KLSD
 | |
| City of license | San Diego, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | San Diego, California |
| Branding | Xtra 1360 Fox Sports San Diego |
| Slogan | San Diego's Sports Talk Station |
| Frequency | 1360 kHz |
| First air date |
July 14th, 1922 (as KFBC) |
| Format | Sports Talk |
| Power |
5,000 watts daytime 1,000 watts nighttime |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 34452 |
| Callsign meaning | K Liberal San Diego (refers to previous progressive talk format.) |
| Former callsigns |
KPOP (1986-2004) KPQP (1983-1986) KCNN (1982-1983) KGB (1928-1982) KFBC (1922-1928) |
| Affiliations |
Fox Sports Radio NBC Sports Radio |
| Owner | iHeartMedia, Inc. |
| Sister stations | KGB, KHTS, KIOZ, KMYI, KOGO, KSSX |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 1360Sports.com |
KLSD (1360 AM) is a Sports radio station, primarily affiliated with the Fox Sports Radio network. KLSD is based in San Diego, California, and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It operates with 5,000 watts by day and 1,000 watts at night. KLSD is San Diego's oldest licensed radio station, first going on the air in 1922. Its history includes previous formats Top 40 (as KGB), Adult standards (as KPOP) and progressive talk radio.
Sports programming began on November 12, 2007. KLSD broadcasts San Diego Chargers football games, in conjunction with the team's official flagship radio station, co-owned 105.3 KIOZ. KLSD also broadcasts Los Angeles Lakers basketball, San Diego State University baseball as well as college and pro football games from the Sports USA Radio Network.
The station shares a broadcasting tower with KGB-FM and KHTS-FM in the East San Diego area. The station's studios are located in San Diego's Kearny Mesa neighborhood on the northeast side.
History
- 1922 July: W.K. Azbill was issued a license and the Call sign KFBC, operating at 10 watts on 833.3 kilocycles.
- 1927: This license was assigned to Dr. Arthur Wells Yale.
- 1928: Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation bought the station and made George Bowles vice president and manager of the station, changing the call sign to KGB to follow his name.
- 1931: Don Lee, Inc. bought KGB.
- 1932 August 5: The Federal Radio Commission authorized KGB to increase its power from 500 W to 1 KW. At that time the station operated on 1330 kHz.[1]
- 1934: Don Lee died and the license went to his son Thomas Lee, and was managed by Marion R. Harris.
- 1942: The station began operating at 1360 kilohertz.
- 1949: KGB was operating at 1000 watts. Don Lee, Inc. was merged with Mutual Broadcasting Company.
- 1954: The station was sold to Marion R. Harris.
- 1958: KGB's studios moved from the Pickwick Hotel to 4141 Pacific Highway, and the transmitter moved to 52nd Street and Kalmia. Power was increased at the new transmitter site to 5,000 watts by day and 1,000 watts at night. (Because AM radio waves travel farther at night, some stations must reduce power after sunset to avoid interfering with stations in nearby cities operating on the same frequency.)
KLSD is San Diego's oldest licensed radio station still broadcasting today, first going on the air as KFBC on July 14, 1922, broadcasting on 833.3 kHz and sharing the time with eight other San Diego radio stations. As the government expanded the AM band to numerous frequencies, the station soon moved to 1210 kHz.
The call sign was changed to KGB in 1928, and the frequency moved to its present 1360 kHz in 1942. The call letters have nothing to do with the Soviet-era KGB. In 1928, the U.S.S.R. intelligence and internal security service was still known as the OGPU and would not become the KGB, Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, until 26 years later, in 1954.
In the 1960s, KGB was an important player in the San Diego AM Top 40 race, being one of the first markets for the Boss Radio format. In the 1970s, with its FM sister station KGB-FM, 1360 KGB became an early adopter and pioneer of what is now called the album oriented rock format. KGB-FM still plays classic rock from that era on 101.5 MHz. The AM side of KGB returned to the top 40 format for a few years in the late 70s under the moniker "13K", with a good amount of success.
As music was being phased off of AM radio, 1360 KGB became KCNN with an all-news format in 1982, using the audio from CNN Headline News, now the HLN Network. In 1986, the station switched to KPQP, playing Adult Standards. In 1997 the call sign changed to KPOP, with the same adult standards format.
