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A couple of KBLA-KBBQ Questions

L

Lopaka

KBBQ has been absent from the airwaves for a long time. Does anyone know why and when this happened? Last I saw a KIEV reincarnation was slated for the 1500kc frequency, does anyone know how that is coming?
And finally sort of a generic question, is there any set pattern to taking a station down? Thanks much for info.
 
FCC says KIEV is still a CP , currently for 50,000 watts day and 4.3 kw night.so who knows when they will fire up their stick...

Application Search Details
File Number: BMAP-20001020AAT
Call Sign: KIEV
Facility Id: 57893
FRN:
Applicant Name: ROYCE INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY
Frequency: 1500
Channel:
Community of License: CULVER CITY, CA
Application Type: MAJOR MODIFICATION TO A CONSTRUCTION PERMIT
Status: GRANTED
Status Date: 09/28/2001
Expiration Date: 04/25/2002
Tolling Code:
Application Service: AM
Disposed Date: 09/28/2001
Accepted Date: 10/27/2000
Tendered Date:
Amendment Received Date: 08/03/2001
Last Public Notice: 10/03/2001
Last Report Number: 45083
Authorization View Authorization
Legal Actions View Legal Actions
Positional Interest Info View Positional Interest Info
PN Comment Public Notice Comment
Correspondence Folder View Correspondence Folder
 
Actually, that CP expired a couple of years ago and the FCC didn't renew it. Royce had it since in 1980's and zoning at various sites shot it down thru the years. As it stands now there are three applications for 1500. 1. Saul Levine has one for Culver City, 25kw day and 1kw night. 2. A group called "Kermit T" out of Clearwater Fl. has a competing app. for Venice, 500 watts day and night. And, 3. Royce has filed another app. as well. All of these are mutually exclusive with an Art Astor app. to upgrade KSPA 1510 Ontario to 50kw. In the case of 1500, the license of KROQ-AM was revoked. Initially, several groups applied for it and Royce was granted the CP. I doubt if Royce will win it this time. Saul allready has a useable site with his 1260AM that 1500 could be diplexed from. Another way a station can "go off" is by turning the license in to the commission. This is what happened to 850 and 1240. A group who owns a station on a nearby frequency and wants to upgrade buys it and turns the license in. In the L.A. market 870 bought 850 and 1230 got 1240 to accomplish that task.
 
Very interesting, thank you both. I would love to know why the KBBQ license got revoked.

I kind of think of radio stations as public assets and I do find it a bit disappointing when some are shut down so stations in distant, already well served cities can augment their signals. Consider KLRA in Little Rock, which was to Arkansas radio about what KCBS in SF would be here--WINS needed a new directional pattern, Westinghouse bought KLRA and shut it down. A net gain for WINS of course but Arkansas lost a genuinely valuable asset. Same story with KPAY in Chico and whatever the 600 in Redding was, long ago.
 
Thanks for the info Jon.

This freq has always been quite interesting to me. I grew up in the neighborhood on the other side of the towers. Fybush.com recently visited the original KBBQ/KROQ-AM site (they took a tour of the KROQ CBS site on Verdugo Peak). From I remember in the story 4 of the 5 towers in the array are still there -- and CBS actually had the temp site for Latino 96.3 mounted on one of them! KROQ is housed in a bunker on Verdugo Peak that once held the 1500 AM studios.

I had heard that they had tried to get a xmitter site for some time over near the Wentworth exit of the 210 (Royce) but that never happend.
 
I don't like to see stations shut down either. KPAY Chico did get to move back the the frequency they were on before 1060, 1290 with less coverage. 2 other NYC stations; 1280 and 1600 caused shut downs for 1290 and 1600 on Long Island, and 1190 a downgrade in Indiana. Gary Bokasta changed the calls of KBBQ to KROQ and the format to CHR when he bought 1500. He then purchased 106.7/1240, spinning off 1240 to then KMAX 107.1. However, money started to run out and the facilities went off the air for nearly a year and a half. They were put back on just in the nick of time, but after about a year cash became thin again. Gary brought in Ken Roberts the a bundle of bucks. The FCC determined "control" of the stations had been illegally transfered to Ken. The commission's final ruling revoked the license of 1500, a fairly standard practice. However, in a surprise ruling, and the first of its kind, the fcc allowed Gary to sell 106.7 to Ken ! Gary was also barred from broadcast ownership for life. The former 1500 Verdugo Hills site is the current transmitter site for 106.7 and 96.3.
 
I think Jon Bruce is right - as I remember, 1500 became KROQ before it shut down. The KBBQ country format went away because it couldn't compete with KLAC when it went country with a much more powerful signal at 570. Same reason KBLA couldn't compete against KHJ, KRLA, and KFWB. The signal at 1500 was awful. I lived just 8 miles from the KBLA transmitter, and the station could not be heard after sundown.
 
Thanks Jon for the update on the CP for 1500, which even I have had trouble keeping up with, since it has dragged on for so long!! It's also been a bit confusing for me. Anyway, my private opinion is that without an FM, I can't see how the original CP for 1500 could or would be able to make it financially. The one for Venice with the low power sounds fascinating to me, like a small-town community station from years gone by.

My memory is hazy, but when I lived in Anaheim and was an active AM band DXer in the IRCA club (Int'l Radio Club of America), I seem to recall that KROQ-1500 was in Spanish and used very lower power also, around 1980-1984. In fact, I seem to remember the station went dark sometime around or during 1984, but I was never able to determine the reason it went dark. The CP by Royce seemed to come out a couple of years later or by 1989 or so.

Jim Hilliker
Monterey, CA
 
Hello Jim,
I had some friends in IRCA. Did you by any chance happen to have known Dan Ericson from Riverside? Some of the IRCA boys ran pirate "KXR" on 1040 kc in San Diego in the early 1960's. It was a very active group, I wonder if it still is.
 
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