Pop topped? Reggaeton radio beat goes on but star dims.

Is reggaeton a radio format, a music genre, or just a blip on the radio airwaves?

In the summer of 2005, reggaeton--a blend of Jamaican reggae, salsa and hip hop that developed in Puerto Rico--swept the Spanish-language radio industry. In Los Angeles, KXOL-FM (96.3) switched to the format, helped by Daddy Yankee's hit single "Gasolina."

Miami-based Spanish Broadcasting System, owner of KXOL, took reggaeton to stations in other markets. Competitors Clear Channel Communications and Univision Communications also jumped into the reggaeton wave.

At the time, KXOL was tied for second place for total listeners in the L.A. market, according to Arbitron's summer 2005 survey. By the following spring, the station had fallen to a 2.6 share and ranked 13th. Reggaeton's star grew dimmer when a Univision station in Miami dumped the format.

"Any music movement gets a lot of attention when it breaks, but sometimes the hype is bigger than reality," said Gus Lopez, president of Machete Music, a record label based at Universal Music Group in Burbank. "Reggaeton broke when the market had not fully matured so there weren't enough artists to support it."

Lopez maintains there weren't enough reggaeton songs to fill the airtime on a radio station. But Jerry Pulles, program director at KXOL, complains of the opposite problem--too many songs.

"A year and a half ago, everybody who was out a reggaeton song. Many weren't that great," Pulles said. "I don't think there was a shortage of reggaeton music, just too much bad stuff."

Stations, including KXOL, responded by mixing reggaeton with Latin hip hop and meringue. Today, Pulles estimates 60 percent of the station's songs retain the reggaeton sound.

The latest Arbitron numbers show KXOL with a 2.7 share. It currently ranks 14th in total listeners in the L.A. market.

Sound of money

Another push behind the reggaeton rage came from advertisers who wanted to reach Latino youth. Research indicated second-generation Latinos were rapidly adopting English as their primary language, but English-language media couldn't target them.

Reggaeton looked like the solution. The lyrics casually mix both languages, sometimes with stanzas in Spanish and the chorus in English, or the lead vocals in one language and the background in the other. Even the DJs go back and forth in the same sentence.

"It's almost as if there's no English or Spanish--it's all Spanglish now," said Pulles.

Lopez cites marketing as the biggest glitch in popularizing reggaeton. "The folks making those (advertising) decisions were not ready for reggaeton--it was too sexy, too risque," he said. "The big brands always play it safe, and reggaeton is not safe."

But as the genre has evolved, so has the attitude of advertisers. "Now you go to a reggaeton concert and every brand you can think of is supporting it," Lopez said.

As for the music, steady output by two of Lopez's acts, Don Omar and Daddy Yankee, together with the compiled works of Wisen y Yandel, Ivy Queen and Tego Calderon, continually add new songs to the play list. Based on Soundscan data, Lopez counts five of the 10 best-selling Latin songs in 2005 were reggaeton. For 2006, the same proportion held--five of the top 10 songs--showing stability in the market.

Moreover, three years ago not a single radio station in the U.S. aired in both English and Spanish, according to Lopez. For better or worse, reggaeton changed that.

By JOEL RUSSELL

Staff Reporter