KWKW

KWKW
City of license Los Angeles, California
Broadcast area Greater Los Angeles Area
Branding Radio Deportes
Slogan "Donde Puedes Escuchar Radio de Deportes de Todo El Mundo"
Frequency 1330 kHz
First air date March 10, 1922
Format Sports
Language Spanish
Power 5,000 watts (day)
5,000 watts (night)
Class B
Facility ID 38454
Former callsigns KFAC (1988-1989)
Affiliations ESPN Deportes Radio
Owner Lotus Communications Corp.
Website radiodeportes.com

KWKW (1330 AM, "Radio Deportes") is an American radio station licensed to serve Los Angeles, California. The station is owned by Lotus Communications Corporation.

KWKW is one of the oldest Spanish-language radio stations in the Greater Los Angeles area. Currently, the station broadcasts an all-sports format as an affiliate of ESPN Deportes Radio.

Contents

History

The 1330 kHz frequency is one of the oldest radio stations in the United States, licensed as KJKS on March 10, 1922.

For decades, KWKW played various forms of Spanish-language music on AM 1300. In the mid-1990s, KWKW traded dial positions with KAZN (formerly classical KFAC) and moved to 1330. The station started to focus on Mexican regional music (including mariachi and banda) and called itself "La Mexicana."

In 2004, KWKW stopped playing music and began all-sports programming in an alliance with ESPN Deportes Radio, a brand of the ESPN sports empire. The station still airs some non-sports programs on a time brokerage basis on Sunday nights.

Current and past programming

KWKW broadcasts games of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (baseball), Los Angeles Lakers (basketball) and the Los Angeles Galaxy (soccer). They had been the Los Angeles Avengers (arena football) en español flagship station until the team folded in April 2009.

The station has also carried the last two FIFA World Cups. In 2010, KWKW interrupted its normal Spanish-language feed to carry most of ESPN Radio's English-language coverage. These games will be in the preliminary rounds, when ESPN Radio puts the games on an alternate feed to the usual talk radio lineup. This also allows KSPN and KLAA to continue with their normal program schedules. (Some weekend games and the final will be carried on KSPN, while a daily recap show airs on KLAA.) The 2006 coverage was in Spanish.

The Dodgers left KWKW, their Spanish-language broadcast home for most of its history, for KHJ effective with the 2008 season. Instead, the station carries the Los Angeles Angels and the Galaxy.[1]

KWKU

The station also simulcasts on KWKU, 1220AM in Pomona, California. KWKU has broken from the simulcast on occasion, most notably in the early 2000s when it was the radio station carrier of the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. It also carries a secondary feed of a team bumped from KWKW due to conflicts.

References

  1. ^ Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 2007, page D6

External links