Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,
) is the name for a
format
Format may refer to:
Printing and visual media
* Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements
* Paper formats, or paper size standards
* Newspaper format, the size of the paper page
Computing
* File format, particular way that informatio ...
of radio music, similar to an
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...
format.
Radio stations
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-b ...
using this format usually would not have
hip hop music on their playlists, and generally include some mix of
contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music.
The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhythm ...
and
traditional R&B (while urban oldies stations emphasize only the latter). Urban adult contemporary playlists generally consist of many different genres that originated amongst
Black Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
including
R&B,
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
,
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
,
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
pop,
hip-hop,
electro,
quiet storm
Quiet storm is a radio format and genre of R&B, performed in a smooth, romantic, jazz-influenced style. It was named after the title song on Smokey Robinson's 1975 album ''A Quiet Storm''.
The radio format was pioneered in 1976 by Melvin Lin ...
,
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
,
new jack swing
New jack swing, new jack, or swingbeat is a fusion genre of the rhythms and production techniques of hip hop and dance-pop, and the urban contemporary sound of R&B. Spearheaded by producers Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle, new jack swing was mos ...
, and
hip-hop soul
Hip hop soul is a subgenre of contemporary R&B music, most popular during the early and mid 1990s, which fuses R&B or soul singing with hip hop musical production. The subgenre had evolved from a previous R&B subgenre, new jack swing, which ha ...
.
Summary
The format usually plays some classic
R&B hits, as well as hits that are ten years old or more. Classic dance music also has a great impact in this format.
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
s use a more relaxed sound than their younger counterparts. News and current events have a major impact on the older audience. Around the evening, urban AC stations play
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.
History
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...
and during the
Quiet Storm
Quiet storm is a radio format and genre of R&B, performed in a smooth, romantic, jazz-influenced style. It was named after the title song on Smokey Robinson's 1975 album ''A Quiet Storm''.
The radio format was pioneered in 1976 by Melvin Lin ...
program. Many of the urban AC radio stations implement slogans such as "Classic Soul & Today's R&B", "(City/Region)'s Old School and R&B Station", "The Best Mix of R&B", and "(City/Region)'s R&B Leader." Some popular nicknames for urban oldies stations include "Magic" (borrowed from the
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
format), "Mix" and "Star" (both borrowed from the
Hot AC
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet s ...
format), and "
KISS-FM
KISS-FM (99.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station in San Antonio, Texas. It airs an mainstream rock format and is owned by Cox Media Group. The studios and offices are located on Datapoint Drive in Northwest San Antonio near the South Texas ...
" (borrowed from
top 40/CHR).
WBLS
WBLS (107.5 MHz) is an urban adult contemporary formatted FM radio station, licensed to New York City. It is currently owned by Mediaco Holding and operated by Emmis Communications under a shared services agreement, along with sister stations ...
in New York City, which is the flagship station of the
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...
format, was one of the first stations to introduce the urban AC format in 1994.
WRKS-FM
WRKS (105.9 FM, "The Zone") is a radio station licensed to Pickens, Mississippi, although its studio is located in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Launched on July 2, 2009, the station's format is sports, with programming from ESPN Radio. WRKS is owned ...
(also in New York City) introduced the first 24-hour classic soul radio station in the country. Urban AC stations usually target the 18-49 and 25-54 age groups.
Many urban AC stations rely heavily on syndicated programming such as ''
The Steve Harvey Morning Show
''The Steve Harvey Morning Show'' is a national radio program which is currently broadcast from Los Angeles. The nationally syndicated show features host Steve Harvey and a team of comedians and commentators.
The show runs approximately four ...
'' and ''
The D. L. Hughley Show''.
Cumulus Media Networks
Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which w ...
also operates a 24/7 urban AC format delivered to affiliated stations via satellite, called "
The Touch", which is common on smaller- and medium-market stations featuring the urban AC format.
KJLH
KJLH (102.3 FM) is an urban adult contemporary radio station serving the Los Angeles area. It plays R&B and classic soul music under the format, and occasionally plays some hip-hop, gospel and smooth jazz tracks. Licensed to the Los Angeles ...
in Los Angeles is one urban AC station whose playlist heavily emphasizes current material.
Urban oldies
"Urban oldies" refers to
R&B music dating back to the late 1950s/early 1960s through the early 1990s. Although
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
are the primary audience,
radio stations
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-b ...
playing this type of music often attract
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
listeners because R&B is one of the roots of
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
. A more mass-appeal version of the format is
rhythmic oldies
Rhythmic oldies is a radio format that concentrates on the rhythmic, R&B, disco, or dance genres of music. Playlists can span from the 1960s through the 2000s and, depending on market conditions, may be designed for African-American or Hispanic ...
, which attracts both white and black listeners, as well as Latino listeners (particularly in the
Southwest United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
). One of the first stations to play this type of music was
WRKS-FM
WRKS (105.9 FM, "The Zone") is a radio station licensed to Pickens, Mississippi, although its studio is located in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Launched on July 2, 2009, the station's format is sports, with programming from ESPN Radio. WRKS is owned ...
(98.7 Kiss FM). In December 1994,
Emmis Broadcasting
Emmis Communications is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for Truth (Emet) was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR and WQHT, which ha ...
transformed Kiss FM into the first station to play urban oldies music on a regular basis. The format was an instant hit with black and white listeners around the
Greater New York area, reaching to number two on the
Arbitron
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
ratings.
Before WRKS, many of the stations playing this music were on
AM radio
AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transm ...
. Primary artists included
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, ...
,
McFadden & Whitehead,
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...
,
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
, and
The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...
