KBLA Talk Radio 1580

[34james]

What kind of talk station is this? Liberal talk or more conservative talk I never knew kbla existed until I was scanning radiolocator and found it by accident.

 

[davideduardo]

What kind of talk station is this? Liberal talk or more conservative talk I never knew kbla existed until I was scanning radiolocator and found it by accident.

It is African American focused talk. It is focused on economic issues relevant to the Black community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBLA has a rough explanation, and they have a website of their own. A search on "KBLA Radio" will give some background on the current project which involves a sale which has been waiting to close for over a year.

 

[34james]

About the only person worth hearing on it is tavis smiley he's a cool dude 😎

 

[landtuna]

Before I compared the call to their format I thought KBLA might mean something like K-bla-bla-bla (a talk format - cute). Then I read about their format and thought KBLA might mean K-black as in intended listeners). Both might fit.

 

[Marcos_C]

Before I compared the call to their format I thought KBLA might mean something like K-bla-bla-bla (a talk format - cute). Then I read about their format and thought KBLA might mean K-black as in intended listeners). Both might fit.

The call sign is from one of the station's previous formats: Business News L.A. That format lasted less than a year in the early 1990s. However, I have also interpreted the call sign to mean black.

 

[michael hagerty]

The call sign is from one of the station's previous formats: Business News L.A. That format lasted less than a year in the early 1990s. However, I have also interpreted the call sign to mean black.

And the calls have history in Los Angeles. They were used on 1500 AM (now dark) from 1952-1967. There's no record of whether founder George Cameron intended any meaning for the calls "KBLA" other than for the "LA" (Los Angeles) in them, but given that the city of license was Burbank, "Burbank Los Angeles" is a pretty good guess.

That's been enough for several broadcasters---there is an LPTV on digital channel 8 with the calls KFLA.

99.5 is currently KKLA, 100.3 was KMLA from 1957-1965.

I suppose one could think of KOLA in the Inland Empire as referencing Los Angeles with its calls.

KRLA is now at 870, but spent decades on 1110 beginning in 1959.

KTLA is Channel 5.

KXLA was on 1110 from 1942-1959.

KZLA was on 1540 from 1979-1984. and on 93.9 from 1978 to 2006.

 

[KilowattKat]

I wonder what the billing for KBLA will be for the year. Are they even making any money at all? Or losing money rather?

 

[landtuna]

KRLA is now at 870, but spent decades on 1110 beginning in 1959.

When I was stationed in Long Beach in the early 60's KRLA was my favorite music station. We didn't have FM receivers on the ship.

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder what the billing for KBLA will be for the year. Are they even making any money at all? Or losing money rather?

My sense is it's not a traditional radio station built around ratings & advertising. When you look at the website and drill down into what he's doing, he's combining the radio station into a local charity.

 

[Frequency1]

Seems the sale of KBLA from Multicultural Broadcasting to Tavis was never consummated. I guess he is LMA'ing the station.

 

[davideduardo]

And the calls have history in Los Angeles. They were used on 1500 AM (now dark) from 1952-1967. There's no record of whether founder George Cameron intended any meaning for the calls "KBLA" other than for the "LA" (Los Angeles) in them, but given that the city of license was Burbank, "Burbank Los Angeles" is a pretty good guess.

That's been enough for several broadcasters---there is an LPTV on digital channel 8 with the calls KFLA.

99.5 is currently KKLA, 100.3 was KMLA from 1957-1965.

I suppose one could think of KOLA in the Inland Empire as referencing Los Angeles with its calls.

KRLA is now at 870, but spent decades on 1110 beginning in 1959.

KTLA is Channel 5.

KXLA was on 1110 from 1942-1959.

KZLA was on 1540 from 1979-1984. and on 93.9 from 1978 to 2006.

And, there are reverse order ones. KLAX being the standout. "LA" the city and "LAX" being the airport. But neither was the logic of getting those calls... it was a combination of "LA" for the city and "X", the first letter in every Mexican station's calls. And, thus, "La X" was their name.

 

[davideduardo]

Seems the sale of KBLA from Multicultural Broadcasting to Tavis was never consummated. I guess he is LMA'ing the station.

That is how it currently stands.

 

[michael hagerty]

And, there are reverse order ones. KLAX being the standout. "LA" the city and "LAX" being the airport. But neither was the logic of getting those calls... it was a combination of "LA" for the city and "X", the first letter in every Mexican station's calls. And, thus, "La X" was their name.

True....and KLAC.

