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KKLA
- Thread starter 34james
- Start date
There are many, many Christian stations that are commercial. First, most of the ones that have brokered programs are operating for the profit on selling the time. And there are a number of Christian contemporary stations with music format run with advertising as a paid profit center, too.
Salem, the owner of KKLA, operates several dozen commercial religious stations all over the US.
Thanks exdjted. Now I know
Salem makes much of its money by selling airtime to preachers, who pay in advance. Many of them buy airtime across the company. It also offers, or at least used to offer, a portal on the web for those preachers to stream their lessons. So, by paying Salem, the preachers can reach multiple markets and platforms without having to worry about maintaining those platforms themselves. You may have heard music on KKLA, but that was most likely filler for time that had yet to be sold.
If you want Christian music, Salem offers that on 95.9 The Fish.
OR 100.3 KKLQ
The only place on the dial where a station *has* to be non-commercial is in the 88-92 part of the FM band. That was intentionally and specifically set aside for non-commercial use. (And even that doesn't preclude a station from selling time to a preacher, just as long as commercials aren't aired in the programming.) From 92.1 through 107.9, and all of the AM band, it's the station owner's option whether to be commercial or non-commercial. Religious broadcasters are not subject to different rules in this area. All they have to do is alert listeners that a program is (or has been) provided by a third-party.
Well, yes, 100.3 does indeed air Christian music. My point, however, was that Salem offers a place on the dial for CCM fans as KKLA was never intended to fill that niche.
Folks may have noticed that KKLA does not ever broadcast a stereo pilot. That's because they (or the pre-Salem operator) shut-off their stereo generator years ago, as they essentially run no music programming. At one time in the distant past they did broadcast in stereo while they had musical program segments, but then shut the stereo pilot off during spoken word programming..
For those not old enough to remember, many decades ago the FCC required FM stations to shut down their stereo pilot signal during non-stereo programming lasting longer than about 5 minutes. This ridiculous rule was eventually done away with after station owners, managers and many listeners complained, as there was a new generation of HI-Fi stereo receivers and tuners released by lots of manufacturers that had a "stereo only" mode. In this mode, as you tuned across the band, you could hear audio only from stereo signals (as if no other stations were on the air). Many listeners either forgot or were unaware that their radio was in this mode as some brands shipped their units with the mode selector switch pre-set in the "stereo only" mode). Sometimes the selector switch was labeled as simply "mono or auto stereo", meaningless to most consumers. Listeners called in to ask why their favorite station was apparently "not on the air". Station managers understandably freaked out. Soon after many manufacturers did away with the "stereo only" mode.
For those not old enough to remember, many decades ago the FCC required FM stations to shut down their stereo pilot signal during non-stereo programming lasting longer than about 5 minutes. This ridiculous rule was eventually done away with after station owners, managers and many listeners complained, as there was a new generation of HI-Fi stereo receivers and tuners released by lots of manufacturers that had a "stereo only" mode. In this mode, as you tuned across the band, you could hear audio only from stereo signals (as if no other stations were on the air). Many listeners either forgot or were unaware that their radio was in this mode as some brands shipped their units with the mode selector switch pre-set in the "stereo only" mode). Sometimes the selector switch was labeled as simply "mono or auto stereo", meaningless to most consumers. Listeners called in to ask why their favorite station was apparently "not on the air". Station managers understandably freaked out. Soon after many manufacturers did away with the "stereo only" mode.
Salem typically doesn't run stereo on its religious teaching FM's. It's been several years since I've been back to Dallas, but, last time I was there, KWRD-FM wasn't broadcasting a stereo pilot. Not sure about its conservative talk FM's, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same.
My understanding has always been that KKLA is a separate station from the one that had previously broadcast at 99.5, even though no actual break in operation occurred. Seems like I heard that the previous operator, also a religious broadcaster, lost the license, and Salem was granted a new license, which became KKLA.
I think you're right, 99.5 was owned at one time by Rev Gene Scott as KHOF (House of Faith). He lost both his FM and KHOF-TV (ch 30) licenses. The FCC required him to turn over certain ownership information and he refused to do so. He was able to fight it for some time until the FCC gave him a specific date to close down. He pledged on-air to defy the FCC and stay operating, however, he was approached by many members of his technical staff (most of whom had First Phone licenses) and informed him that if they continued to operate the station in defiance of the FCC's shut-off date, they themselves would lose their own licenses, so they would have no choice but to resign. Scott was further informed that in this case he would then be running his stations without licensed operators which is another rule violation: grounds for immediate shut down. So the rest is history...
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To continue about Gene Scott for a minute, he would discover, in his case at least, having the FCC shut down his station was the best thing to happen to his organization. He could continue doing what he had been doing without the pressure, headache and expenses of running his own station. It seems a couple of other UHF stations in the market would lease him as much time as he wanted. What did he do? Most evenings he sat in a chair on the stage of his "church" (Wescott Center in Glendale) smoke a cigar and pontificate on whatever came to mind. When he got fatigued or wanted to take a break he would have his on-stage "band" play a few tunes until he would go back at it.
At times he could be quite entertaining, just as Wally George was on Ch 56. You would sometimes stay tuned just to see what they were going to say next...if you had nothing better to do at the moment !
At times he could be quite entertaining, just as Wally George was on Ch 56. You would sometimes stay tuned just to see what they were going to say next...if you had nothing better to do at the moment !
Seems like he carried a bit of a grudge, at least in 1983.
Do you know which stations he leased time on? My grandma used to occasionally watch him. When visiting their house in Upland I remember the picture always had some static, compared to the flawless quality of the all the big Wilson signals.
There used to be more regional UHF stations, now they all have moved into LA proper with towers on Harvard or leased subchannels.
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95.9 The Fish only covers Orange county most of the LA market can't get a decent signal.
Dion't remember what station he wound up on... As to your reception problem, during the analog days ch 30, along with ch 18, and ch 56 were all up on Sunset ridge which was above Claremont. These stations were about the same HAAT as Wt. Wilson but about 25 miles further to the to the East of Wilson. This location was fair to good for the IE. Fair to poor over much of the LA Basin, and poor to non existant over the SFV. The FCC rules back then for (analog) UHF transmitter second adjacent channel spacing was on the order of "6 channels or 25 miles". This was based on 1950s UHF tuner technology. Many early sets had continious "radio dial" type tuners, and experiments showed that with strong signals spaced less than about 6 channels apart, they would bleed into each other.
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You know the situation with the signals there better than I do.
Having said that, Salem put CCM on 95.9 and talk on 99.5 for a reason. If it thought putting music on the better signal, which it did in Dallas, was beneficial to its bottom line, it would’ve done so. Orange County likely has more potential CCM listeners than LA, even though it has fewer people overall.
Salem also has many Conservative Talk AM stations, branded as "The Answer."
Their only country and classic htis stations are in honolulu, as i recall
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