-
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
KNOB Radio, Long Beach, CA
- Thread starter ghtaboma
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Not even close. KNOB spent most of its years at 97.9, after spending its first decade -- 1949 to 1958 -- at 103.1, and is today's KLAX ("La Raza"). The jazz format began the year before the frequency change and lasted until an ownership change in 1966.
..and their transmitter site has changed at least twice. In the 1970s, they were on Signal Hill near Long Beach. Then in the 1980s they moved many miles north, to Baldwin Hills. Later came another major move, to one of the Flint Peak sticks (when all the previous stations there moved to higher sites). 97.9 also changed their city of license to East Los Angeles.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Although I can't find all the exact dates (try searching on "KNOB" in the archives ... you'll get a few hundred hits), I am relatively certain that the move to Baldwin Hills was around the same time as KJLH and KSRF moving there.
KJLH had moved on a STA that was granted May 12, 1976 (after then-owner John Lamar Hill's original application to move there from Dominguez Hills was denied four years earlier) , and applied for those facilities to be made permanent shortly thereafter; the STA request had only been approved originally because his landlord at the other site was evicting him, according to a note in Broadcasting about it and the application was denied and appealed multiple times before being approved October 17, 1984. By that time, of course, KJLH had been sold to Stevie Wonder's Taxi Productions.
KSRF, which had been atop the office building at Ocean Ave./Wilshire Blvd. since 1971, had filed originally to move in 1979, but that took until August 31, 1983 to be approved; co-channel KOCM Newport Beach held it up by requesting a hearing on whether their grandfathered short-spaced signal would receive interference from the new facilities, even though KSRF also proposed a substantial decrease in ERP.
I'm guessing, then, that KNOB moved right before they were sold to Spanish Broadcasting System (becoming KSKQ) in 1986, based on the new ERP not appearing in the Broadcasting Yearbook until after the sale. It changed calls again, to the present KLAX, in 1992. The filing to move to Flint and change COL was in 1996, and was originally denied before being granted on appeal two years later.
(It doesn't take much to spark me into researching stuff like this ...)
KJLH had moved on a STA that was granted May 12, 1976 (after then-owner John Lamar Hill's original application to move there from Dominguez Hills was denied four years earlier) , and applied for those facilities to be made permanent shortly thereafter; the STA request had only been approved originally because his landlord at the other site was evicting him, according to a note in Broadcasting about it and the application was denied and appealed multiple times before being approved October 17, 1984. By that time, of course, KJLH had been sold to Stevie Wonder's Taxi Productions.
KSRF, which had been atop the office building at Ocean Ave./Wilshire Blvd. since 1971, had filed originally to move in 1979, but that took until August 31, 1983 to be approved; co-channel KOCM Newport Beach held it up by requesting a hearing on whether their grandfathered short-spaced signal would receive interference from the new facilities, even though KSRF also proposed a substantial decrease in ERP.
I'm guessing, then, that KNOB moved right before they were sold to Spanish Broadcasting System (becoming KSKQ) in 1986, based on the new ERP not appearing in the Broadcasting Yearbook until after the sale. It changed calls again, to the present KLAX, in 1992. The filing to move to Flint and change COL was in 1996, and was originally denied before being granted on appeal two years later.
(It doesn't take much to spark me into researching stuff like this ...)
Some data from the history cards, CDBS and FCCdata.org:
The application for 50 kW from the Baldwin Hills site was filed in November 1990 and the license to cover was filed in November 1991.
And did you know that when KNOB applied to move from its original 103.1 to 97.9 in 1958, it originally wanted to change COL to LA? The FCC apparently "persuaded" them to stick with Long Beach as COL, and the frequency change happened in October 1959.
The application for 50 kW from the Baldwin Hills site was filed in November 1990 and the license to cover was filed in November 1991.
And did you know that when KNOB applied to move from its original 103.1 to 97.9 in 1958, it originally wanted to change COL to LA? The FCC apparently "persuaded" them to stick with Long Beach as COL, and the frequency change happened in October 1959.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Thanks for filling in those gaps, Scott. I should have thought to look at the history cards myself.
Very good research KM Richards on the history of all three stations. Just one revision: KJLH was definitely transmitting from Baldwin Hills *before* KLAX and KSRF moved there. I lived in West L.A. in the early 80s, and my signal meter was very familiar with who had sticks in those hills. Also, let's not forget the other Baldwin Hills transmitter that pre-dated KSRF and KLAX: 103.9, which at the time was KACE.
And part of the reasoning for using Baldwin Hills was the transmitter site of AM 1460 which offered nice towers that could be used by those Class A stations
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
If you'll go back and re-read, you will note that I did confirm that KJLH moved to Baldwin Hills in 1976 on a STA.
KACE had indeed been on the KTYM towers there since it went on the air in 1958 as KTYM-FM, as David said. They did get an increase in ERP in 1965, though.
Yes, I know you confirmed KJLH relocated to Baldwin Hills in 1976. But you also said KNOB/KLAX's move there "was around the same time as KJLH and KSRF moving there." I was reacting to that line, by pointing out KNOB/KLAX and KSRF moved there many years *after* KJLH.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
It was within a ten-year time frame ... LOL
Interesting, I never knew that one of my idols, the late great Chuck Niles was on KNOB. Growing up in the 60's I only remember him from LA's pre-eminent Jazz station KBCA 105.1. He would later be associated with 105.1 KKGO, 88.1 KLON/KKJZ, and at one time Mt Wilson FM Broadcasters now defunct AM 540 Hesperia.
Last edited:
My memories of KNOB go back to 1980-81 when they did a great blend of Soft AC and Adult Standards, featuring artists like The Carpenters, Sinatra, Earl Klugh, Bob James.
- Status