L.A.’s ‘Wave’ Leads Urban AC’s Top 10 Stations.

More urban adult contemporary listeners in the U.S. are catching “The Wave” than any other station in the format, as Audacy’s “94.7 The Wave” KTWV Los Angeles tops Inside Radio’s TOP 10 ranking of urban AC stations, based on weekly cume delivery of persons 6+ during Nielsen’s winter 2026 wave (January-to-March three-month average).

KTWV, also known as “The Soul of Southern California,” delivered a 1.7 million cume during Q1 2026 as it celebrated its 13th year in the format. It’s one of just two urban ACs hitting the million-cume mark, as on the other coast, MediaCo’s WBLS (107.5) New York, an R&B mainstay since the mid-1970s, drew 1.3 million. 

WBLS is one of four stations in urban AC’s top 10 to have won NAB’s Marconi Award for Urban Station of the Year. Another of those four, “Majic 102.1” KMJQ Houston, places third. Along with 10th-ranked “Majic 107.5/97.5” WAMJ Atlanta, Urban One places two stations in top 10 – soon to be three, given its pending acquisition of Service Broadcasting’s “Smooth R&B 105.7” KRNB Dallas, which comes in seventh.

iHeartMedia, meanwhile, already claims three in the urban AC top 10, two of which are back-to-back in the top five. “V103” WVAZ Chicago, another Marconi Urban Station of the Year winner, has served the R&B audience since 1974, with PM driver Joe Soto on air since 1984. WDAS-FM (105.3) Philadelphia has been at it since 1971, with midday host Patty Jackson there since 1987.

Finishing sixth is Howard University’s WHUR (96.3) Washington, DC, not only a Marconi Urban Station of the Year winner but also the originator of the soft R&B/jazz “Quiet Storm” late night programming – heard on many urban ACs today – back in 1976.

Atlanta is the only market with two stations in urban AC’s top 10: at eighth, Cox Media Group’s “Kiss 104.1” WALR, Marconi’s Major Market Station of the Year winner for 2023; and Urban One’s WAMJ 10th.

iHeartMedia’s third station in the top 10, ranked ninth, is “Mix 92.3” WMXV Detroit, which has been in the format for 37 years, and features afternoon drive host and 31-year Motor City radio veteran Jonathan “Bushman” Dunnings.