KMEL

Infobox Radio Station


name = KMEL
city = San Francisco, California
broadcast area = San Francisco Bay Area airdate = 1947
frequency = 106.1 (MHz) HD Radio
area = San Francisco Bay Area
format = Urban Contemporary
owner = Clear Channel Communications
erp = KMEL: 69,000 watts
KMEL-2: 6500 watts (vertical)
haat = KMEL: 393 meters
KMEL-2: 0 meters
branding = "106 KMEL"
slogan = "The People's Station", "The Bay Area's Home for Hip Hop and R&B"
class = KMEL: B
KMEL-2: D
webcast = [http://www.106kmel.com/listenlive.html Listen Live]
website = [http://www.106kmel.com/ http://www.106kmel.com/]
callsign_meaning = CAMEL 106 (name of former branding and camel mascot)
sister_stations = KIOI, KISQ, KKGN, KKSF, KNEW, KYLD

KMEL (106.1 FM) is an Urban Contemporary-formatted radio station located in San Francisco, California, and owned by Clear Channel Communications.

KMEL 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 can easily be heard all over the Bay Area and covers areas as far north as Santa Rosa, as far east as Concord and the Livermore Valley, and as far south as the Santa Cruz Mountains and, reputedly, the Salinas Valley. There is some difficulty reaching the signal from the city of Fairfield and areas North of Concord due to the topography of those areas. It is currently one of the highest rated stations in the Bay Area, with the largest listening audience in the 18-to-34 demographic.

History

1940s-1950s

The 106.1 FM frequency was originally home to KGO-FM, sister station of KGO. The FM station was originally licensed at 96.9 FM in 1946. KGO-FM moved to 106.1 FM on November 3, 1947, 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.

1960s-1970s

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 Bill Drake-programmed "nostalgia rock" format. playing oldies and soft rock as "K106". On July 1, 1977, after Century Broadcasting purchased the FM station, K106 was rebranded KMEL, playing Album-Oriented Rock ("AOR"). Its mascot was a camel (hence the call letters) and was known on-air as "Kamel 106".

1980s

KMEL was a top-rated station during that time, and with newer rival KSFX helped force legendary rival KSAN to switch to country music in 1980. That same year, KMEL signed popular New York radio personality and San Francisco native Alex Bennett as host of its new morning show. Bennett, along with newsreader/sidekick Joe Regelski, helped propel KMEL even higher in the ratings. During this era, afternoon DJ Geno Mitchellini also helped give KMEL one of the highest ratings in the Bay Area market for his afternoons time slot.

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, "The Bay Area Rocker," and began its long run as a dominant rock station. In May of that year, KSFX dropped rock and went to a talk format as KGO-FM. A month later, Bennett and Regelski both left KMEL in a disagreement over a newly hired consultant, only to resurface in August at new rock station KQAK, "The Quake". In September, KFOG entered the battle for rock-listener marketshare after dropping its Beautiful Music format in favor of an eclectic mix of rock.

With four AOR stations in San Francisco, in addition to two more in San Jose, KMEL faced stiff competition. Though KQAK gave up its AOR format the following April and picked up Modern Rock, KRQR and KFOG still put enough pressure on KMEL to bring about a significant programming change at the station.

KMEL began broadcasting in a mainstream, Contemporary Hit Radio ("CHR") [cite book | last = Chang | first = Jeff | authorlink = Jeff Chang (journalist)| title = | publisher = St. Martin's Press| date = 2005| location = New York, New York| pages = 440| url = http://www.cantstopwontstop.com/| isbn = 031230143X ] format on August 25, 1984. The new "106 KMEL" (pronounced "K-Mel" back then) was successful in capturing marketshare, and its success helped push main CHR rival KITS toward Modern Rock formatting. By 1987, the station's programming started to drift in a rhythmic direction under the slogan, "106.1 KMEL, "Northern California's Power Station." Program director Keith Naftaly helped make this incarnation of KMEL again one of the top stations in the Bay Area.

In early 1987, KMEL hired popular club DJ Cameron Paul away from rival KSOL, gaining his forward-thinking mix show and its sizable audience in the deal. This was a harbinger of a very progressive change in format and, as the 1980s gave way to the 1990s, KMEL became one of the first crossover pop stations in the nation to target young multiracial audiences with not-yet-mainstream hip-hop, dance, freestyle, house, and reggae music. These parallel music and marketing developments paved the way for KMEL's evolution into its present-day Urban Contemporary format.

1990s-present

In 1992, KMEL had finally revamped its current format to Urban Contemporary as "KMEL Jams", More Music" (even though it was still an official Rhythmic under Mediabase's R&R panel until 2006). At the same time, KSOL retooled itself and became "Wild 107.7" (KYLD), quickly emerging as KMEL's prime competitor for their mutual core audience demographic.Chang, "Can't Stop Won't Stop", 441.] 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. KMEL's owner, Evergreen Media, ended the ratings war with KYLD by purchasing it later that year. [Chang, "Can't Stop Won't Stop", 442.] Meanwhile, a third competitor, KHQT out of San Jose, was also in competition with the two stations until 1996 until it changed formats under new ownership.