. One of the first stations to try the format was
WSID in Baltimore in the late 1950s/1960s/1970s. WDGS-AM in the Louisville market had a full-range urban AC format, with no rap music, as early as 1985. WDGS neatly substituted jazz, blues and urban/soul gold for the 35% of the playlists that were rap/hip-hop at the time, while playing 65% non-rap urban currents, to wide acclaim.
WJMO
WJMO (1300 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Cleveland, Ohio, and featuring an urban gospel format known as "Praise 94.5". Owned by Radio One, the station covers Greater Cleveland. In addition to a standard analog transmissio ...
in Cleveland and
WVOL in Nashville were some of the early converts.
KHYS in Houston switched to the format in 1999. KCJZ in San Antonio followed suit 7 months later. Early in 1994, ''
M Street Journal
M, or m, is the thirteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabe ...
'' reported 33 radio stations in the format, compared to 14 a year earlier. Many of these were affiliates of the
Satellite Music Network
Satellite Music Network was the first satellite delivered network to provide complete live 24-hour-a-day music programming to local stations, under several different formats.
History
Affiliate stations, mostly in small and medium markets, co ...
format
Urban Gold, which had 27 stations six months after starting October 1, 1993. Steve Harris, the SMN manager for urban radio, said no black radio stations had targeted adults over 35. Consultant Tony Gray said older adults did not like contemporary music, which had few tunes that had proved they could stand the test of time. And
hip hop was becoming a bigger part of contemporary radio. Another factor was the availability of older records in
remastered
Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used.
Mastering
A ...
form.
Hurricane Dave Smith of
WJJJ
WJJJ is a Religious formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Beckley, West Virginia, serving the Beckley/Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the C ...
in Pittsburgh, which had switched from
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.
History
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...
, doubted the format would succeed on
FM radio
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...
, but he believed listeners who enjoyed older songs were used to AM.
Sean Ross
Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...
of
WGCI-AM in Chicago believed the format could work either place, but stations that selected it would be those desiring something different. The satellite format focused on the years 1967 to 1978, but also played songs from as far back as 1963 and as recent as the early 1980s. Included were both
ballads
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
and uptempo songs. WGCI even played songs from the 1950s, including
Unforgettable
Unforgettable may refer to:
Film
* ''Unforgettable'' (1996 film), a thriller starring Ray Liotta
* ''Unforgettable'' (2014 film), a Bollywood film
* ''Unforgettable'' (2016 film), a South Korean film
* ''Unforgettable'' (2017 film), an America ...
by
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...
, though Ross said even
teenagers
Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...
liked the station because they had learned about older songs from their parents, and because newer versions of old songs were being recorded. Other stations included
WRBO
WRBO (103.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to Como, Mississippi, and serving the Memphis, Tennessee metropolitan area. Owned by Cumulus Media, WRBO has an urban adult contemporary format playing both current and classic R&B music. The station's ...
103.5 in Memphis,
WNPL
WNPL (1460 AM) was a radio station simulcasting WAXA, broadcasting out of Ft. Myers, Florida. Licensed to Golden Gate, Florida, it served Collier County (including Naples). The station was last owned by Fort Myers Broadcasting Company.
History ...
in Nashville,
KMEZ in New Orleans and
WPLZ in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
.
In addition to WRBO, urban oldies stations include
WATV (AM)
WATV (900 kHz) is an AM radio station licensed to Birmingham, Alabama. It transmits on 900 AM as well as FM translator W235BS 94.9 FM. The daytime power of WATV is 845 watts, and during nighttime, it transmits with 158 watts. WATV is an urban ...
in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
, and
KAJM
KAJM (104.3 FM) is a commercial rhythmic oldies-formatted radio station in Camp Verde, Arizona, broadcasting to Phoenix, Arizona. Its studios are located on Indian School Road in Phoenix, and its transmitter is in Crown King.
History
The stat ...
in Phoenix. Some urban oldies stations refer to this format as "old school,"
[Search results for "old school" o]
Radioinsight.com
Retrieved 7 September 2014. for example,
WOSL
WOSL (100.3 FM) is a radio station licensed to Norwood, Ohio. The station is owned by Radio One, and airs an urban oldies-leaning urban adult contemporary format. Its studios are located at Centennial Plaza in Downtown Cincinnati and the tra ...
in Cincinnati.
Name controversy
There is disagreement in the music industry over the use of the term ''urban'' in describing music genres and formats. In June 2020,
Republic Records
Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...
and artist management company Milk & Honey stated that they would drop the use of the word in relation to music of a black origin. These decisions came in the wake of the
murder of George Floyd
On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...
at the hands of police and the subsequent
protests
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
.
Lance Venta of radio industry publication ''RadioInsight'' claimed that the term ''urban'' is outdated in that R&B and hip hop music have gained massive popularity outside the inner cities and the descriptor should not serve as a euphemism for "black music". He recommended substituting the terms ''adult R&B'' for the urban adult contemporary format and ''hip hop'' for
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...
.
Myron Fears, operations manager and program director of the black owned Carter Broadcast Group in Kansas City, defended the use of the ''urban'' tag. Responding to Republic's elimination of the term, he expressed concern that the action diminishes the status of black music executives within record companies and the industry as a whole:
See also
*
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...
*
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music.
The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhythm ...
*
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
*
Soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
*
Classic soul
Classic soul is a radio format that focuses on the more raw types of soul music from the 1950s-1970s that draw from certain rhythm and blues and soul music influences, after 1980 is generally considered “contemporary R&B” with the smoother ...
*
Adult R&B Songs
The Adult R&B Songs chart (formerly called Adult R&B Airplay) is an airplay chart that is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on urban adult contemporary radio stations, whose playl ...
*
Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
References
{{reflist
Radio formats