iHeartMedia has announced more information regarding today’s 12pm move of Asian Pop “Pop 99.1” K256AS Honolulu/101.9 KUCD-HD2 from its 250 watt translator facility to the 100kW Class C signal of 101.9 KUCD Pearl City as it hypes making it the first 100kW Asian Pop station in the country.
Hip Hop “93.9 The Beat” KUBT APD/afternoon host KC will pull double-duty hosting mornings from 6am to 12pm. KUBT morning co-host Becky Mits will follow from 12pm-6pm. iHeartMedia National Programming Team member Ryan ‘Maddox’ Bunting will host nights from 6pm-12am. Maddox also curates the K-POP Hits and K-POP Now streams on iHeartRadio.
iHeartMedia Honolulu today announced the arrival of America’s very first 100,000-watt Asian Pop radio station, PoP! 101.9, The Best PoP on the Planet, effective immediately.
Asian Pop music has become a worldwide phenomenon with its multicultural, positive, upbeat, fashionable dance music with influences from a variety of music genres. Asian Pop music features socially conscious lyrics that are attuned to the lives of young people today. iHeartMedia started developing this new and exciting music format in 2019 on KUCD-HD2 with its unique mix of songs from superstar artists like BTS, Blackpink, TWICE, NewJeans and Fifty Fifty.
PoP! 101.9 becomes the first 100,000-watt FM radio station in the United States to play 100% Asian Pop. This new station launch coincides with Asian/Pacific Islander Month throughout May. Meanwhile, the Alternative format heard on KUCD-FM as Star 101.9 since 1997 will swap frequencies and move to KUCD-HD2/K256AS, rebranding as Star 99.1, Hawaii’s Alternative Rock. Both stations will be heard worldwide on the iHeartRadio app.
“Asian Pop is exploding in popularity across the globe and becoming mainstream and mass appeal music here in Honolulu,” said Jamie Hyatt, iHeartMedia Honolulu Senior Vice President of Programming. “We are witnessing the passion listeners have for the format firsthand. It’s the next big music movement and we’re proud to be a part of it.”
“The Asian Pop format delivers a dream demographic for advertisers too, those who make the most purchasing decisions for households,” said Scott Hogle, iHeartMedia Honolulu Market President. “We are excited to add PoP! 101.9 to our legendary line up of stations that include 92.3 KSSK, Island 98.5, 93.9 The Beat, News Radio 830 KHVH, Fox Sports 990 and Star 99.1.”
The weekday lineup of on-air hosts for PoP! 101.9 will include:
KC, from 6AM-Noon
Becky Mits, from Noon-6PM
Maddox, from 6PM-Midnight
Original Report 5/16: iHeartMedia is preparing a signal swap for two of its brands in Honolulu.
The company confirmed on Monday our 5/9 Domain Insight report that K-Pop focused “Pop 99.1” K256AS Honolulu/101.9 KUCD-HD2 will get an upgrade from its 250 watt translator facility to the 100kW Class C signal of 101.9 KUCD Pearl City, while Alternative “Star 101.9” will move in reverse. The change will take place on Thursday, May 18 at 12:00pm local time.
K256ADS is currently positioned as “The Best Pop on the Planet” with a mostly K-Pop playlist but also featuring Filipino, Japanese and Chinese artists and some American collaborations with K-Pop artists since its launch in November 2019. The station registered a 0.4 share in the March 2023 Nielsen Audio ratings.
KUCD had a 1.8 share in the March 2023 ratings featuring Premiere Networks’ Woody Show in mornings.
Jakob Litzenberger 
Rey Del Valle
Maybe IHeartMedia will start to duplicate the “Pop” format and branding into other markets if this succeeds.
The only markets where I can see this working are high-Asian population cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and IHeart is maxed out in those markets with no translators.
I do say that :”Asian Pop with an English presentation” is the only format that you can market to the heterogenous Asian demographic, as there are also many white and Hispanic people who enjoy this music.
Probably depends on the market and population as they would probably try it in larger-market locations. Especially would work in certain more Asian populated markets. IHeartRadio may not be able to duplicate the brand in certain markets if numerous other stations have different formats that are working & they are maxed out or if another company beats them to it with a different branding. They might just flip the lower-rated station to “A-pop” if they are maxed out. Some stations with the branding might have an “English Presentation” to target to a multi-cultural audience to make it work in that area (like Seattle).
Btw I think ratings will jump very fast into the Top 10 in the market in Honolulu when the June ratings come out since K-pop is popular here and Honolulu has a lot of Asian culture there. If not right away they may have to establish themselves by letting everyone in the island know about the station by using ads since it was on a lower signaled 99.1 in the past and only worked in Honolulu which could mean that mostly only those in that city or have the Iheartradio app know about this.
Considering that K-Pop is a very popular niche in the USA, I bet this station gets mad streaming numbers nationwide.
It’s kind of like what happens with WSKQ. No slouch in its own home city of New York. But even outside the Tri-State you will hear it in every Dominican block party in the USA, because there is no other station that caters so much to Dominicans in the USA.