I was just old enough to remember seeing an ad on KTLA announcing the "debut" of KKAR 1220.
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KTMZ
- Thread starter KilowattKat
- Start date
Listening to the Jack Fleming KKAR aircheck was a reminder of how radio in those days used sound effects and music beds to create an auditory 'wall of sound', i.e.the dings between the news stories. KKAR was a great example of that.
I think instead of calling it K-KAR, I would have called it on air as CAR RADIO. Sounds better that way....
I think instead of calling it K-KAR, I would have called it on air as CAR RADIO. Sounds better that way....
Talk about some serious short spacing on the AM dial:
AM 1220 Pomona
AM 1230 Los Angeles
AM 1240 Pasadena (went dark in 1996)
AM 1240 San Bernardino
Keep in mind these locations are 30 miles or less, apart from each other.
AM 1220 Pomona
AM 1230 Los Angeles
AM 1240 Pasadena (went dark in 1996)
AM 1240 San Bernardino
Keep in mind these locations are 30 miles or less, apart from each other.
The distance between the 1220 and 1230 transmitters is closer to 40 miles and both were pretty weak signals, with 1220 a daytimer and 1230 a 24-hour station (the first 24-hour station in the country).
1240 in Pasadena was a limited-hours operation—-five hours on Wednesday evenings and 18 hours (6 am-midnight) on Sundays until 1985, when it went to nighttime operation Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday.
There were issues with 1230 and 1240, which is why 1230’s owners bought 1240 in 1996 and took it dark. (The Wednesday night/all-day Sunday thing didn’t hurt 1230 too badly—they were a top 10 station in the late 60s and early 70s).
As for the two 1240s, that’s also closer to 50
miles and Pasadena’s limited operation I’m sure was a factor.
1240 Pasadena was there first, signing on in 1924. 1230 dates to 1926. 1240 in San Bernardino began in 1948 and 1220 in 1961, so I’m sure the 1220 and 1240 San Bernardino engineering studies accounted for the other two stations.
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The history of KPPC 1240 Pasadena, has to be one of the most fascinating in LA radio history.
For those interested, it's a long read, but interesting, as it really goes into detail about the short spacing of all involved.
The Hollywood of the South! “Elvis has left the building” was coined here
It is possible that KTMZ's chances of returning to the air are better than I had first thought them. Not only is it owned by Lotus but I believe (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the station, when on the air, was (mostly) simulcasting Los Angeles 1330 kHz sister KWKW. (In fact, the most recent callsign for the station before becoming KTMZ was KWKU.) So, we'll see.
Hispanics have cut back on discretionary spending more than any other racial group, thanks to Trump whose policies are having the opposite economic effect of what was intended.
Trump’s immigration policies are chilling Hispanic discretionary spending
Hispanic consumers curb spending over immigration policy fears: Their discretionary purchases are falling sharply, hurting sales at Walmart and Constellation.
Hispanics have cut back on discretionary spending more than any other racial group, thanks to Trump whose policies are having the opposite economic effect of what was intended.
Trump’s immigration policies are chilling Hispanic discretionary spending
Hispanic consumers curb spending over immigration policy fears: Their discretionary purchases are falling sharply, hurting sales at Walmart and Constellation.www.emarketer.com
This will be an issue for Spanish-language media. The fact that enforcement is not only not focusing on criminals or even undocumented but is detaining American citizens and not denying that it is employing racial profiling is having a chilling effect on Americans of Latino and Hispanic descent.
Hispanics have cut back on discretionary spending more than any other racial group, thanks to Trump whose policies are having the opposite economic effect of what was intended.
Trump’s immigration policies are chilling Hispanic discretionary spending
Hispanic consumers curb spending over immigration policy fears: Their discretionary purchases are falling sharply, hurting sales at Walmart and Constellation.
This will be an issue for Spanish-language media. The fact that enforcement is not only not focusing on criminals or even undocumented but is detaining American citizens and not denying that it is employing racial profiling is having a chilling effect on Americans of Latino and Hispanic descent.
Yes, and maybe our resident expert on Spanish language media @davideduardo can offer some insight.
I wonder why the calls were changed to KTMZ, I can't find any info on that. And nothing to do Harvey Levin or TMZ I'm sure, as someone joked earlier.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Jim Hilliker is a long time acquaintance of mine, because anyone interested in preserving the history of our business is an instant friend.
On my own site, there is a page that originally appeared at the late Don Barrett's LARadio.com on the 75th anniversary of KRTH (if you back through the KHJ-FM days and include the years in the 44mc band, it is the oldest continuously operating FM in Los Angeles). My article was on FM call letter history and Jim was kind enough to fact check me before publication.
On my own site, there is a page that originally appeared at the late Don Barrett's LARadio.com on the 75th anniversary of KRTH (if you back through the KHJ-FM days and include the years in the 44mc band, it is the oldest continuously operating FM in Los Angeles). My article was on FM call letter history and Jim was kind enough to fact check me before publication.
