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Coordinates: 37°41′24″N 122°26′17″W / 37.690°N 122.438°W / 37.690; -122.438
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* Durell "DC" Coleman ''co-host''
* Durell "DC" Coleman ''co-host''
* G. Biz ''co-host''
* G. Biz ''co-host''
* Lady Ray '' "KMEL's Go! Patrol" traffic/co-host''
* Lady Ray '' "KMEL's Go! Patrol" traffic''
* DJ Lexx Jones and ''"The 106 KMEL's Sana G. Morning mix"''
* DJ Lexx Jones and ''"The 106 KMEL's Sana G. Morning mix"''
* Max Rosenhaus ''Executive Producer''
* Max Rosenhaus ''Executive Producer''
Line 103: Line 103:


'''Weekends'''
'''Weekends'''
* Drew Hefner ''host''
* Radio Reem ''host''
* Radio Reem ''host''
* Tinka ''host''
* Tinka ''host''

Revision as of 16:06, 9 January 2015

KMEL
Broadcast areaSan Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, California
Frequency106.1 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding"106 KMEL"
Programming
FormatUrban Contemporary
Ownership
OwnerIHeartMedia,_Inc.
KIOI, KISQ, KKSF, KNEW, KOSF, KYLD
History
First air date
1946 (as KGO-FM at 96.9)
1947 (as KGO-FM at 106.1)
November 30, 1960 (as KFRC-FM)
Former call signs
KGO-FM (1946-1955)
KFRC-FM (1960-1968)
KFMS (1968-1972)
KKEE (1972-1973)
KFRC-FM (1973-1977)
Former frequencies
96.9 MHz (1946-1947)
Call sign meaning
"KAMEL 106" (name of former branding and camel mascot)
Technical information
Facility ID35121
ClassB
ERP69,000 watts
HAAT393 meters
Repeater(s)106.1 KMEL-FM2
Links
WebcastListen Live
Websitewww.kmel.com

KMEL (106.1 FM) is an Urban Contemporary-formatted radio station located in San Francisco, California. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. (previously known as Clear Channel under September 2014) and is the largest urban radio station in its roster outside the New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago radio markets.

KMEL has studios located in the SoMa district, and broadcasts at an effective radiated power of 69,000 watts from the San Bruno Mountain area south of San Francisco. The station's powerful signal is heard all over the Bay Area and covers areas as far north as Santa Rosa, as far east as Elk Grove in the southern portion of Sacramento County, and as far south as the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is currently one of the highest rated stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the largest listening audience males 18-to-34 demographic.

KMEL is often referred to as a "Superpower" Grandfathered Class B FM radio station.[1]

By introducing their music first, KMEL helped launch the careers of many hip hop & R&B artists in the 1980s and 1990s, including Mariah Carey, En Vogue, Tupac Shakur, Digital Underground, MC Hammer, Timex Social Club, Tony! Toni! Toné!, E-40, the Coup, Too Short, Club Nouveau and Mac Dre.[2][3]

History

1940s-1977

106.1 FM began as KGO-FM, sister station of KGO. The FM station was originally licensed at 96.9 FM in 1946.

KGO-FM began broadcasting November 3, 1947, on 106.1 MHz[4] with facilities at a former General Electric plant on East 12th Street in Oakland.

On January 14, 1955, KGO-FM moved from 106.1 to 103.7.

RKO General, owner of Top 40 powerhouse KFRC, eventually purchased the station and on November 30, 1960, it became KFRC-FM. The station's call letters changed to KFMS in November 1968, then KKEE in October 1972. In September 1973, the KFRC-FM call letters were reinstated, and the station began a "nostalgia rock" format, playing oldies and soft rock as "K106".

KMEL(1977-1984)

On July 2, 1977, after Century Broadcasting purchased the FM station, K106 was rebranded KMEL, playing album-oriented rock ("AOR"). Psychedelic poster artist Victor Moscoso created the station's mascot: a camel wearing headphones.[5] The station used the KMEL call letters to name itself "Kamel 106".

