West Coast Radio: KDAY & Power 106

The Stations That Broke The Sound

West Coast rap didn't get on pop radio by being invited. It got there because a handful of program directors and mix DJs put it on the air anyway — overnight, on the weekends, on a weak AM signal — until it was too big to ignore. This is where that happened.

1580 KDAY 1580 AM · now 93.5 FM Los Angeles — the first 24-hour hip-hop radio station in the country

Hip-hop format 1983
Built by Greg “Mack Attack” Mack
Crew The KDAY Mixmasters
AM era ends 1991
Relaunched 2004 · 93.5 FM

In 1983, KDAY's new music director Greg Mack flipped the station into the first radio outlet in the United States to run rap and hip-hop around the clock — at a point when the record industry still wrote the music off as a fad. Mack built a team of young mix DJs he called the Mixmasters: Dr. Dre and DJ Yella were cutting Saturday-night mixes on KDAY in 1984, alongside Julio G, Tony G, Joe Cooley, M. Walk and DJ Bobcat.

KDAY played what the pop stations wouldn't — Toddy Tee's “Batterram,” Ice-T, Run-DMC, LL Cool J — and it was the first station to put Eazy-E and N.W.A on the radio, which made 1580 the home station for Ruthless Records and the whole Compton movement. The afternoon Traffic Jam and the weekend mix shows were appointment listening across Southern California. (Eazy-E and Julio G later reunited for the short-lived Ruthless Radio show on 92.3 The Beat in 1994.)

The owners sold KDAY in 1990 and the rap format ended in 1991. It came back in 2004 on 93.5 FM as a West Coast classic hip-hop station — and Julio G eventually brought his Westside Radio show back home to it.

1580 KDAY Mixmasters show aircheck from 1984

Listen · aircheck Mixmasters Show · 1984 Vintage 1580 KDAY, straight off the AM dial

Power 106 KPWR · 105.9 FM Los Angeles — the West Coast's flagship hip-hop station since the late '80s

Signed on Jan 11, 1986
Was KMGG “Magic 106”
Format First rhythmic Top 40 in the U.S.
#1 in L.A. within 6 months
Mixshow Baka Boyz — Friday Night Flavas

KPWR signed on January 11, 1986, turning the old adult-contemporary “Magic 106” into “Power 106” — the first rhythmic-leaning Top 40 station in the country. It was the highest-rated station in Los Angeles within six months.

As KDAY's AM signal faded at the end of the decade, Power 106 became the West Coast's flagship hip-hop station and never gave the spot back. The Baka Boyz (Nick and Eric Vidal) turned the weekend “Friday Night Flavas” mixshow into a launchpad for unsigned Los Angeles talent; Julio G carried his mixes and Westside Radio over from KDAY; Big Boy's Neighborhood became the morning show of record. For a generation of Southern California kids, Power 106 was how you heard a new Dr. Dre, Snoop, Game or Kendrick single first.

The Baka Boyz Friday Night Flavas classic mix on Power 106

Listen · mixshow Friday Night Flavas · 1995 The Baka Boyz on Power 106

Radio That Also Mattered

92.3 The Beat (KKBT) — picked up the L.A. hip-hop torch in the '90s; home of Ruthless Radio with Eazy-E & Julio G, and later Julio G's Westside Radio.
The Wake Up Show — Sway & King Tech's legendary syndicated show, born in the Bay Area on KMEL/KYLD, the West Coast's home for lyricism and breaking new MCs.
KMEL 106.1 — “The People's Station” in San Francisco; the Bay Area's answer to KDAY and the launch pad for hyphy on the radio.
KDAY Mixmasters legacy — the DJ roster that came through 1580 — Dre, Yella, Julio G, Tony G, Joe Cooley, Battlecat, the Baka Boyz — is a big slice of West Coast production and radio history by itself.

Want the DJs themselves? Hit The DJs on the home page — Julio G, the Baka Boyz, Battlecat, DJ Yella, Crazy Toones, DJ Muggs and more.