• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

1110, the old KRLA

A

alok

1110 today ,its transmitter site is in Irwindale ,has it always been there or back in the 50's / 60 /'s and 70's was it someplace different ? If so where and how many towers did it operate with day & night ,what were the power levels too back then,when it was KRLA ?

Al
 
alok said:
1110 today ,its transmitter site is in Irwindale ,has it always been there or back in the 50's / 60 /'s and 70's was it someplace different ? If so where and how many towers did it operate with day & night ,what were the power levels too back then,when it was KRLA ?

Al
Click to expand...
50KW DA 10KW nights, raised to 20,000 watts in the 90's. I was just thinking about this last night as KRLA boomed into Fresno until the morning power/pattern change back in the late 60's, early 70's.

While working for KRLA at the L.A. County Fair in Ontario we had to play canned tapes once the Sun went down as KRLA couldn't be picked up there.
With wall to wall people strolling by the KRLA booth Art Laboe JR. and myself were working someone stole our Speaker. Sure we had two but the nerve of a fairgoer~
 
radioman148 said:
I believe their old transmitter was in El Monte.
Click to expand...
Yes you're right and we all know the L.A. County Fair isn't in Ontario but Pomona as well. This information can be easily found in the FCC database or Wikipedia:

In 1987 KRLA moved its transmitter site from South El Monte to Irwindale, where a similar antenna array was installed.[23] During the 1990s, KRLA was authorized to increase nighttime power from 10,000 to 20,000 watts. When the power increase went into effect, KRLA started broadcasting from the new transmitter site in Irwindale. This is a few miles north of the old El Monte site.[23]
The El Monte transmitter building still stands as a shell. The entire inside is burned out; however, there are still clues to its historic past, namely the first incarnation of its directional antenna arrays (four in-line 135-degree towers, one days, four nights), the second incarnation (four 135-degree towers in a parallelogram, days and a 90-, two 135-, and a 180-degree towers, nights), and the last incarnation, with seven total towers, four days and four nights, with one tower in common, days and nights). There are numerous ducts to keep the equipment cool and an underground channel to divert the cooling water for the transmitters. A well nearby supplied the water. Still visible is the wooden archway where the transmission cables gently bent toward underground conduits running to the transmission towers in the nearby field. All that remains of these towers are the concrete pylons, all aligned as described.[citation needed]
The present Irwindale site includes five 135-degree towers, two days and four nights, with one in common. The significantly northern location, relative to the old El Monte site, allows the large "Inland Empire" to be served with 50,000 watts and only two towers, not four, days, and the greater Los Angeles metro to be served with 20,000 watts and four towers, nights.
 
Nice chunk of real estate, but is farming its highest and best use? To the WSW of the site are the infamous high voltage power lines which wreaked havoc on their nighttime pattern. Engineers where stationed there to keep the RF going the right direction and play carted music. Yes indeedy, those First Phoners were true Hit Men from Radio 11.
 
Speaking of 1110.....They've changed call letters! From KDIS to KRDC....And they flipped to Squeaky Clean Country! And they fired up a Pasadena FM Translator at 99.1......located all the way out in Beaumont!!! (Bet IHeart loves that!)
 
Frequency1 said:
The FM translator is transmitting from the 710 AM site in Irwindale. It was previously licensed to Beaumont. After the FCC grants the license to cover in Irwindale the city of license will change.
Click to expand...

The 710 AM site is in the San Fernando Valley, roughly at Burbank Blvd and Laurel Cyn. The Irwindale site is 1110.
 
I had a tour of the TX building during the first few months of Richard Nixon's tenure. The facility was spotlessly clean & orderly. The CE treated us as though WE were Presidents.
According to him, and differing from a previous post, the 415' tower #4 task was to improve the daytime ground wave northward into the San Jaoquin Valley.
A rather unusual air monitor was used- a rack-mount Hammarlund HQ-129, (a radio I also owned).
What really put KRLA above Rockers KHJ & KDAY, was the audio quality. KHJ had the loudness, KDAY very clean. KRLA was full, mellow, and dynamic, and sounded superb
on the wide band AM car radios of the day.
 
Big 121 said:
What really put KRLA above Rockers KHJ & KDAY, was the audio quality. KHJ had the loudness, KDAY very clean. KRLA was full, mellow, and dynamic, and sounded superb
on the wide band AM car radios of the day.
Click to expand...

So much of the music was played from the xmttr site, bypassing Ma Bell's crappy phone lines. Under Oak Knoll, all belts were tightened so music mattered most. Here's a great article on KRLA's interim operator (Oak Knoll) and their commitment to donate 80% of profits to an educational TV outlet: https://books.google.com/books?id=Q...l4Q6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=oak knoll krla&f=true
 
Last edited:
Big 121 said:
According to him, and differing from a previous post, the 415' tower #4 task was to improve the daytime ground wave northward into the San Jaoquin Valley
Click to expand...

Don't you mean the "San Fernando Valley"? The San Joaquin Valley is a bit far for daytime coverage even for 50 kw on 1110.
 
Last edited:
KDAY had their studio at the N. Alvarado St. TX back then, giving them very good audio. We tried a casual visit one evening ...
Jock B. Bailey Brown opened the door, looked at us and said, 'I don't know you!', & slammed the door.
One unique thing KRLA had was a time tone at TOH ID. Not just a single sine wave, but a mix of 2 ?, freqs. which gave it a rich, musical quality.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Don't you mean the "San Fernando Valley"? The San Joaquin Valley is a bit far for daytime coverage even for 50 kw on 1110.
Click to expand...


San Joaquin Valley is correct. On Hwy 99, they were audible into Bakersfield. That was done in a Dodge, which had about a 5 foot antenna...
 
Big 121 said:
One unique thing KRLA had was a time tone at TOH ID. Not just a single sine wave, but a mix of 2 ?, freqs. which gave it a rich, musical quality.
Click to expand...

...also loved the TOH Legal ID incorporating their musical logo (Bom-Bom-Bom-Bom) followed by an acapella "Go" shout. Just like the infamous 20/20 news logo, it caught your attention and you knew something big was going to happen.
 
Oh the KRLA Big Time sounder! As a slight correction all music was played by the engineer at the transmitter site when cued by a tone system from the Huntington Sheraton. I would like to find another Human being who made the same mistake of exiting the door at the end of the hallway where the bathrooms were. I locked myself out one morning and wound up in Indentured Servants quarters (a true story) for the Hotel. I'm using their bathroom and then I noticed I was in personal living spaces (although Sardine sized) and I should leave at once. Saw sleeping people.

As I mentioned KRLA just blasted into the 3 Rivers/Fresno area in the mornings until sunrise. I'm not sure KRLA offered any special HQ audio properties as mentioned above
 
Last edited:
DrAkbar said:
So much of the music was played from the xmttr site, bypassing Ma Bell's crappy phone lines. Under Oak Knoll, all belts were tightened so music mattered most. Here's a great article on KRLA's interim operator (Oak Knoll) and their commitment to donate 80% of profits to an educational TV outlet: https://books.google.com/books?id=Q...l4Q6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=oak knoll krla&f=true
Click to expand...
Of course Art Laboe had a Broadcast line installed at his house, and the announcers at the Sheraton must have been on a Broadcast line to the Transmitter?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom