KSWD

KSWD
City of license	Los Angeles Newhall, California
Broadcast area	Greater Los Angeles
Branding	"100.3 The Sound"
Slogan	"It's All About The Music"
Frequency	100.3 MHz (Also on HD Radio)
Repeaters	K261AB 100.1 MHz (Newhall)
First air date	1950s 1984
Format	AOR
ERP	KSWD: 5,400 watts K261AB: 7 watts
HAAT	KSWD: 916 meters K261AB: 597 meters
Class	KSWD: B K261AB: D
Callsign meaning	K SoWnD (play on the word "sound")
Owner	Bonneville International
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	thesoundla.com

KSWD ("100.3 The Sound") is a Bonneville International-owned radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. The station currently broadcasts an AOR format to the greater Los Angeles area. Previously, the station was owned by Radio One and had an urban AC format as KKBT "The Beat" and later KRBV "V-100". A repeater in Newhall, K261AB on 100.1 MHz, extends KSWD's coverage to the north of the Los Angeles area.

History

The station at 100.3 FM debuted in the 1950s as a background music station with the call letters KMLA. Later, it became KFOX-FM, the country sister station to KFOX (1280 AM) in Long Beach.

KIQQ

In 1972, 100.3 FM was purchased by four businessmen who changed the call letters to KIQQ (K100), in an attempt to capitalize on its 100.3 MHz dial location. The next year, with the station's soft rock format failing to gain ratings or billing, KIQQ brought in deposed KHJ heavyweights Bill Drake and Gene Chenault, who contracted to program and manage the station.

In spite of bringing in former KHJ powerhouse jocks, including Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele, certain management and programming decisions are believed to have led to the demise of Drake-Chenault's run at 100.3. By 1975, Morgan and Steele were gone. Ultimately, the station cut costs drastically by airing a generic national format via satellite.

In the early 1980’s “K-100” dropped its handle, and kept to the calls as "KIQQ” with a live and local aggressive CHR Top 40 format. The on-air lineup included Jeff Thomas, G.W. McCoy, and Francesca Cappucci. "Play Hits for Cash" was a regular promotion. KIQQ simulcasted the NBC show Friday Night Videos, and even had Wally George as a weekend call in host. KIQQ also carried American Top 40 in 1983, after competing station KIIS-FM lost AT40 over the playing of network commercials, forcing KIIS to create its own chart show, Rick Dees Weekly Top 40.^[1]

By 1986, with competition from KIIS, KKHR, and KBZT proving too intense (KIIS alone had a 10 rating in the Arbitron book), KIQQ became "100.3 K-Lite." That lasted for three years before the launch of another new format.

KQLZ - "Pirate Radio"

In 1989, KIQQ was sold to Westwood One, which hired Scott Shannon from WHTZ in New York to program the station. They became KQLZ "Pirate Radio 100.3" in the spring of 1989, airing a Top 40 playlist heavily leaning toward rock. While they played a lot of heavy metal they also mixed in some mainstream rock and even a few dance songs by artists like Madonna. The first ratings books showed an initial spike, but faded rather quickly, once the novelty wore off. KQLZ eventually dropped the dance songs and went completely rock. Shannon was let go, and he eventually went back to New York to program WPLJ.

Changing hands and frequencies

Finally opting to leave the radio ownership business, Westwood One sold KQLZ to Viacom (now CBS Radio) in 1993 and the new owners killed the Pirate Radio format. The KXEZ call letters moved from 98.7 FM to 100.3, along with their Soft AC format. KXEZ's former frequency, 98.7 FM, became KYSR, evolving into a Hot AC format.

KIBB

In 1996, the station changed calls to KIBB ("B 100.3") and flipped to a dance-leaning Rhythmic Hot AC format. The move was to go after listeners who have become disenfranchised with the increasing hip-hop content at KPWR. In 1997, Chancellor would buy KIBB, added currents to its playlist and shifted directions to Rhythmic Contemporary Hits.

Despite the effort and a promotional campaign (one memorable ad featured a large billboard of a Latina woman dancing placed near a building on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles), KIBB couldn't make a dent in the ratings. After two years and minor tweaks in its playlist and direction, KIBB fate was sealed when Chancellor decided to drop the format in November 1997 for yet another short-lived fad: Rhythmic Oldies as "Mega 100.3". Chancellor merged with Capstar in 1999, forming AMFM Inc.