Chancellor Broadcasting (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.

logans

The station's slogan has changed numerous times over its history, most recently changing from "The People's Station" to "The Bay Area's Home for Hip Hop and R&B." The station celebrated 20 years of broadcasting on the air as a hip hop station in 2007. [ [http://www.kmel.com/pages/20thann.html 106 KMEL - HIP HOP AND R&B ] ] It also has been the longest tenured urban station in California; this comes after several urban stations in Los Angeles recently flipped formats or retooled them to rhythmic or urban adult "(see KRBV, KHHT, KPWR and KDAY)".

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 (owned by ICBC). While most hip hop stations elsewhere tend to have a mainstream urban format should it be co-owned with an Urban AC sisters, 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.

In addition to its typical daytime mixture of hip hop and R&B, KMEL plays R&B and soul slow jams at night Sunday through Thursday and urban contemporary gospel Sunday mornings. KMEL is the only hip-hop/R&B station in its market to do this, though Urban AC-format stations KISQ and KBLX follow the same practice. It even plays Old School hip hop and soul during the midday mix show and on Friday mornings/

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. [ [http://www.street-soldiers.org/ss_affiliates2.htm Street Soldiers Radio Program ] ] 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 11th 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. [cite news |first=Jennifer |last=Baudry |title="Another 9/11 Media Scapegoat?" |url=http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/12111/ |publisher=AlterNet.org |date=December 19, 2001 |accessdate=2007-03-01 ] (See "The controversial firing of Davey D," below)

Points of interest

Alumni

KMEL is noted as the station that helped launch the careers of many "West Coast" hip hop artists in the 1990s, such as Tupac Shakur, MC Hammer, E-40, Too Short and Mac Dre.cite news
last = Kava
first = Brad
coauthors =
title = For 20 Years, KMEL Has Been King of the Hip-Hop Hill
work = RedOrbit.com
pages =
language =
publisher = San Jose Mercury News
date = 2007-01-17
url = http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/804537/san_jose_mercury_news_calif_brad_kava_column_kava_for/index.html
accessdate = ]

Many popular Bay Area and national media personalities either got their start or spent time working at KMEL, including Theo Mizuhara, John London, Cameron Paul, Michael Erickson, the late Rick Chase, Billy Vidal, Diana Steele, Carmen, Evan Luck, Rosary, Lisa St. Regis, Efren Sifuentes, Renel Lewis, Trace and Franzen, Short-E, Slim, Kimberly Clemons, and MTV's Sway and King Tech, as well as such up-and-coming stars as Short-E at KBMB in Sacramento and SliM at KQKS in Denver.

Role in the Hyphy Movement

The station has played a significant role in the genesis and promulgation of the "Hyphy Movement" in the San Francisco Bay Area by playing music 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 possibly worldwide exposure.

The controversial firing of Davey D

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 closely coincided with the layoffs of several other station personnel, including on-air personalities Trace-Dog Nunez, Rosary Bides, and Franzen Wong. Cook, however, claims his departure was due to his having aired statements from California Congresswoman Barbara Lee and rapper Boots of The Coup voicing opposition to the War in Afghanistan. cite web | last = Chang | first = Jeff| authorlink = Jeff Chang (journalist) | title = Urban Radio Rage | work = SFBayGuardian.com | publisher = San Francisco Bay Guardian | date = 2003-01-22 | url = http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/18/cover_kmel.html | accessdate = 2007-07-21 ]

Cook's "Street Knowledge" program debuted in 1995 as a talk show for the hip-hop generation. The show, alongside sister show "Street Soldiers", brought problems that faced the urban community of the Bay Area to the forefront of discussion. Cook said the termination of his show seemed to symbolize the end of an era in which community input, local music, and progressive politics were valued at KMEL. cite web | last = Chang | first = Jeff| authorlink = Jeff Chang (journalist) | title = Urban Radio Rage | work = SFBayGuardian.com | publisher = San Francisco Bay Guardian | date = 2003-01-22 | url = http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/18/cover_kmel.html | accessdate = 2007-07-21 ]

Cook charged that the last remaining community-affairs program, "Street Soldiers", excludes his views. He noted that local artists,­ who make up one of the most vibrant and diverse rap music scenes in the country, are not heard on the station, and that he refused to listen to the station anymore. cite web | last = Chang | first = Jeff| authorlink = Jeff Chang (journalist) | title = Urban Radio Rage | work = SFBayGuardian.com | publisher = San Francisco Bay Guardian | date = 2003-01-22 | url = http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/18/cover_kmel.html | accessdate = 2007-07-21 ]

Since then, the forces of competition, particularly in the form of radio station "Power" 92.7, which briefly switched from a dance format to a hip-hop/R&B format similar to that of KMEL, have led to a partial resolution to some of the issues raised by Cook, leading the station to reintroduce local artists to the station's playlist [cite news
last = Liu
first = Marian
coauthors =
title = Homegrown Hip Hop
work = MercuryNews.com
pages =
language =
publisher = San Jose Mercury News
date = 2005-03-28
url = http://www.mercurynews.com/hiphop/ci_5867468
accessdate = 2007-07-21] and to become somewhat more community oriented.

External links

* [http://www.106kmel.com/ 106KMEL]
* [http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kmel/ Bay Area Radio Museum: The Complete KMEL Airchecks Collection]
* [http://njs4e.com/kmel.html KMEL Summer Jam - The Original "Summer Jam" concerts by Andrew Knyte of NJS4E]
* [http://mixx-it.blogspot.com/ Cameron Paul Blog]
*FMQ|KMEL
*FML|KMEL

References