KMEL was a top-rated station in 1980 with a tightly formatted approach,[6] and with newer rival KSFX helped force legendary rival KSAN to switch to country music. That same year, KMEL signed popular New York radio personality and San Francisco native Alex Bennett. Alex anchored the morning show which was followed by well-liked veteran Tony "T.K." Kilbert covering the middays, KMEL's 1st music director Paul Vincent and Abby Goldman covering the afternoons, then Mary Holloway and Michael St John covering the evenings. The station played mostly cuts from about 30 top rock albums, interspersed with a few lesser known songs such as on "The Fresh Kamel Tracks" or "The Fresh Tracks" for short. It features highlighting new albums at noon and at 8 pm.[5] With news reporter/sidekick Joe Regelski, Alex built a large following over the next two years, becoming known as a "benignly nasty" morning DJ, "the guy everybody loves to hate", according to Promotion Director and KMEL rock jock Kenneth "Kenny" Wardell.[7]

The year 1982 saw many changes at Bay Area rock stations. In January 1982, KMEL obtained a new rival when KCBS-FM 97.3 transformed itself from an adult contemporary-format station into KRQR a.k.a. "Rocker 97", a brand new rock station.[8] In May 1982, AOR competitor KSFX dropped rock and went to a talk format as KGO-FM. Bennett and Regelski left KMEL in June after the station hired Sebastian, Casey & Associates as programming consultants to increase ratings.[9] Bennett said that programming consultants were "the single most cancerous force in our industry."[10] In August, both Alex and Joe went to work at KQAK a.k.a. "The Quake FM99".[9] KMEL lost market share to its competition—KQAK, KRQR, KOME and KSJO.[10] In September 1982, KFOG entered the battle for rock-listener market share after dropping its beautiful music format in favor of an eclectic mix of rock. With so many AOR stations in the Bay Area, KMEL faced stiff competition but somehow all that's gonna change.

KMEL (1984-1987)

Despite KQAK switching away from its AOR format in April 1983, changing to modern rock, the Bay Area AOR scene was still highly competitive. KMEL have finally decided to say goodbye to their AOR format after more than 7 years. Then on August 25th of 1984 KMEL flipped to a Mainstream, Top 40, CHR under their newly christen name "Northern California's All Hit 106 KMEL", The format was designed by new program director Nick Bazoo, who was brought in from WEZB in New Orleans.[11][12] Alongside was former Kamel 106's last program director and All Hit 106 KMEL's jock Jack Silver as an assistant program director, and a young Keith Naftaly as KMEL's music coordinator & music director.[11] Nick was credited with breaking the song "One Night in Bangkok" in May 1985.[13] Nick left KMEL for Los Angeles in June 1985, and Steve Rivers, a former program director of Tampa Bay's Q105 to take his place as the new program director. Keith continued as music coordinator & music director along with Steve.[11]

In March 1985, KMEL hired former KMGG jocks John London, the late great Ron Engelman, & KFRC alum Sue Hall to host "The All Hit 106 KMEL's Morning Zoo". Former KMEL's Morning Zoo's Zookeeper & another KFRC alum Marcus "Marvelous Mark" McKay took over the middays along with "The All Hit 106 KMEL Countdown". After that "Humble" Howard "The Refrigerator" Hoffman unleashes the wackyness in the afternoons. While Sonny Joe Fox rocks the house in the evenings including "The All Hit 106 KMEL's Top 5 at 8:00 Countdown". With Licia Torres plays the hits on the nighttime. And Mark Todd continues the fun on overnights. The weekends were anchored by Jack Silver, Adam Reed, Scott Mitchell, and Tyrone "Ty" Bell. In 1986 new KMEL jocks join the All Hit 106 family like Leslie "L.S. The Lady Slick" Stoval, Lisa St. Regis, the late great Rick Chase, Steve Rivers, Renel Lewis, with Evan "Bad" Luck, Kevin Nash, and another late great KMEL jock himself, Michael Erickson.[14] During the football season in late 1985, 49ers tight end Russ Francis joined the KMEL's Morning Zoo by phone and sometimes in person to comment on sports.[15] Promoting her song "Slave to the Rhythm", Grace Jones visited KMEL in 1986, meeting the 3 Morning Zookeepers John London, Ron Engelman, & Sue Hall.[16] The success of "All Hit 106" have somehow eventually helped push main CHR rival KITS toward a modern rock format as "The New Live 105 FM" as AM rival KFRC abandoned its CHR format in August 1986 for adult standards as "Magic 61 AM Radio". The station's branding as "106 KMEL" remained in place for many years.[17]