The station became a progressive talk station under the call sign KLSD (for K Liberal San Diego) in August 2004. Most of the programming came from the Air America Radio Network. KLSD also aired the Ed Schultz show from Jones Radio Network and Mike Malloy from Nova M Radio. Local programming included the morning show, hosted by Stacy Taylor[2] (last heard on San Diego 1700 AM) and the nationally syndicated Air America host Jon Elliott.[3] Its logo during this period was similar to that of sister station and progressive talk outlet KABQ in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When it became known that KLSD was going to change format from Liberal Talk to Sports Talk, listeners organized and held rallies to attempt to persuade Clear Channel to keep the format.[4][5][6] Station officials at first denied the rumor.[7] A documentary titled Save KLSD: Media Consolidation and Local Radio was being made about the effort.[8][9]
The liberal talk format gave way to the current all-sports programming in November 2007; the call sign KLSD was not changed.
In August 2005, Clear Channel Media applied to the FCC to increase KLSD's power to 50,000 watts day and night, planning to share the six-tower KSDO array in Santee, California, since the owners of KLSD also owned the broadcast site for KSDO.[10] However, due to the added cost, Clear Channel decided against the move, and 1360 still broadcasts at 5,000 watts day, 1,000 watts night. In September of 2014, parent company Clear Channel Media became iHeartMedia.
XTRA Sports 1360
In August 2007, format change rumbles had started in the market and were reported by SDRadio.net. There was speculation that KLSD would soon adopt an all-sports format, possibly called "XTRA Sports." (The format and tagline was used by AM690 for many years in the San Diego market.) Clear Channel had an agreement with Fox Sports Radio to market and distribute the service, adding to the speculation that the parent company wanted an outlet for Fox Sports in San Diego.
About October 22, the station started (possibly accidentally) slipping in station identifications for the name "KHTS-FM HD-3," to which the Air America content was rumored to be moving. Jon Elliot had also mentioned "93.3 HD-3" as a possible new home for the Air America and similar programs, implying the Progressive Talk format would be leaving AM 1360 for an HD Radio channel, only available to owners of HD radio receivers. KHTS-FM (93.3 MHz) is also owned by iHeartMedia.
KLSD changed programming on Monday, November 12, 2007 to sports talk as XTRA Sports 1360. The first local live program, which aired at 3 p.m., was Lee Hacksaw Hamilton. Hamilton left the station in 2008 when his contract was not renewed.
During the first ratings period since the format change to sports, Winter of 2008, KLSD ratings dropped below the minimum Arbitron standard of 0.3. As a comparison, the progressive radio format of KLSD last received a 1.6 for Fall 2007. This was the first time in San Diego's AM 1360 history when the station did not meet the minimum ratings threshold.
On July 21, 2014, KLSD rebranded as "Xtra 1360 Fox Sports San Diego" as a partnership with the Fox Sports San Diego TV network. San Diego is served by two other All-Sports radio stations, XEPRS-AM 1090, and ESPN Radio affiliate XEPE-AM 1700.
References
- ↑ "(untitled brief)". wpbc. August 15, 1932. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ↑ Stacy Taylor website
- ↑ Jon Elliott website
- ↑ Listeners rally to save KLSD
- ↑ Best Talk Radio News
- ↑ San Diego Union Tribune
- ↑ am1360 website
- ↑ Daily KOS
- ↑ Official Website Save KLSD: Media Consolidation and Local Radio
- ↑ FCC Website
External links
- XTRA Sports 1360 official website
- XTRA Sports 1360 on Facebook
- XTRA Sports 1360 on Twitter
- Query the FCC's AM station database for KLSD
- Radio-Locator Information on KLSD
- Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for KLSD
- San Diego Radio History by Alex Cosper
- History of KGB Radio by David Leonard
- "KLSD still makes waves at 85" from North County Times
- "KPOP morphs into KLSD" by Joe Crawford
- San Diego, California antenna sites 2005
- FCC History Cards for KLSD
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Coordinates: 32°43′49″N 117°05′01″W / 32.73028°N 117.08361°W