KMQA 98.3, KLVE 107.5 Real start date.

[thebeach33445]

Hey Guys:

Would anybody know if KMQA 98.3 "La Maquina" was a Spanish Pop/CHR or a Spanish/AC?


I have a lot of different info on this one. When did KLVE start there Spanish/AC format?

I have these dates Sept 1975 and another says July 1979 around the same time as KTNQ. Even the Broadcasting Yearbooks have this info:

75 yearbook: KLVE Contemporary

76 to 79 yearbooks: KLVE Soft Rock

1980 yearbook: KLVE Spanish

Can anybody help me clear this up.

Thanks guys.

T.J.

 

[davideduardo]

Would anybody know if KMQA 98.3 "La Maquina" was a Spanish Pop/CHR or a Spanish/AC?

Neither. It was regional Mexican. Later, under the next set of calls, it was CHR as Ritmo.

I have a lot of different info on this one. When did KLVE start there(sic) Spanish/AC format?

1978.

I have these dates Sept 1975 and another says July 1979 around the same time as KTNQ. Even the Broadcasting Yearbooks have this info:

75 yearbook: KLVE Contemporary

KLVE was K-love under previous, and bankrupt, owner PSA, the airline. The ultra-cheap new owners did not change call letters, and ran it out of the building at Hollywood near Wilton along with XEGM-950, Tijuana.

76 to 79 yearbooks: KLVE Soft Rock

Soft rock, AC, at that time pretty much the same thing.

1980 yearbook: KLVE Spanish

Yearbook format lists are only as good as the submission by station owners. Many stations never filled in the form. Considering that in that year a stamp cost about a quarter, I would imagine the new owners did not want to spend the money.

 

[Lopaka]

If memory serves KLVE was KPSA when PSA owned it, I think that rather than going bankrupt PSA simply sold out to US Air. They had a chain of KPS_ stations in LA, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento and probably also San Jose. Before becoming KPSA wasn't it KBBL, a Bible Institute religious station? The Bible Institute also owned KBBW, I think the original call on 102.9 in San Diego.

 

[jonbruce]

Lopaka you are right. For a time between the KPSA calls and KLVE it was KEZM,"M for music" as the on air liner stated.

 

[davideduardo]

I have a lot of different info on this one. When did KLVE start there(sic) Spanish/AC format?
1978.

My error... 1978 was when KTNQ went Spanish... 1976 was when KLVE was sold to the Liberman brothers.

 

[davideduardo]

If memory serves KLVE was KPSA when PSA owned it, I think that rather than going bankrupt PSA simply sold out to US Air. They had a chain of KPS_ stations in LA, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento and probably also San Jose. Before becoming KPSA wasn't it KBBL, a Bible Institute religious station? The Bible Institute also owned KBBW, I think the original call on 102.9 in San Diego.

PSA sold its last two stations in 1976, and KLVE went to José, Julio and Elías Liberman after the typical long delay in FCC processing.

The original Spanish language rate card used the old logo from the English operation. Of couse, nobody would name a Spanish station "K-love" except to save the cost of changing the logo and the call letters. In fact, the station was called "K-love, Radio Amor" and the "Amor" part was used less and less over the years as people got used to:

Que low
Kiedlo
Kelob

And those are just 3 of 31 different variants of "K-love" I spotted in Arbitron diaries in the late 90's. But by that time, it was too late to change the name. Meaningless, yes, but well known, yes, too!

PSA bought the station in 1971. The 1975 Broadcasting Yearbook lists as KLVE and the owner as PSA Broadcasting, and Jack Siegal, sho went on to ownership himself, as manager. Studios were at 7119 Sunset. The '76 Yearbook says K-love Broadcasting acquired it in July of 1975 (the closing was 1976), but the format and principal owner was not updated to Broadcasting until the 1980 yearbook, and the address not corrected even then.

 

[briancraig]

In the July 14, 1974 edition of the Los Angeles Times there is an article about 107.5 KEZM applying for the call letters KLVE and their new format which is described as playing love songs from Ray Charles to Ray Conniff.

Didn't they switch to Spanish language music in September or October of 1975?

 

[davideduardo]

In the July 14, 1974 edition of the Los Angeles Times there is an article about 107.5 KEZM applying for the call letters KLVE and their new format which is described as playing love songs from Ray Charles to Ray Conniff.

Didn't they switch to Spanish language music in September or October of 1975?

The switch to Spanish would coincide with the closing following the transfer to the Liberman brothers. Anecdotally, we always thought that it was sometime in Spring of 1976. 1976 also corresponds to some information regarding the history of the airline, which "sold its last two stations in 1976" which we took to mean "closed on the sale and was out of radio."

