KQLZ (defunct) - Station History

Station History

On the first day as Pirate Radio, the station was launched with no commercial interruptions. One song by the heavy metal music act Guns N' Roses was played each hour. Guns N' Roses hit song "Welcome to the Jungle" was the most favored song as its title was also the new radio station's slogan. Pirate Radio continued commercial-free for several weeks after sign on.

Pirate Radio started as a "Rock 40" station playing rock and heavy metal mixed with upbeat Pop music, some alternative music in a manner similar to Top 40 stations. At first their range of music was eclectic, and the station proudly proclaimed they played everything from Madonna to Metallica to Milli Vanilli. An hour of music on Pirate Radio in the spring of 1989 could include early crossover hip hop artist Tone Lōc, electronic music from Depeche Mode, a pop music ballad by Martika, a Pop rock song by The Bangles, satirical Punk rock by the Dead Milkmen, all mixed with music from such rock and heavy metal acts as Iron Maiden, Billy Squier, and Winger.

The station was programmed by Scott Shannon, who was famous within the radio business for his work at Z100 in New York City in the 1980s. Mr. Shannon left his New York City job to move to Los Angeles and compete against top-rated station KIIS-FM "KISS-FM" as well as then Dance music-leaning Top 40 KPWR "Power 106". At the time, he claimed he would "show L.A. how to do radio."

Along with its local 100.3 FM broadcast in Los Angeles, KQLZ could also be heard via satellite transmission (SatCom 1R, transponder 3, channels 5 and 6). This service was primarily for the delivery of the syndicated program "Pirate Radio USA" (see below) to affiliates but it also gave the station wide exposure outside of the local listening area. Employees of several radio stations around the country listened to and airchecked KQLZ's satellite signal.

The original Pirate Radio billboards featured a close up head shot of Mr. Shannon's face. Some of these billboards were soon defaced with "El Diablo" in spray paint and it was reported in the local news that some members of the cities Hispanic, Latino and Chicano communities viewed Mr. Shannon's picture as a caricature of the devil. Some media sources reported that the acts of vandalism were done intentionally by the radio station to generate free publicity. In 1990, the station adopted a mascot for advertising. The stations new mascot was the "Party Pig", a cartoon pig with a trucker hat. The "Pirate Radio Party Pig" replaced Mr. Shannon's likeness on billboards and was used on other promotional items such as t shirts and bumper stickers.

A popular feature during the stations first few months, Pirate Radio would invite listeners to call the station and "flush your former station" on the air. Callers would tell the on air personalities what Los Angeles area radio station they used to listen to before KQLZ signed on. After saying the competing radio stations id moniker or call letters, the sound of a toilet flushing could be heard. This was meant to insinuate that the listener dumped their former station and made the switch to "Pirate Radio 100.3FM".

By the autumn of 1989, the station focused more hard rock and heavy metal music (mostly metal in the more pop oriented Glam metal genre) putting it more in competition with metal station KNAC and rock station KLOS.

On February 14, 1991, the station switched to a more traditional album rock styled format. With this switch Scott Shannon and most of the original on air personalities were dropped and replaced.

The "Pirate Radio" name eventually was dropped on Friday, December 25, 1992 and a revised format that was a hybrid of rock and alternative music was adopted. The station from this point forward was known as simply "100.3FM" with the slogan "Southern California's Cutting Edge".

"100.3FM" existed till Friday April 2, 1993 at 3:30 pm when it became KXEZ "EZ 100.3", an Easy listening station. (Shannon, on the phone from WPLJ in New York, returned to the station's airwaves for a few moments to give the station a proper send-off and closed out the old format with, "Goodbye, Pirate Radio.")

Since then, the format and call letters have changed several times. In 1996 the station became rhythmic contemporary KIBB. In 1998 it became "Jammin' Oldies" KCMG, "Mega 100." In 2000, the KCMG call letters and format moved to 92.3 and 100.3 became urban KKBT, "The Beat", which had previously been heard on 92.3. In 2007 the station became KRBV, "Rhythm & Blues Variety." Since April 8, 2008, the station has broadcast a rock format as KSWD, "The Sound."