The Beat under Radio One

In the fall of 1999, Clear Channel Communications and AMFM Inc. announced they would merge. However, in order to get under the government-mandated market ownership limits, some stations were required to be spun-off. One of the full powered FMs in Los Angeles had to go. KKBT's intellectual unit began to seal its fate and 92.3 FM was chosen, and it was sold to Radio One. However, Clear Channel wanted to keep the best possible signals and gave Radio One the less desirable frequency of 100.3. Leading up to the frequency swap, rumors swirled about the fate of each station's format when the stations flipped frequencies. Some speculation had 92.3 FM going Active Rock, possibly with the KMET call letters.

When the switch was made on June 30, 2000, the formats remained the same, with 100.3 becoming KKBT, "100.3 the Beat" and 92.3 becoming KCMG, "Mega 92.3". Mega's format on 92.3 did move in more of an Urban Adult Contemporary direction, as the "Jammin' Oldies" format was starting to fade in popularity. Eventually KCMG became KHHT "Hot 92.3," a direct competitor to KKBT. Soon afterward, KKBT released their morning team of Dre and Ed Lover plus afternoon drivers Baka Boyz.

During the first four years under Radio One, KKBT enjoyed modest success as it battled KPWR for the R&B/hip-hop crown. KKBT heavily promoted Steve Harvey as its high-profile morning star and billed itself under the slogan of "Harvey & Hip-Hop". However, ultimately KKBT never overtook KPWR in the ratings. Harvey was also at odds with station management over the station's hip-hop content and refused to play questionable songs during his show until his departure from the station.

But in 2004, the station began showing signs of erosion in ratings, as it faced new competition. KDAY debuted its own hip-hop format in 2004, siphoning off a good number of KKBT listeners. KXOL-FM's flip to reggaeton in 2005, took many of The Beat's Hispanic listeners. KKBT went through a great deal of turmoil, with several popular airstaffers leaving or being dismissed from 2002 through 2006.

"Rhythm & Talk"

On May 19, 2006, KKBT officially threw in the towel as a Mainstream Urban outlet and flipped to a hybrid Urban Adult Contemporary/Urban Talk format dubbed "Rhythm & Talk". According to the press release that was featured on the station's website: "The new format, which will engage 25-49 year old adults, takes the best music of Urban Adult Contemporary stations and adds compelling content delivered by proven national personalities Tom Joyner, Ananda Lewis, Michael Baisden, Wendy Williams and Free."

However, the 'Rhythm and Talk' emphasis did not succeed in the ratings, and the station dropped Free and Lewis first from the lineup. Williams, which aired on tape delay after midnight on weekends, was dropped later, and the Tom Joyner Morning Show was dropped when it could not compete with Steve Harvey on KDAY. Other on-air staffers also left the station; Baisden remained until KRBV's format flip in April 2008. Michael Baisden later landed on KDAY, before being dropped by the station in August 2009.

KKBT was the last full market Hip Hop/R&B station to use the Urban format as opposed to Rhythmic, not to mention the only one that covered the metro. However, much of its target audience tuned to other stations: Hispanics preferred KPWR and KXOL-FM, African-Americans had KHHT, KJLH, and to a lesser extent KTWV as options; and in the meantime KMVN debuted and targeted older listeners with dance pop from the 1980s to the present day. With that, ratings suffered, and speculation grew about its future. Emmis Broadcasting reportedly was interested in the station, but decided not to buy it.

Eventually, KKBT elected to go head-to-head with the Urban AC formats of KHHT and long-time Compton-based KJLH . The station also hired Cliff Winston away from KJLH for afternoon drive.

KRBV - "V-100"

Radio One began in October 2006 referencing the "Beat" brand less in its promos. Promos would only reference the 100.3 frequency and in December 2006 briefly touted "Majic", giving rise to speculation that Radio One would use the Majic brand, most notably found on sister stations WMMJ in Washington, DC, WWIN-FM in Baltimore, and KMJQ in Houston.