And therein lies the problem: 40 years or more ago a station of 1000-5000 watts would probably cover the entirety of a city. Pomona now has almost 148,000 people and has probably expanded in size. Take a look at a lot of cities nowadays and they have annexed farmland, etc. and doubled maybe even tripled their size so the old signal can no longer cover the entire town. Which is why you have translators re-broadcasting AM on FM on the outskirts on these ever expanding towns. Columbus, I'm pretty sure, has even annexed into counties surrounding Franklin county. Cleveland.....unable to grow, unless they have citizens grow gills and annex into Lake Erie, because they have smaller cities surrounding them, the only way they could do it is if they have a smaller city dissolve themselves and then they can annex it.. It's like KIngsport, TN. When parental units first moved there it was fairly small sized city but now it's insane how much they've grown. It's like "Hey, there's a blade of grass over there! Annex it!" And I'm very sure that some of the older AM stations can no longer be heard from eastside to westside/northside to southside limits.
The deportation of illegal immigrants does not directly affect radio listening as reported by Nielsen.
Among the last things that undocumented immigrants would do is sign up to carry an electronic "tracking device" on their belt or in their purse all day. Even totally legal foreign born residents are hesitant to accept a PPM commitment since wearing a "pager like" device is reminiscent of what traffickers did "back home".
And, among "new immigrants" whether legal or not, literacy is an issue in diary surveyed markets. When I got information from the Mexican Consulate in LA back when I was programming talk station KTNQ, we were told that the average education among incoming immigrants for men was 6th grade and for women one to two years less.
So it can be concluded that with or without "illegals", ratings will not changed. Advertisers still want to reach the "Hispanic market"
The reasoning for the change stated by the licensee is just gibberish; I suspect they said that to make a political statement. The station was a 100% simulcast of KWKW 1330 AM in LA; it had no local sales. The land the station is on makes the station worth more dead than alive. Either it will return with a less complex antenna at lower power levels or just be cancelled.
Remember, the signal is so limited that there is even another AM in the same market on that same frequency.
Interestingly, the data on ad revenues for Univision and Telemundo show a much better picture than OTA network broadcasters like ABC, CBS and NBC.
Obviously, if you remove several million people from the economy... the current administration claims over 3,000,000 have been deported or have left... sales attributed to those groups who have departed will decrease.
But since undocumented persons won't participate in ratings surveys, we can't see evidence of change in that area... and media is predominantly bought based on ratings in the large metro areas where immigrants tend to locate.
The gray area is in households where there are both documented and undocumented residents. Those households won't participate in ratings, and they will be cautious about going to big "gringo" stores, sticking to neighborhood outlets instead.
Interestingly, my daughter in Ecuador tells me that the influx of Venezuelan "illegals" to the bigger cities there has caused similar issues, with in-person ratings being unsafe to conduct in some neighborhoods; stores have additional security and there is military presence at shopping areas. There are thought to be nearly a million Venezuelans there out of 18 million Ecuadorians.
That is a very generalize statement.
None of my family here has felt any "chilling effect" of any kind. On the other hand, they are quite encouraged that people who did not go through the steps they did to become legal residents and citizens are being deported.
And you can't be of "Latino and Hispanic descent" as neither are races. You can be of such heritage.
The other station that @davideduardo is referring to is KHTS licensed to Canyon Country (Santa Clarita) between San Fernando and Palmdale. Again, going by memory, that one came on the air many, many years after KKAR did. (In fact, I don't recall ever hearing that one before we moved to Phoenix from Tujunga in 1972.)
But, with all due respect, I have to disagree with @davideduardo's other assertion that the current crackdown is not having any effect on the behavior of people of Hispanic descent in the U.S. As @michael hagerty has indicated (and I have heard confirmed elsewhere), the current administration is, through ICE, stopping and arresting even U.S. citizens because they look Hispanic. That will have, and already has had, a chilling effect on Hispanic participation in the U.S. economic system, and by inference, commercial businesses, including commercial media, targeting the U.S. Hispanic market.
As I said, neither I nor any of my extended family in SoCal has had any problems. Most of us speak Spanish when together, including in Public. While I don't "look" Hispanic, the rest of the family does (if you go with the stereotypical "look" of many Hispanics*).
The measure of "Hispanic media" is ratings. As I said, neither now nor ever in the past have illegal immigrants been part of radio or TV ratings. First, they don't tend to be in one place long enough to get on lists of the kind Arbitron (in the past) and Nielsen used / use to find participants. And, second, participation involves revealing identity and other personal data, which nobody who is not documented will want to do.
During the Obama years, over 3 million illegal immigrants were deported... about the same number as the Trump administration claims today. That had zero effect on Hispanic media.
As to the article cited by @michael hagerty that story goes on to say, "Immigration is not Hispanics’ biggest worry. Per Constellation Brands’ internal research, two-thirds are worried about higher prices for food, gas, and other essentials—more than the roughly 50% that stress over immigration issues." So, in other words, Hispanics are mostly spending less at "big name stores" because of economics, not immigration.
* Keep in mind that "Hispanic" is not a race. There are white, Black, Asian, and Indigenous Hispanics and all manner of mixes and combinations. Saying that someone "looks Hispanic" is engaging in extreme stereotyping.
Not really. Pomona was already boxed in by 1961 by mountains to the south and west and established cities to the north (La Verne, San Dimas, Claremont) and East (Ontario and Chino).
The footprint of Pomona is a compact 22 square miles. A lot of that was farmland in 1960, but it Pomona's population growth simply took over existing land within boundaries---there was very little to expand outward and annex.