KMEL (1987-present)

Steve Rivers left KMEL to work at the legendary KIIS FM & AM in Los Angeles, so Lee Michaels was hired as program director, and when Lee left to go work for KIIS FM & AM as well, Keith who has been known as the most recognized Music Director of the Year by the Gavin Report, was chosen to take the position as the youngest program director in KMEL's history in June of 1987. Under Keith's direction, KMEL took its top 40 format to a rhythmic focus by adding more urban artists and increasing its popularity with younger audiences.[11] This format tweak set its evolvement into urban contemporary years later.

In early 1987 Keith added Cameron Paul from KSOL FM as KMEL's 1st Mixmaster DJ, because of his sizable following. Cameron remixed Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It", which had been a B-side song, and this remix was played first on KMEL. The song became so popular that it gave Salt-n-Pepa their first mainstream crossover hit. Paul was in demand as a remixer.[18]

As the 1980s gave way to the 1990s, KMEL became one of the first if not the pioneering Crossover formatted stations in america to target young multiracial audiences with a dose of Bubblegum Pop, Hip-Hop, Dance, House, New Jack Swing, and Reggae music.

By September 1992, Century Broadcasting sold KMEL to Evergreen Media. The new owners guided KMEL into its current urban contemporary format, effectively shedding its Top 40 direction for good and refocused now as an R&B station with a strong emphasis on hip-hop. The station was alternately known as "KMEL Jams" in the mid-1990s and adopted the community-focused slogan long associated with many urban outlets: "The People's Station." The present-day format has made the station less synonymous with the previous short lived formats and became more recognized in the Bay Area's African American community all the while targeting a wider audience to date, thus giving it heritage status through the callsign. Evergreen patterned the diversity of the station after its then-sister station KKBT in Los Angeles by maintaining a multi-racial staff to ensure KMEL had "No Color Lines" under the new phase of the format.

Also in 1992, KSOL, which ironically suffered in ratings due to KMEL's newfound success, retooled itself as KYLD (then-"Wild 107") and quickly emerged as KMEL's prime competitor for their mutual core audience demographic.[2] The fierce competition over the coveted 18-34 "urban" listening audience continued for another four years until the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 made it substantially easier for radio stations to solve their problems with competitors by simply buying the competition. Evergreen Media ended the ratings war with KYLD by purchasing it later that year.[19] Meanwhile, a third competitor, KHQT out of San Jose, was also in competition with the two stations until 1995, when it changed formats under new ownership.

In the 1990s, KMEL's DJ duo Sway & King Tech put together a show called "Westside Radio" which featured guest DJs who were rappers, including Ice-T, Ice Cube, Kid Frost, LA Dream Team, Snoop Dogg, and Rodney-O & Joe Cooley.[3]

