What becomes of old radio buildings?

[failsafe]

The old KGIL building in the Valley still sits there abandonded and withering away, yet the towers are still lit up. Are the towers still functioning under another signal?

 

[w9wi]

The old KGIL building in the Valley still sits there abandonded and withering away, yet the towers are still lit up. Are the towers still functioning under another signal?

The towers still present a risk to aircraft even if there's no signal being radiated, so the lights are still required. Stations have received fines for failing to ensure the lights work on abandoned towers. (if they don't want to maintain the lights they need to arrange to have the towers taken down...)

Is it possible there are cell phone/two-way/etc. antennas on these towers? (relatively unusual at an AM station but certainly possible)

 

[nmoore6676]

KGIL still broadcasts through those towers. Actually they added a real tower to replace the wire that used to hang between two of the original towers. The studios and offices are not used as they use the Mount Wilson FM studios on Cotner Avenue.

What I would like to know is what will become of the "Columbia Square" studios which were originally home to CBS Radio West Coast and where many classic network radio shows originated. There are not too many big city radio stations that use "historic" buildings anymore since technology allows almost any office building space to be made into a radio studio.

I remember when I was a kid visiting WBLY radio in Springfield Ohio. The still had the big old rooms with thick bank vault style doors, huge double pane sloping glass windows between the studios with acoustic tiles on the walls. I also went with my Mom to see the Ruth Lyons show on WLW television in Cincinnati. They used a converted radio studio with the walls lined with some kind of panels that were half rounded to cut reverberation. Over the years before WLWT moved out they had changed the walls and enlarged the rooms so the old walls were gone. That same studio eventually gave birth to "The Jerry Springer Show".


The NBC TV studios in New York were also originally audience studios for radio shows but at least they are still being used, though there is no NBC radio anymore so the last radio studios are probably offices now. In Cincy the old smaller radio studios were last used as editing bays for the channel 5 news before they moved out to a new complex.

 

[failsafe]

I wish I could have seen the old NBC radio complex in Hollywood but it was torn down many years ago. I've only seen historic film of it , I think on one of Ralph Storys' " Things That Aren't Here Anymore " programs.

 

[michael hagerty]

I grew up thinking of radio stations as magical places, and came to the realization rather late that they're often converted from something else and their use as a radio facility is sometimes just a fraction of their life. Some examples:

The KFI studios on Vermont Ave: Built for radio in 1936, as studios for both KFI and KECA (later to become KABC). KFI stayed there until 1975, when it moved to an office building on Ardmore. It's now part of the Clear Channel cluster in Burbank.

Apart from use of its original live auditorium for a scene in the film Lady Sings The Blues, KFI's Vermont studio sat for 28 years before the Los Angeles Unified School District tore it down. Great (and tragic) shots here: http://www.geocities.com/christophermulrooney/criteria/id74.html

The KMPC studios at 9631 Wilshire Blvd. Home to the station's studios and transmitter in 1928. A few months later, the studios moved to the Home Beautiful magazine offices on Camden at Brighton. That building still stands. The transmitter and towers stayed on Wilshire until 1942, when they moved to Burbank Blvd. east of Coldwater.

KMPC's studios moved in 1944 to 5939 Sunset, where they stayed until 1968. That building is now the Spaghetti Factory restaurant.

Next stop: 5858 Sunset Blvd. Built originally as the first Warner Bros. Studios, the building had served as a bowling alley in the 40s and 50s after Warners moved to the First National lot in Burbank. KMPC left Sunset for the KABC/KLOS building on La Cienega in the late 90s. The building has been used most recently as offices for Tribune Broadcasting, but it was recently sold. Great shots from KMPC's history: http://www.710kmpc.com/history.htm

KHJ's legendary 5515 Melrose studios were originally built for NBC radio. After NBC left, KHJ moved in for a while, then moved to the Don Lee studios on Vine Street. In the early 40s, Capitol Records came in and made 5515 its headquarters and studio, leaving only after completion of the Capitol Tower in the mid-50s. Frank Sinatra's legendary early 50s sides (along with those of Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee and dozens of others) were recorded there.

KHJ moved back in, staying until the 80s, when it moved out to the Venice Blvd. transmitter site. The building became office space for Channel 9. When 9 moved to Columbia Square, K-Earth moved from Venice Blvd. to Melrose for a couple of years, before its most recent move to Wilshire. I've been told 5515 is now office space for Paramount Pictures, though there's a listing of that building as "industrial space for rent" online.

The transmitter site on Venice still serves 930 AM, now Spanish, while Jack and KROQ use that studio space.

This is getting long (even by my standards ), so I'll just mention others like KFWB on Yucca (converted from a grocery store, now facing demolition), KNX at Columbia Square (of which part apparently will survive as an element of the new development going in there) and KRLA's studios at the Huntington Hotel (any trace of which has been obliterated by ownership changes and remodelings over the years).

---Michael Hagerty

 

[michael hagerty]

*

 

[davideduardo]

I grew up thinking of radio stations as magical places, and came to the realization rather late that they're often converted from something else and their use as a radio facility is sometimes just a fraction of their life. Some examples:

Let's not forget the KGBS / KTNQ studios on Western, complete with a Gone Wiith The Wind size staircase in the lobby to the second floor. It had been a funeral home, and the floor in the rear sloped to a drain for, uh, well, fluids.

 

[nmoore6676]

I grew up thinking of radio stations as magical places, and came to the realization rather late that they're often converted from something else and their use as a radio facility is sometimes just a fraction of their life. Some examples:

Let's not forget the KGBS / KTNQ studios on Western, complete with a Gone Wiith The Wind size staircase in the lobby to the second floor. It had been a funeral home, and the floor in the rear sloped to a drain for, uh, well, fluids.

