KLAC (AM)

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KLAC

Broadcast area	Los Angeles, California
Branding	"AM 570" or "AM 570 KLAC"
First air date	March, 1924 (as KFPG)
Frequency	570 (kHz)
Format	Sports Talk
ERP	5,000 watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	K Los Angeles California
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Website	www.am570radio.com

KLAC AM 570 is a radio station serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Now branding itself simply as AM 570 (or at times, AM 570 KLAC), it is the radio flagship of the Los Angeles Lakers, the UCLA Bruins football and men's basketall teams, and the Jim Rome show.

It also carries the Oakland Raiders, and Los Angeles Avengers arena football. It broadcasts nondirectionally and because of its low spot on the dial can be heard in most of Southern California, including the San Diego area, day and night.

The most recent name XTRA Sports derived from the previous association with XETRA AM 690. On February 4, 2005, Clear Channel Communications conducted a far-reaching format swap of three radio stations in the area. XTRA Sports, previously a simulcast at AM 690 for San Diego and 1150 for Los Angeles, went to one station at 570 for both Los Angeles and San Diego. However, previous to the 690/1150 merger in 2002, they were seperately programmed stations, with the only common programming on both was Rome's show. When the initial merger took place, the only surviving hosts that are still affiliated with the station to this day are Rome, sportscaster Steve Hartman, San Diego sports icon and former NFL Chargers radio voice Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton (all three were holdovers from the 690 days) and one-time Los Angeles TV sportscaster Vic "The Brick" Jacobs (the only surviving holdover from the 1150 days). All of the other remaining hosts from either 690 or 1150 went on to other stations, including many of the former XTRA Sports 690 hosts joining the upstart sports format at San Diego-based XEPRS (1090 AM, now known as "The Mighty Double-X").

AM 690 took on KLAC's previous format, a beautiful music station called The Fabulous 570 and redubbed The Fabulous 690. AM 1150 went to a liberal talk radio format featuring selected portions of the Air America Radio lineup and independently syndicated shows like Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz, called KTLK.

The KLAC calls were initially only announced at the top of an hour by themselves with no other note paid attention to them, but recently the branding "AM 570 KLAC" has been used more frequently by the hosts and in station promos, especially in regards to the station celebrating its 30th anniversary as the Laker radio flagship. In February 2006, the station has phased out the use of the XTRA calls and is simply referred to on air as AM 570.

Recently, AM 570 had placed less emphasis on sports and more emphasis on male-oriented programming to compete with KLSX, the local home of Adam Carolla and Tom Leykis. Local hosts had been instructed to not limit themselves to sports, but also include politics, celebrities, relationships, and current events. [1] In addition, nonsports hosts Erich "Mancow" Muller and Phil Hendrie were added to the lineup. The switch also meant that Lee Hamilton was changed from the host of an afternoon talk show host to hosting a three hour show on the weekends (airing each Saturday and Sunday, unless preempted by live sports coverage), but he still provides a news and commentary segment as 5 p.m. local time. However, in late 2006, KLAC shifted its focus again to more sports content:

• On October 30, 2006, KLAC launched Roggin and Simers²(Squared) , a new show that focuses on local sports events and personalities. The co-hosts are Fred Roggin of KNBC (and formerly of rival sports talker KMPC-AM), T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times, and Simers' daughter, Tracy. This is the new morning drive time show, replacing Mancow. The Simerses previously hosted a Sunday morning sports talk program, from Summer 2004 until the move to weekday mornings in October 2006.

• A week earlier, KLAC introduced The Joe McDonnell Experience. The host, one of the most famous radio hosts in L.A., had re-joined Clear Channel Los Angeles cluster earlier in 2006 as fill-in and weekend host on KLAC and as host of a political talk show on KTLK, after years at a station he helped launch, another rival sports talk station in Los Angeles, ESPN Radio's KSPN-AM. The new show airs in Hendrie's old time slot, weeknights at 7 p.m. local time. McDonnell was previously with the company during the "XTRA Sports 1150" incarnation, from the late 1990s until his move to KSPN in 2000.