 

[thebeach33445]

My 107.5 Timeline

Hey Guys:

I have made a 107.5 Timeline. I hope this will correct things out. I made this from the above posts notes, interenet research and Yearbook research.

1. 1959 to July 1971 KBBI 107.5 Beautiful Music (Owned by Bioca Broadcasting)

2. July 1971 to Aug 1975 KEZM 107.5 Easy Listening (Owned by PSA Broadcasting aq 7-71)

3. Aug 1975 to Spring 1976 KLVE 107.5 Soft AC (Love Songs) Still PSA.

4. Spring 1976 KLVE Spanish/AC (Aq K-LOVE RADIO INC 9-75)

Yearbook Listings

1971: KBBI Beautiful Music

1972: KBBI Beautiful Music

1973: KEZM Easy Listening

1974: KEZM Easy Listening

1975: KLVE Contemp.

1976, 1977, 1978, 1979: KLVE Soft Rock

1980: KLVE Spanish

Thanks David for the explination with the yearbooks. It clears up alot. But I can't figure out where the KPSA calls come in here.

Thoughts? If you would like to add anything PLEASE go right ahead.

Thanks

T.J.

 

[briancraig]

The KPSA calls had to be between KBBI and KEZM.

By January 1974, 107.5 is definitely KEZM. Long article in the L.A. Times about the station on 1/20/74.

Billboard lists the station is being KPSA in the November 6, 1971 and September 29, 1973 issues.

 

[radiocph]

I remember listening to KLVE in English in early 1975. I had a tape, but it got eaten....argh.

By mid-summer 1975, I think it went Spanish. Mostly Spanish versions of US Top 40 hits, if I recall correctly...

 

[davideduardo]

I remember listening to KLVE in English in early 1975. I had a tape, but it got eaten....argh.

By mid-summer 1975, I think it went Spanish. Mostly Spanish versions of US Top 40 hits, if I recall correctly...

The sale was not even announced until July, 1975. Back then, the FCC could take 6 to 9 months for a routine transfer... which is why we think the operation in Spanish began in Spring, 1976.

There were only a few contemporary US songs done in Spanish at that time (in the mid-60's it was a different matter). Maybe a sum total of a dozen or so were out in late '75 through '76. Just about none were hits, given that the songs, done by original artists, were not well pronouced in Spanish.

KLVE was a blend of Spanish and Mexican pop, tropical (salsa) and such. Almost none of it was covers, as covers stopped working by around 1967 or so. Of course, the Spanish language pop sounds like pop in any language.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: My 107.5 Timeline

1975: KLVE Contemp.

1976, 1977, 1978, 1979: KLVE Soft Rock

1980: KLVE Spanish

Thanks David for the explination with the yearbooks. It clears up alot. But I can't figure out where the KPSA calls come in here.

A correction here. I checked in the For the Record in Broadcasting Magazine and found in the August 25, 1975 edition that PSA Broadcasting, Inc. sold KLVE to K-Love Broadcasting Inc for $2 million. K-Love was owned by the Liberman brothers, José, Jullio and Elías and their father Adolfo. José, who was still a Mexican national, was listed as owning XEGM, Tijuana at the time.

Here is the issue:

http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive BC/BC 1975/BC 1975 08 25.pdf

On September 13, the FCC (in amazing speed) approved the transfer. See For the Record

http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive BC/BC 1975/BC 1975 10 13.pdf under FCC actions.

There is no record of the closing date; closings usually took place in 30 days, but "issues" could prolong a closing. So, despite what even was thought by the station today, it appears that the closing happened at the end of 1975, likely the last day of October of '75.

In any case, the closing and commencement of operation by the Liberman interests would have happened in a window between October '75 and perhaps January of '76. The station changed to Spanish pop/tropical as soon as the Libermans assumed ownership.

This dateline corrects my prior post which was based on the records at the station itself (I've been interim PD there three times over the last 16 years, in fact).

 

[briancraig]

L.A. Times did a feature story on KLVE in May of 1976 where they claim, Spanish language programming started in October of 1975

From the Los Angeles Times radio column of May 23, 1976:

"Many of us tend to disregard Spanish-language radio. To most Anglos, it is simply a reserved spot on the dial that one passes on the way to something else. Whether quality programming exists beyond the language barrier is a mystery most of us haven't taken the trouble to investigate.

But for the vast Spanish-speaking population of Los Angeles and its outlying areas-particularly those who speak only Spanish-the radio is valuable source of information and entertainment, a bridge to the community.

In Los Angeles, that service is provided by KWKW, KALI and XEGM on the AM dial. And, since last October, KLVE on the FM side."

