KTWV

KTWV
City Los Angeles, California
Broadcast area Greater Los Angeles Area
Branding 94.7 The Wave
Slogan The Soul of Southern California
Frequency 94.7 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date March 7, 1961 (as KLAC-FM)
Format FM/HD1: Urban AC
HD2: Smooth jazz ("Wave Classics")
HD3: Radio Hamrah (Persian)
ERP 52,000 watts
HAAT 863.0 meters (2,831.4 ft)
Class B
Facility ID 25437
Callsign meaning Katch The WaVe!
Former callsigns KLAC-FM (1961–1968)
KMET (1968–1987)
KTMV-FM (1987)
Owner Entercom
(CBS Radio East, LLC)
Sister stations KAMP-FM, KCBS-FM, KROQ-FM, KRTH, KNX
Webcast Listen Live
Website 947thewave.com

KTWV (94.7 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station owned by Entercom. KTWV is located in Los Angeles and broadcasts to the Greater Los Angeles area. Airing an Urban Adult Contemporary radio format branded as "94.7 The Wave", the station has studios on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles. Its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson.

History

Early years

On March 7, 1961, KLAC-FM first signed on the air. It served as an FM sister station to AM 570 KLAC, simulcasting its programming.[1]

From June 1968 until February 1987, the 94.7 frequency was home of KMET, a popular album-oriented rock station owned by Metromedia. KMET's ratings were high until the early 1980s, when it lost listeners to competitors. Some observers believe the station's ratings struggles were in large part caused by following the advice of New York music consultants and abandoning its identity as the "Soundtrack for Southern California". Specifically, it abandoned the spontaneity of having disc jockeys pick the music to be played on the air.[2] Together with reduced advertising budgets, this resulted in significant ratings drops.

Metromedia sold its TV stations in 1986 and restructured, becoming known as Metropolitan Broadcasting. By the end of the year, KMET garnered abysmally low ratings, placing last among six Los Angeles market stations playing rock music.[2] In response, station management dismissed its entire on-air staff on February 9, 1987 and discontinued the rock format at noon on February 14 —- an event affectionately known as "the Valentine’s Day Massacre".[3][4]

KTWV - "94.7 The Wave"

New Age Contemporary

KMET then changed to a new age/soft rock/contemporary jazz format with the branding "94.7 The Wave", initially focusing on instrumental music with some vocals.[5] Initially the station was assigned new call letters KTMV-FM; the callsign changed to KTWV on November 20, 1987.[6] The first song on The Wave was Sting's "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free".[3] During The Wave's new age music period, management told the station employees to refer to The Wave as a "mood service" rather than a "radio station". For the first 19 months, there were no live disc jockeys. Instead, there were "vignettes" done by actors, informing listeners of the time, where the current hour was a part of the dialog. Ratings were weak, and John Sebastian was hired as the new Program Director. On September 19, 1988, live DJs returned to the station. Sebastian hired Don Burns, Talaya Trigueros, Keri Tombazian, Amy Hiatt and China Smith.[5]

In the early 1990s, the station moved to more of a smooth jazz sound, playing a mix of smooth jazz, soft R&B hits, AC songs, and some soft rock hits.

The Wave is often regarded as the first "NAC" station in the United States. But some media writers disagree, preferring to award that title to KLRS in Santa Cruz, California. KLRS went on the air one month after The Wave, but was the first station in North America to play a true new-age music format, continuing to do so until its demise in 1990.

The era of The Wave has the distinction of being the only time legendary disc jockey J.J. Jackson has ever worked at the station. Jackson was a veteran of then-rival rock station KLOS (while The Wave was still rocker KMET) for ten years, before becoming one of the original VJ's" (video jockeys) on MTV when the channel debuted in 1981. Jackson was a DJ for a brief time at The Wave in 2004.

There was a smooth jazz station in Canada that was named after KTWV. CIWV-FM in Hamilton, Ontario, serving Toronto, used the moniker "The Wave" and was also located on 94.7 FM. It ran from 2000 until 2011, when it flipped to a country format.