Chancellor Media (later AMFM Inc.) later purchased Evergreen Media (along with subsidiaries KMEL and KYLD), and AMFM was then swallowed up by Clear Channel Communications via a $24 billion deal in 1999. Controversially, KMEL canceled its Sunday night Street Soldiers public affairs program.[20] Today, the program has been renewed and airs every Sunday night 8-9 pm PST. Hosted by Dr. Joseph E. Marshall, the program focuses on current events and controversial topics that effect the African American community and its youth.[21] However, the station's commitment to community activism in its programming was notably questioned by the activist community in the aftermath of the post-September 11 firing of DJ and long-time Community Affairs Coordinator David "Davey D" Cook. Though the station stated that economic considerations had forced it to let Cook go, many felt that he had been dismissed for programming decisions and on-air remarks construed as "unpatriotic" in light of the country's "earnest" mobilization for the War on Terror.[22]

On October 1, 2001, radio personality and hip-hop activist David "Davey D" Cook was terminated, due to what the station said were consistently low ratings. His dismissal occurred after new Program Director Michael Martin took charge of the station, happened at the same time as the station changed many programming elements, and coincided with the layoffs of several other station personnel, including on-air personalities Trace-Dog Nunez, Rosary, and Franzen Wong. Cook, however, claims his departure was due to his political views, including his having aired statements from California Congresswoman Barbara Lee and rapper Boots of The Coup voicing opposition to the War in Afghanistan.[23]

On August 15, 2013, KMEL fired longtime morning host Jesus "Chuy" Gomez after 20 years.[24]

Current On-Air Talent

6:00am-10:00am weekdays

"The Sana G. Morning Show"

  • Sana G. host
  • Miss Kimmie entertainment reporter/co-host
  • Durell "DC" Coleman co-host
  • G. Biz co-host
  • Lady Ray "KMEL's Go! Patrol" traffic
  • DJ Lexx Jones and "The 106 KMEL's Sana G. Morning mix"
  • Max Rosenhaus Executive Producer

10:00am-2:00pm weekdays

"DC's House"

  • Durell "DC" Coleman host
  • DJ Rick "The Dragon" Lee and "The 106 KMEL's 12 O'Clock Throwback Mix" mixer

2:00pm-6:00pm weekdays

  • Big Von Johnson host
  • DJ Rick "The Dragon" Lee and "The 106 KMEL's 5 O'Clock Drive Time Hip-Hop Mix" mixer

6:00pm-10:00pm weeknights

  • Shay Diddy host
  • Big Von Johnson co-host/mixer

1:00am-4:00am weeknights

  • Steven "Ble$$ed Q." Quintero host

Weekends

  • Radio Reem host
  • Tinka host
  • Box Kev host
  • Dr. Joseph Marshall host

The 106 KMEL Mixmasters

  • DJ Amen mixer
  • DJ Knuckles mixer
  • DJ Rolo mixer
  • DJ Black Marc mixer
  • DJ Lexx Jones mixer
  • DJ Rick "The Dragon" Lee mixer

KMEL's current format and programming

The majority of KMEL's playlist features music under rubric of the Urban Contemporary format, heavy with hip-hop and R&B. In addition to competing with sister station KYLD which uses a Rhythmic contemporary format, KMEL also competes with its Urban adult contemporary ("Urban AC") counterparts: sister station KISQ and pioneering Urban AC station KBLX (now owned by Entercom, while KBLX would be pretty much KMEL's only competitor today). While most hip-hop stations elsewhere tend to have a mainstream urban format should it be co-owned with an Urban AC, KMEL has been allowed to protect its format approach only because KISQ leans more mainstream/old school R&B and KYLD leans partially Top 40/Pop-ish in its format. KMEL reports as rhythmic contemporary per Mediabase, even though they're not a rhythmic contemporary station (another urban station on the rhythmic panel of Mediabase & urban panel of Nielsen BDS was WJHM in Orlando, Florida until morphing to rhythmic and was moved over to BDS' Rhythmic panel in February 2012. Another station, WPGC-FM in Washington, D.C., would follow suit in July 2012). Per Nielsen BDS reports, they are urban contemporary, KBFB in Dallas/Fort Worth are rhythmic contemporary stations per Mediabase reports, but they report on the BDS urban panel despite being the only rhythmics in those areas where there are existing urban contemporary stations (WKYS/WERQ & KKDA-FM). KMEL, as of 2012, is now listed as urban contemporary per RadioStationWorld.com rather than rhythmic. It is one of the last remaining urban contemporary stations on the Mediabase rhythmic panel.

