KIEV (AM) - History

History

The birth of 1500 AM in Los Angeles had its origins in 1947. The 1490 kHz channel became available when KVOE-Santa Ana moved from 1490 to 1480 in 1945. A new station was licensed to Burbank on 1490 by the FCC on May 8, 1947, with the call letters KWIK. The station was known then as "The Voice of the San Fernando Valley".

On December 12, 1949, the FCC demanded that KWIK surrender its license due to repeated technical rule violations. But, KWIK stayed on the air for two more years, while they appealed the FCC ruling through the courts. The station finally went silent and its license deleted by the FCC May 15, 1951.

KBLA, a completely different station licensed to Burbank, California, started on 1490 AM a few months later, on October 10. In 1964, the owners obtained FCC approval to relocate 1500 AM, with a power upgrade. The owners encountered problems finding a location to build their then four tower AM directional array in Burbank, and wound up on Verdugo Peak, a rocky hilltop not conducive to AM broadcasting. The original filing had been for 10,000 watts daytime power using two towers for a heart-shaped pattern and 10,000 watts nighttime power on four towers in a teardrop-shaped pattern (reduced to low values across an arc that protected the night service area of 1500 KSTP Saint Paul, MN). The proposal was contested by Hubbard Broadcasting's KSTP. This was a typical reaction by a licensee of wide area service station like KSTP (see WGN vs. KDWN, WBBM vs. KCRL, WABC vs KOB (ironically owned by Hubbard)). KSTP stated that the proposed antenna system in Burbank could not be adjusted to properly protect service of KSTP, and that it would not be stable enough to maintain those protections. This led to a fight before the FCC that was resolved by adding more than 20 conditions to the construction permit. These may have been intended to discourage the Burbank applicant from pursuing their project.

A mountain-top site was selected at Verdugo peak. The peak was scraped flat and tilted at an angle so that the array had a mechanical tilt toward Burbank, and that the nulls and minimums generated toward Saint Paul departed at the skywave angle, not along the ground. Other conditions were added about redundant sampling systems, requirement that a large number of accessible points be kept for tests, and so on.

The two tower day system didn't work as expected. Two more towers were added to the sides of the four in-line towers, so that days could be operated with four towers in a parallelogram layout. Nights produced nulls as planned but not at depths as planned. The station ended up operating at 1,000 watts at night with the four night towers, protecting KSTP but shrinking the coverage area of the station.

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060728.html

Consultant for the project was Ed Edison of Hammett & Edison. http://h-e.com/

• • • At the time of the switch, KBLA AM 1500 kHz aired a Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop Oldies format reminiscent of Alan Freed on WINS AM 1010 kHz in New York City and Art Laboe in Los Angeles (see Wolfman Jack). This Oldies format lasted about a year or so until the switch to a Top 40 format

which lasted about two years which ended in late Spring 1967. Some of the Dee Jays moved on to Contemporary Hits Top 40 competitors - Boss Radio KHJ AM (RKO General), KRLA AM Pasadena (Oak Noll Broadcasting), KFWB AM (Crowell-Collier) and KGFJ AM (Rhythm and Blues/Soul). In Orange County, California, KWIZ AM 1480 kHz also switched to another Oldies format in early Spring 1965, a few months before RKO General brought Bill Drake from San Francisco for KHJ AM 930 kHz on Boss Radio. KWIZ AM 1480 kHz had been with a modified Middle Of The Road and Jazz genre leaning format which had poor ratings. Also, with KLAC AM 570 kHz switching from Contemporary Hits to Adult Standards, KWIZ AM 1480 kHz was at a disadvantage on limited signal range. KWIZ Oldies format was able to keep many of the station's library from former days such as Motion Picture Film themes and a limited group of jazz genre recordings mixed in with Steve Lawrence, Bobby Rydell and others. Gone from the airplay list were Frank Sinatra and others. KWIZ AM 1480 kHz was the World's first Oldies formatted broadcaster 24/7 on the station's 'Sounds On The Rebound' theme reaching the Arbitron's Fourth most listened station in the Los Angeles Radio Market Place for a short time. About the only Beatles recording ever played on KWIZ AM 1480 kHz was John Lennon's "Anna", as a cover from R&B artist Arthur Alexander - rarely if ever heard today on radio. ***

• • • Prior to October 10, 1964, the station served the San Fernando

Valley on the region's rural agriculture with ranches and farms in the early days. A Contemporary Hits format was established in the Summer of 1962 challenging KRLA AM 1110 kHz - Pasadena, KFWB AM 980 kHz - Hollywood and KLAC AM 570 kHz - Los Angeles. KLAC AM left Top 40 Hits during the early part of the British Artist Invasion switching to Adult Standards regarding a more mature listening audience suitable for the station's advertisers. ***

The small station could not compete with more established and powerful competition, so they switched to country music as KBBQ in June 1967. KBBQ was also not successful, and the station switched back to Top 40, hired established disc jockeys, and became KROQ, "The ROQ of Los Angeles" on September 2, 1972.

In 1973 KROQ's owners bought the struggling KPPC-FM from National Science Network, which was forced by the FCC to sell their stations due to compliance issues 1. The AM station was sold to a company called Universal Broadcasting. The FM station became KROQ, and initially programmed a short-lived big band format. Soon, the two stations switched to a freeform rock format as "The ROQs of L.A.".

The two stations were mildly successful with the format, but poor money management by the general manager resulted in bounced paychecks, and in 1974 the entire staff walked out, shutting the stations down. In 1976, the FCC ordered KROQ to return to the airwaves or surrender the stations' licenses. With barebones equipment, KROQ returned to the airwaves, broadcasting initially from the transmitter location, followed by a penthouse suite in the Pasadena Hilton Hotel, then across the street from the Hilton. At the time, Rodney Bingenheimer was introducing many new and local bands, including The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Runaways on his Sunday night show.

By 1978, the stations' owners encountered more money problems and decided to pare down to one station, keeping the FM station and selling the weak-signalled KROQ-AM. The AM station eventually became KRCK and limped along with a poor signal and limited finances.

The owners of KRCK returned the station's license back to the FCC on September 19, 1986, but requested a renewal for a construction permit for 50,000 Watt daytime/14,000 Watt nighttime station from a different site. The license renewal was granted in December 1988, but KRCK has yet to return to the airwaves, as the construction permit has been extended numerous times. The most recent amendment to the construction permit was on March 24, 2006 by Royce International Broadcasting, who purchased the station's license and obtained the call letters KIEV (originally on 870 AM) on March 27, 2001.

The KBBQ call letters moved to AM 1590 in Ventura, California when the Burbank station dropped them in 1972, then were assigned to an FM station in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1985 (continuing to the present time) when the Ventura station changed to KOGO. They were also briefly used by AM 990 in Santa Barbara, California in 1988 under an FCC rule that allows call letters to be used in different communities by stations in different broadcast bands (AM, FM, TV).

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