all day Sundays. KJLH is also the only adult R&B station with a continuous live and local air staff. Plus, most of KJLH's on air staff has been with KJLH longer than rivals KHHT and especially KRBV, which has seen multiple turnovers.
As of 2008, KJLH became the only Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...
Radio Station in Los Angeles serving the African-American audience again as both of its former competitors, KRBV and KHHT, has moved on to different directions, with KHHT evolving into a Rhythmic AC
Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
Rhythmic adult contemporary is a format used on stations in the United States and Canada. It usually gears toward an older audience, ages 25 to 54. Stations using this format play disco from the 1970s and early 1980s, dance/pop music, adult-friendly hip hop/old school tracks, R&B, dance/freestyle...
targeting the market's Hispanic audience, while KRBV exited the Adult R&B format altogether in April 2008 when Radio One sold the station to Bonneville International, who upon acquiring KRBV, dropped their format for Adult Album Alternative
Adult album alternative
Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats....
.
KJLH became the third Los Angeles Urban Contemporary
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
radio station to carry the Steve Harvey Morning Show
Steve Harvey
Broderick Steven "Steve" Harvey is an American actor, comedian, entertainer, television and radio personality and best-selling author. He is best known as the star of the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, and as one of the four comedians featured in the Spike Lee film The Original Kings of Comedy...
on August 10, 2009; this comes after KDAY eliminated the show. The former KKBT at 100.3 was the original home of the Steve Harvey Morning Show when it started out as a local show.
As of 2009
2009 in radio
The following events occurred in radio in 2009.- Events :* January 1: Kurdish TV starts broadcasting in Turkey.* January: Michael Smerconish, morning host at talk radio WPHT Philadelphia, begins syndication of his morning show to WHFS in Washington and WOR in New York City.* January 17: Two well...
, when KDAY
KDAY
KDAY in Redondo Beach and KDEY in Ontario are a pair of synchrocasting radio stations based in South Los Angeles that airs an Classic hip-hop format aimed at African Americans in the 18-49 range. The station is owned by Magic Broadcasting, LLC and broadcasts at 93.5 MHz on the FM dial...
flipped to classic hip-hop, KJLH added more hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
in the playlist, still classifying the station as urban adult contemporary
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...
. Even Mediabase
Mediabase
Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytical tools for radio and record industry professionals...
& Nielsen BDS still list the station as urban adult contemporary
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...
. KJLH has tweaked towards an Urban Contemporary direction in August 2009 now focuses on R&B/Hip Hop product due to Los Angeles the one and only KKBT 92.3 The Beat (Later on 100.3 The Beat) and as of now KJLH is the only black owned Urban Adult Contemporary station in both L.A. and the United States.