On November 19, 1997, the
Los Angeles radio station formerly known as
KIBB began a new concept in radio. KCMG, which named itself Mega 100.3 after a listener contest, was "oldies with attitude".
Chancellor Media, later to be called AMFM, developed the format with the intention of using it on other stations. Just as radio in the 80s had the "
urban versus
churban" competition,
R & B oldies radio was dividing into two camps—the straight urban oldies stations targeting African Americans, and the "Jammin' Oldies" stations with a wider audience that included both blacks and whites. On Jammin' Oldies radio, DJs were often mostly white or a variety of racial groups. Many of the songs played had crossed over to
top 40 radio, while R&B stations continued to play more hits, including ballads, not familiar to top 40 fans, especially if those songs were not
singles. Some of the rhythmic stations played songs completely unrelated to R & B; "
Mony Mony" by
Tommy James on the now defunct
WFJO in
Tampa was one example, though this station dropped such songs eventually. Another version of the format was "Groovin' Oldies", as in the case of
WGRV in Detroit. This station switched from
modern rock in April 1999, calling itself "The Groove". This format lasted until a switch to
adult contemporary in June 2001. The last song was "
End of the Road" by
Boyz II Men. In April 1999,
WGAY in Washington, D.C., switched to "Jammin' Oldies", which had been successful in every market where it was tried. One reason was that the format was tailored to each specific market. In Los Angeles, the format leaned toward
Latin music. Other markets included
Fresno, Chicago, and New York City. Listeners changed from
urban contemporary and other types of
oldies stations. Most of the music came from the 70s, but there were also 60s and 80s hits. Unlike most radio formats, Jammin' Oldies did not target one specific ethnic or gender group. Black and white artists were included, and a slight majority of listeners were female. WJMO "Jammin' Oldies 99.5" succeeded at first, but two years later fell victim to a declining economy. Another problem for "Jammin' Oldies" was that it was the "hot new format" in 1998, but there were other "hot new formats" in 2000. In Chicago, it was rocker
WRCX that changed—to WUBT "103-5 The Beat". The result was a significant ratings improvement that resulted from adding pop artists such as
Madonna, the
Bee Gees and
Tina Turner to what had been
old school urban oldies. But the deregulation of radio in 1996 made consolidation a priority. This meant companies were looking at operating groups of stations rather than at individual stations they owned.
Clear Channel bought AMFM, and in 2001 WUBT became top 40 WKSC-FM. In New York City, Chancellor Media decided to convert a station it had been having trouble formatting for some time. As 1998 began, the company had just bought
WNSR-FM, with initially a
modern adult contemporary format that evolved to a cross between its sister station
WLTW and the
Hot AC format which was being used by
WPLJ at the time. In January 1998, Chancellor changed the call letters to WBIX, rebranded the station as "Big 105", and steered it more toward the
Hot AC format of WPLJ. Eleven months later, with zero improvement in the ratings, WBIX was flipped to the Jammin' Oldies format and became WTJM. The difference from competitor
WRKS was described this way by
Airplay Monitor editor
Sean Ross: TV spots feature former New York mayor
Ed Koch, not exactly someone you expect to emerge from the
P-Funk mother ship. Early success stories included
KMEZ in
Louisiana,
WRBO in
Memphis,
XHRM-FM in
San Diego and
KTXQ in
Dallas, as well as
KFMK in
Austin,
KISQ in
San Francisco, and
KNRX in
Kansas City. Contrary to what one might expect, competition from
oldies and
urban adult contemporary had little effect on ratings. The format proved to be little more than a "passing fad", one that stations got excited about but listeners did not—or when they did, not for very long. In November 2000,
WOCL in
Orlando,
KHZZ in
Sacramento, and
WBBT-FM in
Richmond changed several weeks after
WGFX in
Nashville left the format. But the format was still successful in some markets—KCMG in Los Angeles,
WJJJ in
Pittsburgh,
KDJM in
Denver,
WMOJ in
Cincinnati and
KMGV in Fresno all went up in the Summer 2000 ratings (in fact, KMGV was no. 1 with listeners in the 25–54 group). Joining the format in October 2000 was
KMBX in
Seattle. Some in radio believed that Jammin' Oldies tried to target too many types of listeners.