Evolution to urban adult contemporary

In February 2010, veteran Los Angeles programmer Jhani Kaye, who also programs classic hits-formatted sister station KRTH, took over programming of KTWV from the departed Paul Goldstein. Kaye, who previously programmed crosstown mainstream AC competitor KOST, made immediate changes to KTWV's format, increasing the amount of R&B and soft-pop vocals in the station's playlist and reducing the number of smooth jazz instrumentals played (with most of the remaining instrumentals being cover versions of pop hits), transitioning into a smooth adult contemporary direction. In addition, all references to the term "smooth jazz" were eliminated from the station's website and on-air positioning, as the station reformatted to compete directly with Kaye's former station, KOST.

As of May 28, 2010, longtime on-air personality Don Burns was no longer heard on weekday afternoons. His show had been voice-tracked from his home in the Palm Springs area. The station replaced Burns with Deborah Howell, doing the show live from the KTWV studios.[7][8] Longtime Wave air personality Keri Tombazian was also released as the station made further air staff changes.

KTWV's morning program is hosted by Pat Prescott. Between May 2010 and June 2012, Prescott co-hosted the show with Kim Amidon. Amidon, a former morning DJ at adult contemporary station KOST, replaced departing host and musician Brian McKnight in the summer of 2010. (In turn, McKnight's predecessor on The Wave's morning show was saxophonist Dave Koz, who has a successful syndicated radio show of his own.) Prescott has hosted or co-hosted the morning program since 2001.

In November 2013, the station introduced a revamped logo still utilizing the same font and branding, as well as a format tweak and a slogan change from "Southern California's Place to Unwind and Relax" to "Smooth R&B." As of June 2014, KTWV saw the return of program director Ralph Stewart who reintroduced some mainstream AC/pop crossovers into the playlist and updated its website, which dropped the "Smooth R&B" tag from its logo. By February 2015, after the flip of KHHT from rhythmic oldies to urban contemporary, KTWV began adding more classic soul and current R&B songs to fill the void of KHHT's departure. The station also adopted the new "Soul of Southern California" slogan. The moves have seen KTWV's ratings improve, putting the station among the Los Angeles market's top stations. During the March 2017 Nielsen ratings period for the Los Angeles market, KTWV held a 5.5 overall share, second only to KBIG by two-tenths of a ratings point.[9]

On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom.[10] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17.[11][12]

HD Programming

The current formats on KTWV's HD subchannels are:

References

  1. ↑ "Directory of AM and FM Stations in the U.S." (PDF). Broadcasting Yearbook 1966. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  2. 1 2 "KMET Drops AOR After 19 Years, Dismisses Airstaff" (PDF). February 13, 1987. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "KMET Rides The Wave, Becomes KTWV" (PDF). February 20, 1987. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  4. ↑ "The WAVE's 25th Anniversary: 94.7FM Goes From KMET to KTWV". 947thewave.cbslocal.com. February 14, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  5. 1 2 Balfe, Judith H. (1993). Paying the piper: causes and consequences of art patronage. University of Illinois Press. pp. 279–281. ISBN 0-252-06310-4.
  6. ↑ "Call Sign History: KTWV". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Making Moves: Monday, May 18, 2010". Radio-Info.com. May 18, 2010. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Radio host Don Burns leaves KTWV". Orange County Register. May 18, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Radio Online: Los Angeles". Radio-Online.com. April 18, 2017.
  10. ↑ CBS Radio to Merge with Entercom
  11. ↑ Entercom Receives FCC Approval for Merger with CBS Radio
  12. ↑ Venta, Lance (November 17, 2017). "Entercom Completes CBS Radio Merger". Radio Insight. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  13. ↑ HD Radio Guide for Los Angeles

Coordinates: 34°13′30″N 118°03′50″W / 34.225°N 118.064°W / 34.225; -118.064

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