David, any ghosts in there?

When I was a little kid it was the tail end of the golden age of radio. I can recall listening to Fibber McGee Molly and Inner Sanctum but TV was getting the most attention. I recall getting to see my first inside of a radio station like I said. I expected to see all of the magical stuff that created those illusions of the radio dramas. What I did see was the remnants of it. There were two large studios, the one that the DJ's used then also held the record library in the back. There was a smaller news studio and another larger one that still held a piano left over from the live days. I was a little disappointed and I wished I could have seen them in the days that had passed.

Also as I said a lot of the older big studios got converted into TV studios as TV became the more important broadcast medium. Movie studios seem to have survived better because I can still see lots of them around that look like they're still in use.

 

[michael hagerty]

Ironically, most of the movie studios have survived...producing television. Very little soundstage work is done for film in Hollywood...at least compared to the old days.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[RadioFanBoy]

In the Inland Empire, the old KPRO-AM 1440 studio was a local Riverside fixture on Merril Ave. up until the station folded in the mid 80's (1440 is now owned by Clear Channel and is part of their Spanish-Language music network). The original KPRO studios were eventually torn down and replaced by a Staples store.

 

[calguy]

The KFI studios on Vermont Ave were for many years the offices of the Korea Times Newspaper and until just before the 1984 Olympics still had painted signs indicating the KFI Theater on the left side of the building. They repainted the building, and I think it was because the next Olympics were going to be in Seoul and I'm guessing that they had dignitaries from Korea that would be visiting.

 

[4UH8SIMBKAGN]

I grew up thinking of radio stations as magical places, and came to the realization rather late that they're often converted from something else and their use as a radio facility is sometimes just a fraction of their life. Some examples:

Let's not forget the KGBS / KTNQ studios on Western, complete with a Gone Wiith The Wind size staircase in the lobby to the second floor. It had been a funeral home, and the floor in the rear sloped to a drain for, uh, well, fluids.

David, any ghosts in there?

When I was a little kid it was the tail end of the golden age of radio. I can recall listening to Fibber McGee Molly and Inner Sanctum but TV was getting the most attention. I recall getting to see my first inside of a radio station like I said. I expected to see all of the magical stuff that created those illusions of the radio dramas. What I did see was the remnants of it. There were two large studios, the one that the DJ's used then also held the record library in the back. There was a smaller news studio and another larger one that still held a piano left over from the live days. I was a little disappointed and I wished I could have seen them in the days that had passed.

Also as I said a lot of the older big studios got converted into TV studios as TV became the more important broadcast medium. Movie studios seem to have survived better because I can still see lots of them around that look like they're still in use.

I worked at 338 S. Western. It was a spooky place in the middle of the night. The ghosts had their revenge. On our last weekend there before moving to 3580 Wilshire, the stereo telco lines went out and we were in mono all weekend. The STL had already been moved to 3580.
The building was torn down about 18 months ago and a new office/retail complex has replaced the former mortuary in Koreatown.

The former KFAC and original KKBT studios on Yucca St. are now a new apartment building. Prior to being a radio station, it was a restaurant.

Here is a look at the new Columbia Square. Construction is expected to start in 2009 http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/04/columbia_square.php

 

[RicoGregg]

In the Inland Empire, the old KPRO-AM 1440 studio was a local Riverside fixture on Merril Ave. up until the station folded in the mid 80's (1440 is now owned by Clear Channel and is part of their Spanish-Language music network). The original KPRO studios were eventually torn down and replaced by a Staples store.

The original KPRO studio location was at the present site of the junction of the 60 and 215 freeways. It was torn down in the early 60s for highway construction, and the station moved to the Merrill Ave. location at that time.

The Merrill Ave. studios of KPRO was one of my favorite places to work at. The best analogy I can come up with is that they were like a comfortable old pair of shoes. Just something about that place....

 

[tperrin]

I remember the original KPRO building. It was a big, square, yellow structure, almost a cube. The local helipad was next to it. I was never inside it, however.

Like RicoGregg, I worked in the Merrill Ave. studios and they were the best studios I ever worked in. Engineer Steve Gibson had built them from scratch and done a magnificent job.

Tim Perrin
W. Kelowna, BC, Canada

 

[Lopaka]

KGB in San Diego had one of the coolest neon signs, the studio was on Pacific Highway where a home for disabled veterans now stands. KCBQ had a studio at 7th & Ash downtown, across Ash from channel 6, jocks would do their shows with a mirror above them reflecting their work to passersby. KFMB TV AM FM occupied what I think might have been an old hotel downtown, my broadcasting class toured it. The building was torn down in the '80's (?) for a new skyscraper.

I still remember Woolfman Jack howling...The Big X, 8228 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, California Baby. I wonder whats there now...

 

[Dusty Dale Brooks]

SSL

Old radio buildings what a great topic.

When I was just a pup in this business my radio buddies and I would make "pilgrimages" to our favorite stations.

Seeing the source of all that wonderful entertainment was like putting a face to a name.

Too bad the stations didn't hand out souvenirs or stamp radio passports!!

 

[TheBigA]

What I would like to know is what will become of the "Columbia Square" studios which were originally home to CBS Radio West Coast and where many classic network radio shows originated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Columbia_Square

 

[michael hagerty]

I still remember Woolfman Jack howling...The Big X, 8228 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, California Baby. I wonder whats there now...

You can't make this up....it's National Lampoon World Headquarters!

 

[Lopaka]

Oh if ONLY the walls could talk!!

 

[radiosaur]

What saddens me about this thread is the fact that AM sites are neglected to the point folks think they are abandoned.