 

[KilowattKat]

My sense is it's not a traditional radio station built around ratings & advertising. When you look at the website and drill down into what he's doing, he's combining the radio station into a local charity.

On the website under "Support" they are seeking donations, as well as advertisers. Looks like a hybrid of both to keep the station going.

 

[Frequency1]

That is how it currently stands.

The sale period is over. They never filed an extension of the sale with the FCC.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

The sale period is over. They never filed an extension of the sale with the FCC.

It is so hard coming up with $7.1 million for a weak AM signal broadcasting niche fomatted programming these days.

 

[TheBigA]

The sale period is over. They never filed an extension of the sale with the FCC.

By the same token, they haven't filed suit against the buyer. So it seems some conversations have taken place.

 

[TomásEstefan]

And the calls have history in Los Angeles. They were used on 1500 AM (now dark) from 1952-1967. There's no record of whether founder George Cameron intended any meaning for the calls "KBLA" other than for the "LA" (Los Angeles) in them, but given that the city of license was Burbank, "Burbank Los Angeles" is a pretty good guess.

That's been enough for several broadcasters---there is an LPTV on digital channel 8 with the calls KFLA.

99.5 is currently KKLA, 100.3 was KMLA from 1957-1965.

I suppose one could think of KOLA in the Inland Empire as referencing Los Angeles with its calls.

KRLA is now at 870, but spent decades on 1110 beginning in 1959.

KTLA is Channel 5.

KXLA was on 1110 from 1942-1959.

KZLA was on 1540 from 1979-1984. and on 93.9 from 1978 to 2006.

"KBLA" was actually on 1490 from the late 1940s till the mid 60s when it moved to 1500. The original call letters of the station were KWIK until the station lost its license due to apparently repeated technical violations. A new owner took over and changed the call letters to KBLA. The station as KWIK went on the air just after WWII when KWIZ Santa Ana moved from 1490 to 1480 so they could use much higher power: 5 kW DA-2 as opposed to just 250 W full time. When KBLA moved to 1500 they were authorized for 10 kW DA-2 but soon had to apparently reduce night power to 1 Kw DA because they were interfering with KSTP (Twin Cities). It's interesting that this station would eventually lose it's license due to technical violations just as the original owner did.

 

[Joey1986]

And the calls have history in Los Angeles. They were used on 1500 AM (now dark) from 1952-1967. There's no record of whether founder George Cameron intended any meaning for the calls "KBLA" other than for the "LA" (Los Angeles) in them, but given that the city of license was Burbank, "Burbank Los Angeles" is a pretty good guess.

That's been enough for several broadcasters---there is an LPTV on digital channel 8 with the calls KFLA.

99.5 is currently KKLA, 100.3 was KMLA from 1957-1965.

I suppose one could think of KOLA in the Inland Empire as referencing Los Angeles with its calls.

KRLA is now at 870, but spent decades on 1110 beginning in 1959.

KTLA is Channel 5.

KXLA was on 1110 from 1942-1959.

KZLA was on 1540 from 1979-1984. and on 93.9 from 1978 to 2006.

The KMLA calls are now on a regional Mexican-formatted station in El Rio (serving the Oxnard-Ventura radio market) at 103.7 FM, branded as La M (pronounced “la eme” in Spanish).

KXLA is now on the TV side on channel 44 (which signed on as KRPA) co-owned and in a channel-sharing agreement with Ventura-licensed KJLA channel 57 (which debuted as KSTV).

KFLA-LD has a repeater licensed to Cherry Valley, in Riverside County; also broadcasting on VHF channel 8, with the call letters KILA-LD.

There’s also KNLA-CD channel 20.

 

[TomásEstefan]

And the calls have history in Los Angeles. They were used on 1500 AM (now dark) from 1952-1967. There's no record of whether founder George Cameron intended any meaning for the calls "KBLA" other than for the "LA" (Los Angeles) in them, but given that the city of license was Burbank, "Burbank Los Angeles" is a pretty good guess.

That's been enough for several broadcasters---there is an LPTV on digital channel 8 with the calls KFLA.

99.5 is currently KKLA, 100.3 was KMLA from 1957-1965.

I suppose one could think of KOLA in the Inland Empire as referencing Los Angeles with its calls.

KRLA is now at 870, but spent decades on 1110 beginning in 1959.

KTLA is Channel 5.

KXLA was on 1110 from 1942-1959.

KZLA was on 1540 from 1979-1984. and on 93.9 from 1978 to 2006.

Just for fun I always thought _"KZLA" was a reverse of "KLAC" as I think KLAC was country before they were...and further I always thought "KOLA" meant: "Over Los Angeles"