However, on December 29, 2006, Radio One instead unveiled "The New V-100". With that, an Urban heritage based era came to an end: The KKBT callsign was no more after 16 years, and "The Beat" branding forever erased as a piece of radio brand history was gone because KKBT was the very first radio station to carry "The Beat" moniker. The same moment, the calls were changed to KRBV. (Ironically, KRBV and V-100 was used on an Urban AC station in Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in the mid to late-1990s. That station is now KJKK.) The imaging was similar in fashion to WRKS in New York City, perhaps a reason being that Barry Mayo, the former general manager for WRKS, is consulting Radio One and thus wanted to use similar imaging for this station. The re-imaging and airstaff changes did not help the station's ratings, however. At a stockholders' meeting in 2007, some investors called for KRBV to be sold, but company officials said that they had no plans to do so. One possible reason for this is that KRBV was the only Radio One-owned and operated station in the three leading markets in the U.S. (it does not own stations in New York City or Chicago). Also, a sale of KRBV would come at a loss to Radio One compared to how much it originally paid for it, possibly because of the residual effects of the frequency swap with KHHT.

"100.3 The Sound"

On March 24, 2008, Radio One announced that the station was been sold to Bonneville International for $137.5 million dollars. The transaction closed in the second quarter of 2008. ^[2] According to a spokesperson for Bonneville, the station would continue to be a music station, although there were rumors that the station would actually flip to news/talk (similar to sister stations KTAR-FM in Phoenix, Arizona and WWWT in Washington, D.C.). On April 3, Bonneville confirmed the adult album alternative format.^[3] On their final day, April 7, 2008, KRBV's air staffers bid farewell to their listeners.

On April 8, 2008, Bonneville International took over the operations of KRBV, then dropped the Adult R&B format at midnight Pacific time. The station began stunting as "Bruce Radio 100.3", playing all of Bruce Springsteen's hits (in connection to his show that night at Honda Center in Anaheim, California). After ten hours of playing "The Boss," KRBV made the following announcement: "Hello, and welcome to what we hope will be a new beginning for Southern California and music fans everywhere." At 10 a.m., the station became "100.3 The Sound" and the AAA format officially began. The new station offers listeners a cornucopia of rock, stretching from the '60s all the way to "last week," according to Bonneville vice president of programming Greg Solk and executive VP Drew Horowitz. In an interview from R&R the day of the launch, Bonneville president and chief executive officer Bruce Reese told the music trade, "It’s great to be back in L.A." He added that "we are truly excited about our new station -- 100.3 the Sound will be a music station that has absolute respect for the music and that features a broad playlist."

KSWD's new format and "The Sound" logo was loosely patterned after its sister station in Cincinnati, Ohio, WSWD. But whereas KSWD's direction will take a broader approach, WSWD's direction is focused mostly on 1990s and current fare. WSWD has officially left the terrestrial airwaves in 2009.

On May 14, 2008, new call letters, KSWD, were officially introduced.

KSWD is the fourth station in the Los Angeles radio market to program a Triple-A format -- KNX-FM, KSCA and KACD/KBCD have featured the format in past years. The last of those stations also used the positioning statement "World Class Rock for Southern California."

More recently, as of May, 2009, KSWD dropped most of their new music for traditional, classic rock artists, although their playlist includes many more deep album tracks than their nearest competitors, KLOS and KCBS-FM.

In result of pulling most of their new music off the station, KSWD was pulled off Mediabase's AAA Reporting stations. The station is now seen as an AOR station playing a majority of recurrents with only a handful of currents.

On Friday, July 10, the station held a "Finally A KMET Friday" to honor past LA rock radio station KMET. The day featured many of the original DJs from the station and much of the original music, promos and sound clips from the station. The day concluded with a three hour Bruce Springsteen live KMET concert from 1978.

HD Radio

KSWD over the years has had a variety of formats on its HD channels. The current formats at present are 'Deep Tracks' (Rock) on the HD2 channel, and 'The Mormon Channel' featuring programming from the LDS Church on the HD3 channel.

On-air personalities

On June 3, 2008, the station's first on-air host made an appearance - his name is Andy Chanley and he mans the afternoon drive. Chanley previously did middays on former alternative station KLYY and mornings on KACD/KBCD.

Other notable weekday on-air personalities include Larry Morgan (morning Drive), Julie Slater (middays), and Mike Powers (nights). Weekend personalities include Dred Scott, Mimi Chen (who worked evenings on KSCA in the 1990s), and Cynthia Dees.

References

External links

• Station Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KSWD
• Radio Locator information on KSWD
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for KSWD
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K261AB