3 other items I found interesting that are mentioned in this article:

1. Jaime Jarrin does the Noon to 3 pm shift when possible. Jaime is of course the legendary Hall of Fame Spanish language voice of the Dodgers. I never knew he was a d.j.

2. Julio Liberman says: "At XEGM we program about 70% traditional Mexican folkloric music and the other 30% is modern music. With KLVE we go the other way with artists such as Vikki Carr, dance music and Mexican salsa."

3. Elias Liberman says: "When Mexican people listen to a radio station, we'll sometimes listen for the entire day. That's why you can't have a tight playlist on either station. We play about 2,500 different selections. With our audience, you can't keep playing 50 records to death."

 

[davideduardo]

L.A. Times did a feature story on KLVE in May of 1976 where they claim, Spanish language programming started in October of 1975

In rather typical LA Times fashion, they got just about everything wrong in that article. Of course, this is no surprise as I have a file of quite a few total and laughable misquotes of my own statements printed in the Times.

Among the more glaring errors that put the entire article in doubt are statements like saying that Julio Liberman said the format incuded "dance music and Mexican salsa." "Música bailable" in Spanish literally translates as "dancable music" but refers to tropical music, not what the English term would lead one to believe. And there is, quite simply, no such thing as "Mexican salsa."

The article also fails to mention AM 1090, which went Spanish 13 or 14 hours a day sometime in early 1975; I spoke with the PD of LA's KRCD/KRCV who started there in late 1975 when the station had been in Spanish as Radio Express for 8 months (nights and overnights were still in English, and the Spanish programming was taped in LA and run the next day from Tijuana).

It appears that the interview was done by someone who did not have any Spanish abillity... Julio and Elias didn't have particularly great English even 20 years later. Of course, neither Julio nor Elias had anything to do with the programming... that was brother José's specialty.

Jaime Jarrin did not start on K-love when it converted to Spanish... he was still the PM news guy on KWKW (along with doing the games) then, and left KWKW to join KLVE. Jarrin did DJ shifts on several stations... he is just best known for the play by play.

Still, it does appear that Spanish language operation began in the first days of November, 1975.

 

[michael hagerty]

David: You're a year early. It was 12 noon on July 31, 1979.

 

[davideduardo]

1978 was when KTNQ went Spanish...

David: You're a year early. It was 12 noon on July 31, 1979.

This is another tough one to document... the manger of KTNQ for Storer is our source of the information... along wiht "rate card #1" dated in 1978. The station has alrways ceebrated it as having been in September of 78 also. Given how we are seeing that the exact dates are really quite difficult to track, your date is quite possible... I am really sekeptical of some sources after seeing all the dreadful newspaper reports for station changes... I'm still giggling at the LA Times one about KLVE with its errors, inaccuracies and omissions.

 

[michael hagerty]

1978 was when KTNQ went Spanish...

David: You're a year early. It was 12 noon on July 31, 1979.

This is another tough one to document... the manger of KTNQ for Storer is our source of the information... along wiht "rate card #1" dated in 1978. The station has alrways ceebrated it as having been in September of 78 also. Given how we are seeing that the exact dates are really quite difficult to track, your date is quite possible... I am really sekeptical of some sources after seeing all the dreadful newspaper reports for station changes... I'm still giggling at the LA Times one about KLVE with its errors, inaccuracies and omissions.

David: KTNQ's FM, KHTZ (97.1) inherited the airstaff and made a big deal about the switchover. Three hours of the switch, with Charlie Tuna, Bob (not Robert W.) Morgan, Dave Sebastian Williams and Jack Armstrong, unscoped and dated, are online at Reelradio.com.

September, 1978 might have been when the deal was reached to buy the station. FCC approval processes took up to a year in those days and the practice of taking over under an LMA was not yet in vogue.

Tuna didn't cross the street from KHJ until September, 1978 and I believe Armstrong didn't arrive (replacing The Real Don Steele) until October, 1978.

 

[davideduardo]

September, 1978 might have been when the deal was reached to buy the station. FCC approval processes took up to a year in those days and the practice of taking over under an LMA was not yet in vogue.

I'm quite sure you are correct in the '79 date, and I like your suggestion that the sale may have been announced or filed earlier. My base for suggesting 1978 is the information used at the station to determine its anniversary.

All this shows how much additional checking may be needed in some cases.

Most of the information in industry directories depended on the return of questionnaires by the stations themselves. Many newspapers had a bias against radio or assigned junior reporters to the radio stories. And I have just seen with both KLVE and KTNQ, stations themselves don't always have an accurate institutional memory.

There is a very interesting timeline for radio in New York online; it is a shame that such is not available for LA and that those who have much of the information at hand do not choose to share it.