KMEL suffered a setback in ratings between 2009 and 2010. This was mainly due in part to Arbitron phasing out the diary keeping approach to ratings for the PPMs. This contributed to the brief decline of KMEL's ratings since the station has a specific audience target. While any longtime urban contemporary stations in other major cities (like WPGC-FM in Washington D.C. and KPRS in Kansas City) had to introduce songs typical of what is played on rhythmic radio stations to reboost ratings, KMEL programming executives decided not to revert to its rhythmic/urban roots; it remained urban and instead the playlist rotation was tightened as of 2010 in order to keep the longtime station from changing formats.[citation needed]

In addition to its typical daytime mixture of hip hop and R&B, KMEL plays R&B and soul slow jams from roughly 10:00 pm to 1:00 am Monday through Thursday. The 10:00pm hour of that shift is known as "The Ten O'Clock Booty Call" with the remaining two hours devoted solely to slow jam love songs dubbed as "The KMEL Lounge". Urban contemporary gospel airs on Sunday mornings. KMEL is one of two area stations to play gospel; KBLX is the other. It even plays Old School hip hop and soul during midday mix show "The Twelve O'Clock Throwback Mix", on Friday mornings "Funky Fridays", and mixed in general during their weekend playlist rotation.

In line with its slogan, "The People's Station", KMEL broadcasts the community-affairs show Street Soldiers, hosted by Dr. Joseph E. Marshall, on Sunday evenings.[25] However, the station's commitment to community activism in its programming was notably questioned by the activist community in the aftermath of the post-September 11 firing of DJ and long-time Community Affairs Coordinator David "Davey D" Cook. Though the station stated that economic considerations had forced it to let Cook go, many felt that he had been dismissed for programming decisions and on-air remarks construed as "unpatriotic" in light of the country's "earnest" mobilization for the War on Terror.[26]

Alumni

KMEL is noted as the station that helped launch the careers of many Bay Area hip hop & R&B artists in the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s, including En Vogue, Tupac Shakur, Digital Underground, Oaktown's 3.5.7., MC Hammer, Timex Social Club, Tony!, Toni!, Tone'!, E-40, The Coup, Too Short, Suga T., Club Nouveau, Coolio Da' Undadogg, Mistah F.A.B., and Mac Dre just to name a few.[2][3]

Many popular Bay Area and national media personalities either got their start or spent time working at KMEL, including Joe Regelski, Mary Halloway, Alex Bennett, Geno Michellini, Theo Mizuhara, John London, Ron Engelman, Howard Hoffman (aka Howard "The Refrigerator" Hoffman), Sonny Joe Fox, Don Sainte-Johnn, Rick Shaw, "Marvelous" Mark McKay, DJ Cameron Paul, Michael Erickson, Sue Hall, Rick Chase, Billy Vidal, Diana Steele, Carmen, Evan Luck, Rosary, The Baka Boyz, Lisa St. Regis, Efren Sifuentes, Renel Lewis, Trace-Dog Nunez and Franzen Wong, Mark Todd, Kevin Nash, J. Paul Emerson, Cousin Johnny, DJ "X", who is currently know as DJ "Earl Gray", Billy "Bill The Gill" Alexander, DJ Short-E (currently at KHHM in Sacramento), DJ Slim (currently at KJHM and KDHT in Denver), Kimberly Clemons, "Broadway" Bill Lee (who is now at WCBS-FM in New York), David "Davey D." Cook, Christopher Lance, MTV's Sway Calloway, DJ King Tech, and Jesus "Chuy" Gomez.[3]

Promoting hyphy

The station has played a significant role in the promotion of hyphy music in the San Francisco Bay Area by playing tunes from many of the local artists associated with hyphy. KMEL's mixshows have long contained exclusive hyphy music which can seldom be heard over the airwaves elsewhere in the country. Because the station broadcasts live via streaming audio from their website, it gives the genre a platform for possible worldwide exposure.

