December 15, 2006
By Sandy Wells
KKBT ‘The Beat’ drops Tom Joyner show
Urban contemporary station KKBT-FM 100.3 “The Beat” is returning to local programming in the morning as it disconnects from the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show after today.
KKBT Program Director Kevin Fleming was on the verge of making it official with an announcement this week that afternoon drive talent Cliff Winston would be named as the next personality to step into the high-profile position.
Before he was picked up by “The Beat,” Winston had developed a solid local following hosting the morning show at the Inglewood station owned by pop/R&B icon Stevie Wonder, KJLH-FM 102.3. His move to 100.3 earlier this year immediately fueled rumors that he was in line to replace Joyner’s program, which was not moving the ratings in the right direction.
“It was difficult for him to find an audience,” said Fleming of Joyner, who programmed the now defunct oldies R&B outlet KACE when that station carried the syndicated show. “That was five or six years ago. There wasn’t satellite radio or iPods then.”
Fleming is convinced that he must focus on developing local personalities to compete for LA’s fickle listeners and feels that Winston is the man to do it.
“He’s an entity in this marketplace and that’s a positive” said Fleming reflecting on the changes he hopes will stem the audience erosion the station has suffered this year. “The bleeding has stopped, we’re making changes; we have to inform the marketplace of who we are.”
Fleming edited the radio industry music tip sheet “Urban Buzz” between radio gigs. He feels the appeal of the urban adult contemporary sound of KKBT will continue to grow, displacing what he sees as hip hop’s fading popularity.
“You can only eat fast food for so long,” says Fleming, explaining the new focus on local personalities and music aimed to satisfy the musical tastes of Southern Californians. “People need to have a meal. You can have a home cooked meal here. That’s what we’re all about now.”
Fleming says KKBT’s music mix will be more ‘mass appeal’ than the similarly-formatted KJLH.
“The Beat” will soon add Shirley Hayes from Chicago’s WNUA-FM to fill the 9 a.m. to noon slot soon.
New female morning host captains the KJLH-FM “Home Team”
As former KJLH-FM 102.3 morning man Cliff Winston gets set to move into morning drive on KKBT-FM 100.3 ‘The Beat,’ one of his former “Home Team” players has moved up to take his place.
Adai Lamar is now counted alongside former “Beat” personality Diana Steele on KHHT-FM 92.3 as one of two female music DJs hosting the key morning drive time period. She is also the only African-American w
oman currently at the helm of a morning radio show in the market.Lamar aims to “Entertain, Inform and Enlighten” on her daily 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. program. In keeping with the station’s objective to be “the community station,” drawing her listeners from LA’s vast melting pot, Adai and the Home Team broadcast community affairs, local job announcements and listener calls.
KJLH-FM's Adai Lamar
The Texas native graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in broadcast journalism. After starting her radio career at a station in Oklahoma City she moved to Hollywood where she worked for music star Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds before returning to the airwaves at KJLH.
Lamar is being promoted as someone who delivers “the viewpoints and experience of an attractive, young, single, professional African-American woman, something you won’t hear elsewhere headlining any other morning music show in L.A. radio.”
Adai hopes to move into some TV work in addition to radio. She is currently developing a segment for her show called “Adai in LA: The diary of a single black female living in the City.”
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