The term urban contemporary was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap music, contemporary R&B, and, on occasion, Caribbean music such as reggae and reggaeton. The term "urban contemporary" has become heavily associated with contemporary R&B, and is often used as a synonym to describe the genre.

These stations focus primarily on African-American females between the ages of 18 and 34 but some are up to 49, and their playlists are dominated by singles by top-selling hip hop and R&B performers. Upon occasion, an urban contemporary station will play classic soul music songs from the 1970s and early 1980s to satisfy the older end of the format, but their playlists are otherwise focused on music released within the last five years.

Urban contemporary stations are the main focus of the airplay statistics for the Billboard magazine Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, which calculates the most popular R&B and hip-hop singles in the United States.

The 1970's

When Frankie Crocker was appointed as Program Director of the newly created WBLS in 1974, he created an eclectic music mix of R&B, Disco and Gospel music, redefining the R&B format as Urban Contemporary. The station was an instant success, making it the most listened-to radio station in the country.

The 1980's

During the early 1980s as newly-formed WRKS-FM (98.7 Kiss FM) became the first rap station in the United States, WBLS quickly began adding more rap records to its' playlists. The Urban format by this time was redefined by an eclectic mix of R&B, rap, reggae, gospel, Dance music, house, and Freestyle music. WBLS continued as the flagship station of the Urban format however Kiss FM surpassed them in the ratings.

Many radio stations imitated the Urban sound since it was proven to be more profitable than other formats. Another subformat of Urban Contemporary is Rhythmic Contemporary Hits which plays a great deal of Dance music. WQHT-FM and KPWR were the first stations to utilize this format.

List of Urban Contemporary Stations across the United States

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• "107.5 WGCI" WGCI Chicago
• "106 KMEL" KMEL San Francisco
• "WPGC 95.5" WPGC-FM Washington, D.C.
• "V-103" WVEE Atlanta
• "95.7 the Beat" WBTP Tampa
• "V-100 Jamz" WKKV Milwaukee
• "103.9 WDKX" WDKX Rochester
• "107.3 Jamz" WJMZ Greenville, South Carolina
• "XM 67 The City" XM Satellite Radio
• "Hot 103 Jamz" KPRS Kansas City
• "97.7 Wild FM" WILD-FM Boston, Massachusetts

See also

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• List of Urban-Formatted Radio Stations across the United States
• Urban Adult Contemporary
• Mainstream Urban
• Urban Top 40
• Urban Gospel
• Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio

Radio formats

Urban | Urban