R & B oldies stations specifically targeting African American listeners were doing better than Jammin' Oldies--
WWSO in
Norfolk, KMEZ, and WRBO. Other stations of this type included
WNPL in
Nashville and
WPLZ in
Richmond. Former KCMG program director
Don Parker said a mass-appeal format would not do as well as one that targeted a specific ethnic group (his station went after Hispanics despite requests to add more
disco). Consultant
Barry Mayo also said targeting blacks was a good strategy. By 2000, Jammin' Oldies stations had different approaches, with some playing only 60s and 70s music, and others focusing more on the 80s, with still others such as WMOJ playing early
rap. KMBX played no 60s music, while WJJJ (which was co-owned with oldies
WWSW) added songs from the 80s and 90s and de-emphasized
Motown. WUBT program director
Jay Beau Jones said stations that ventured into the 90s probably should not be considered oldies.
WEJM in
Philadelphia was one of the stations with older music dominant. Still, some radio program directors did not like using the term "oldies" even for these stations. Other stations emphasizing older music were WJMO and
WZJM in
Cleveland. By contrast, WFJO played nothing from the 1960s, and
WZMX in
Hartford played few songs from before 1970. In some markets, Jammin' Oldies should never have been tried, in the opinion of
Infinity Broadcasting senior vice president
John Gehron. Former AMFM Chief Programming Officer Steve Rivers said the format was tried when conventional oldies was not succeeding, but this turned out to be a mistake. Rivers also said that with the format's phenomenal success, expectations might have been too high, but some stations experienced success like they had not in the past. Smaller-market stations such as KHZZ found it hard to achieve the numbers found in the big cities. KHZZ experienced competition from former oldies station
KHYL, but both stations ended up giving up the format, with KHZZ turning to oldies and in 2000, KHYL shifted towards
Urban AC, branded at "V101.1". By 2002, numerous stations were changing to R&B and
dance music. In addition to WTJM, which switched its call letters to WWPR and became an
urban contemporary station, format pioneer KCMG (which became KHHT) was playing newer hits, along with
WJMR in
Milwaukee and
KMJK in
Kansas City, Missouri.
Greg Love, the
program director in charge of switching KMJK to Jammin' Oldies, said the format began to lose its appeal because people got excited to hear the songs, and then they were no longer special. Wayne Mayo said hits were chosen from too narrow a time period. WJMR program director
Lauri Jones said people listened to several stations, and that when she worked in Minneapolis, she observed that her station was no longer the primary choice of many listeners. KHHT program director
Michelle Santosousso said many R&B stations were focusing on rap, and the more adult hits were hard to find. This led to a change not only in musical style but also target audience. Jones said Jammin' Oldies stations went from 70% white and 30% black, to 70% black and 30% white. Love and Mayo both said there were black listeners, and now the stations had to focus on that audience. Santosousso, on the other hand, said the number of ethnic groups in Los Angeles required a different approach. Jones said the term "old school" replaced "classic soul", while Love said "old school" had to go. Love also said
The Isley Brothers,
Barry White and
The Temptations were recording new music, and an oldies station could not play those. But listeners wanted to hear them. In late 2012,
Clear Channel Radio announced a new Rhythmic Oldies format for
KOGO-FM in San Diego, which had been stunting with
Christmas music. It features a broad mix of mainstream dance and pop hits (with musicians such as
Donna Summer and
Mariah Carey), with
soft rock musicians like
George Michael,
Hall and Oates, and
Elton John mixed in. However, due to low ratings, the station shifted to
Rhythmic Adult Contemporary with its playlist shifting towards 1990's, 2000's and current material. On February 6, 2015,
KHHT—
Los Angeles, the successor to the first rhythmic oldies station, KCMG, flipped to
urban contemporary, returning that format to the 92.3 FM dial position for the first time since 2000. Legendary Los Angeles radio personality
Art Laboe, whose show was carried at nights on KHHT, later moved to
KDAY. Since the demise of KHHT, a few stations in the suburban areas in and around Los Angeles have flipped to the format, including
KQIE in the
Inland Empire,
KOCP in
Ventura, and
KQAV in the
Antelope Valley. ==List of radio stations airing the rhythmic/urban oldies format==