If there ever was a true “Valley” radio station, it was KGIL 1260 AM, which was located on Lassen St in Mission Hills. I’m very familiar with this station, as I lived under its transmission tower for 15+ years. KGIL started transmission in 1947, and was originally owned by Buckley Broadcasting. By the late 1980s, they had moved from a music format to a news/talk format, featuring hosts such as Carole Hemingway. In 1992, they closed up shop and sold the station to Mt. Wilson Broadcasters. Since then, the station has gone through a variety of formats. Until 1995, it was KJOI, playing big band music. In 1995, it became K-NEWS, simulcasting with XESURF (then with call letters XETIN) and now-defunct KNNZ-Costa Mesa. K-NEWS was an all-news radio service with content from the Associated Press and local announcers Peter Arbogast, Jim Roope, and H.K. Malay. K-NEWS was also the home of the Los Angeles Clippers and had an unprecedented 8 traffic reports an hour, causing competitors KNX and KFWB to add more traffic reports to its lineup, ultimately causing its demise. In 1997, the station reverted to the KGIL call letters and hosted an all-Beatles lineup for seven months. The station then switched to showtunes before going to a mainstream jazz format, as KJAZ, in 2000. Then, in 2002, it took on the call letters KSUR and began broadcasting its current format of adult standards, changing its call letters to KKGO in 2005 (to match the previous call letters of KMZT). I should note that Mt. Wilson also operates one of the few remaining all classical stations, KMZT 105.1 FM. Saul Levine, the owner of Mt. Wilson, has also taken over management of KKJZ 88.1 FM, and has vowed to keep the station all jazz. Levine and Mt. Wilson, as one of the last independent broadcasters in LA, has shown a dedication to specific genre stations.
Why do I mention all of this?
Recently, there is been a big brou-ha-ha in Los Angeles about the sudden death of KZLA, the only country music station in the Los Angeles. There have been reports of lots of pickup trucks with gun racks and confederate flags driving to the former corporate headquarters. But the KZLA fans don’t need to worry anymore–Saul Levine has come in on his white horse to rescue them. The Daily News is reporting that Saul Levine’s KSRF 540 AM is switching formats to country music. The new station will be known as 540 Country; it will be DJ-free until Oct. 28, when many ex-KZLA announcers, including Whitney Allen and Brian Douglas, come aboard. Levine says made the change to serve the area’s large number of country listeners, as Los Angeles has the nation’s second-highest country album sales and fans regularly sell out local arena stops by major acts. Demonstrating that different station masters have different views of what defines profit, Levine noted “Country on KZLA left town because it wasn’t making $40 to $50 million a year. We’ll be happy with a fraction of that.”
In related news, NBC/Universal has announced (LA Times coverage) that they are cutting 600-800 jobs, consolidating a lot of operations, and eliminating scripted shows in the 8p-9p slot. They expect the revamp to save $750 million in operating expenses by 2008. The expected savings follow three lackluster years at NBC Universal, where operating profit fell 10 percent in each of the past three quarters, despite higher revenue from a successful string of film and DVD releases. The slumping results cut into GE earnings. NBC’s layoffs come even though the network has posted a 15% year-to-year increase in the all-important 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Much of that gain can be traced to NBC’s highly rated Sunday night broadcasts of professional football games. Hmmm. Maybe the new 8p-9p show could be a remake of the game show “Greed“.