Many that live in the San Diego area has complained that they are unable to get the 570 signal. This has fueled the complaint that AM 570 has "Los Angeles-ized", no longer catering to San Diego's sports teams and listeners. This has also gotten the attention of Premeire Radio Networks, Jim Rome's syndicator; Mighty Double-X, a rival radio station that broadcasts in San Diego and parts of Orange County and Los Angeles (and ran by John Lynch, who owned XTRA Sports Radio in San Diego from the mid 80s to its merger with 1150 in 2002), picked up The Jim Rome Show in September 2005.

As it is the Lakers radio flagship home, KLAC normally puts much more emphasis and focus on the team, possibly very much to the chagrin to many listeners who are not supporters of the Lakers. This is much evident in the midday program headlined by Hartman, Jacobs, and Laker radio broadcaster and former player Mychal Thompson, as well as the late afternoon program hosted by Matt "Money" Smith (the host of the Laker Radio Network's pregame, halftime, and postgame shows and former morning sports anchor at KROQ-FM), Joe Grande (formerly of KPWR-FM's Big Boy's Neighborhood morning show), and former UCLA football quarterback Wayne Cook.

[edit] History

KLAC was owned by Metromedia for many years. They ran a pop music format from the '50s into the '60s similar to other AM Metromedia stations. In the '60s the station was a middle of the road station playing music from the '40s and early '50s along with soft rock and non-rock hits of the '50s and '60s. By 1971, KLAC evolved to more of an adult contemporary format focusing on soft rock hits from 1964 up to that time.

About a year after the old KMPC (now KSPN) dropped country for big band and standards, KLAC dropped adult contemporary for country music around 1978. In 1979, KZLA AM and FM joined the country music competition, and in 1980 KHJ joined. KHJ was back to AC by 1983. KZLA-AM-FM and KLAC competed through the 1980s. In 1986, Metromedia sold their TV stations to Fox and restructured into Metropolitan Broadcasting in 1987. In 1988, Metropolitan eventually sold KTWV, a smooth jazz station to Westinghouse but sold KLAC to Malrite which owned KZLA-AM-FM. KZLA AM 1540(now KMPC) was sold to an ethnic broadcaster. KLAC moved to classic country from the '50s to the '70s. KZLA kept playing current country hits. One exception to the music format was a "combat talk" show hosted by Orange County conservative icon Wally George on Monday nights during the late 1980's and early 1990's.

In 1993, KLAC dropped country for Westwood One's standards format focusing on artists like Nat King Cole, Neil Diamond, Peggy Lee, Petula Clark, Dean Martin, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, The Carpenters, Elvis Presley, the Ames Brothers, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Dionne Warwick, and Barry Manilow. Big bands were no longer played. The station ran various pro sports over the years (it began carrying the Lakers in 1977) and some evening talk shows at various points. KLAC stayed with this format in some form until 2001.

KLAC was owned by Malrite until 1993, when the station was sold to Shamrock in a group deal along with KZLA. In 1995, the station was absorbed by Chancellor Media and KZLA was swapped to Bonneville in the late '90s. Chancellor Media would form AMFM inc when it merged with capstar in 1999. In 2000, AMFM inc would merge with Clear Channel making KLAC a Clear Channel station.

In 2001, KLAC became a standard talk radio station, hosting the likes of Don Imus, Clark Howard, Dr. Dean Edell, the Truckin' Bozo, and Michael Jackson. On September 12, 2002, KLAC became the Fabulous 570, an adult standards format. In addition to many of the station's previous artists, the playlist included Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr., Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, whose music was influenced by the standards artists. This format ended on February 4, 2005 and the all-sports format began.

The music, as mentioned, moved to AM 690, where it stayed until February 1, 2006, when AM 690 became W Radio, a Spanish-language talk station.

[edit] External links

• AM 570
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KLAC