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Am I the only one to notice KPWR 105.9 Power 106 has stopped playing pop music?

cer1992

cer1992

Regular Participant
Checking the mediabase request line page of this station, the music programming is completely composed of strictly hip hop & r&b except for a few edm songs from the saturday late night mixes. Last year up until the middle of the summer, Ariana Grande's Love Me Harder, Pitbull's Time of Our Lives, Dj Snake's You Know You Like It, Major Lazer's Lean On, and Pia Mia's Do It Again were all in moderate to heavy rotation on Power 106. Then summer, even Rhythmic pop song ceased in favor of an increasing hip hop playlist. Not to mention none of these songs made the year end countdown of 2015. Sure, Power 106 still plays Non urban artists like Baby Bash and Macklemore's Can't Hold Us, but this stationis now more urban than Hot 97 in New York. Hot 97 been playing Sorry by Justin Bieber. It was even number one last time I checked the playlist for that station at allaccess.com, while Power hasn't gave Sorry even a single spin. Furthermore, the current number one song on Rhythmic's chart is Work From Home by Fifth Harmony feat. Ty Dolla Sign. Power 106 hasn't played it one bit like they would've if it was last year or a few years ago.
 
Never listened to KPWR and their skewed format favoring hip hop over the years. Always favored KIIS-FM and their pop / rock lineup for many years, after Top 40 XTRA 690 changed formats back in the mid 80's.
 
I'm only 23 right now, but I know there wasa time Power 106 and KIIS were going at it during the late 8ps into the early 90s back when Power was playing Freestyle Dance and Urban Pop before their music base became Hip hop.
 
Amp Radio has successfully established itself as KIIS' primary competitor now. So, perhaps this is Power's reaction to Real's challenge from the Urban side of the spectrum.
 
Seems to me they made this decision a year ago with the direction of their morning show. I'm not surprised they've adjusted their music to fit with the overall image.
 
By all means, I'm happy its now actually embracing its "Where Hip Hop Lives" slogan. Not that I dislike Pop music, but that's what KIIS and KAMP are for.
 
Nothing more than direct reaction to KRRL over the past year. Not only did they steal Big Boy away but KRRL while reporting as an Urban is Programmed very wisely to cater to the market and in this case young Latinos, which is KPWR's core demo. Essentially KRRL is really a Hip Hop Leaning Rhythmic and KPWR had to protect since this head to head battle started and is now at the losing end. It doesn't help that the new morning show has an uphill battle to climb, and they just lost their night show. I never thought I'd see the day where such a major station like KPWR is not even Top 5 in the 18-34 demo. Would the solution be to give up the direct battle with KRRL and go more Mass Appeal Rhythmic to take away from KRRL, KIIS, and KAMP instead of just focusing on one? Does LA have room for two Hip Hop stations?
 
radiolife3 said:
Does LA have room for two Hip Hop stations?
Click to expand...

They appear to be trying to super-serve that audience, and hope that by focusing on one format, they can win the whole group, rather than appeal to a segment of a larger pie. To be honest, it's not the way I'd go.
 
TheBigA said:
They appear to be trying to super-serve that audience, and hope that by focusing on one format, they can win the whole group, rather than appeal to a segment of a larger pie. To be honest, it's not the way I'd go.
Click to expand...

Since the Power core is Hispanic, and the interest in pop-leaning material by that target seems to have diminished, the move is logical.
 
Probably the Rock/Alt Pop but I can totally see Latinos in LA embracing Rhythm Pop artists like Chainsmokers, Fifth Harmony, Pitbull, Mike Posner, Flo Rida, and even Bieber ("Sorry" J. Balvin Remix). I think KPWR if in fact is catering to that core is making the age old assumption that all Southern California Latinos like the thug gangster hip hop which does't really tell the entire story, this isn't the late 90s. I think a more Mass Appeal sound with the still "cool" Hip Hop image (not Urban but Mass Appeal Hip hop, there is a difference) would present a better attack than accepting to be the second Hip Hop station to the new leader with the heritage morning show.
 
radiolife3 said:
Probably the Rock/Alt Pop but I can totally see Latinos in LA embracing Rhythm Pop artists like Chainsmokers, Fifth Harmony, Pitbull, Mike Posner, Flo Rida, and even Bieber ("Sorry" J. Balvin Remix). I think KPWR if in fact is catering to that core is making the age old assumption that all Southern California Latinos like the thug gangster hip hop which does't really tell the entire story, this isn't the late 90s. I think a more Mass Appeal sound with the still "cool" Hip Hop image (not Urban but Mass Appeal Hip hop, there is a difference) would present a better attack than accepting to be the second Hip Hop station to the new leader with the heritage morning show.
Click to expand...

Certainly there are subsets of Hispanics who like the artists you mention (or the remixes) but generally the broad mass appeal is mainstream West Coast hip hop, without the (burnt out) Pitbull and such.

Power spends on research and they folks there are really good at interpreting it. Any shift in the music mix is due to a shift in what the audience wants.

And, except for the last book, Power's morning show and Big Boy were very, very close to each other. iHeart certainly did not get the kick they expected for all the money they spent. And in published articles, Doc Wynter has had to say that in LA one has to put Hispanics first in doing an urban format.

If anything, before KRRL, KPWR had the luxury of being broader and could pick up more Black and non-Hispanic white listeners. Competition required greater focus; the WRBQ example of being indefensibly broad is still valid today, 25 years later.
 
I noticed KPWR has brought back Eric Edwards as the main voice over. While he was still on the station sparingly the past few years he was phased out with more of a focus on listener and artist voices but now it's back a combination of both with a lot of EE. Probably trying to re-capture that traditional KPWR sound?
 
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