References

  1. ^ http://www.w9wi.com/articles/grand_fm.htm
  2. ^ a b c Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, p. 441.
  3. ^ a b c d Kava, Brad (January 17, 2007). "For 20 Years, KMEL Has Been King of the Hip-Hop Hill". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2013. Cite error: The named reference "bradkava" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ "KGO-FM San Francisco Planning to Start Today" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 3, 1947. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  5. ^ a b McDonough, Jack (November 1, 1980). "San Francisco FM Power: KMEL Seeks 'Total Demographic'". Billboard. 92 (44). Nielsen Business Media: 22. ISSN 0006-2510.
  6. ^ Billboard
  7. ^ McDonough, Jack (February 20, 1982). "KMEL Promos Revolve Around Alex Bennett". Billboard. 94 (7). Nielsen Business Media: 25. ISSN 0006-2510.
  8. ^ McDonough, Jack (February 20, 1982). "The AOR Battlefield". Billboard. 94 (7). Nielsen Business Media: 25. ISSN 0006-2510.
  9. ^ a b "Vox Jox: KQAK Gets New Lineup". Billboard. 94 (34). Nielsen Business Media: 15. August 28, 1982. ISSN 0006-2510.
  10. ^ a b "Format Turntable: Bay Area AOR Battle Heats Up". Billboard. 94 (33). Nielsen Business Media: 17. August 21, 1982. ISSN 0006-2510.
  11. ^ a b c d Charnas, Dan (2011). The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop. Penguin. pp. 260–261. ISBN 1101568119.
  12. ^ Chang, Jeff (2005). Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 440. ISBN 0-312-30143-X.
  13. ^ Farley, Ellen (May 20, 1985). "Unusual 'Bangkok' Scores RCA Hit: Putting Song on Charts Just Part of Larger 'Chess' Project". Los Angeles Times.
  14. ^ Bornstein, Rollye (March 9, 1985). "Vox Jox". Billboard. 97 (10). Nielsen Business Media: 19. ISSN 0006-2510.
  15. ^ Freeman, Kim (November 16, 1985). "Vox Jox". Billboard. 97 (46). Nielsen Business Media: 14. ISSN 0006-2510.
  16. ^ Freeman, Kim (February 22, 1986). "Promotions". Billboard. 98 (8). Nielsen Business Media: 15. ISSN 0006-2510.
  17. ^ "Bobby Ocean, 610 KFRC San Francisco – August 8, 1986". AirChexx, April 4, 2013. Retrieved on January 5, 2014.
  18. ^ Charnas 2011, p. 264.
  19. ^ Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, p. 442.
  20. ^ Johnson, Chip (October 26, 1999). "Opposition To KMEL Merger / `Street Soldiers' creator speaks out in Oakland". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
  21. ^ Street Soldiers Radio Program
  22. ^ Baudry, Jennifer (December 19, 2001). "Another 9/11 Media Scapegoat?". AlterNet.org. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  23. ^ Chang, Jeff (2003-01-22). "Urban Radio Rage". SFBayGuardian.com. San Francisco Bay Guardian. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  24. ^ Vaziri, Aidin (August 17, 2013). "KMEL fires popular morning host 'Chuy' Gomez". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  25. ^ Street Soldiers Radio Program
  26. ^ Baudry, Jennifer (December 19, 2001). "Another 9/11 Media Scapegoat?". AlterNet.org. Retrieved 2007-03-01.

37°41′24″N 122°26′17″W / 37.690°N 122.438°W / 37.690; -122.438

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