KLAC

KLAC
City Los Angeles, California
Broadcast area Los Angeles, California
Branding AM 570 LA Sports
Frequency 570 kHz (also on HD Radio)
can also be heard on KYSR HD2.
First air date March 1924
(as KFPG)
Format Sports Talk
Power 5,000 watts
Class B
Facility ID 59958
Transmitter coordinates 34°04′11″N 118°11′36″W / 34.06972°N 118.19333°W / 34.06972; -118.19333Coordinates: 34°04′11″N 118°11′36″W / 34.06972°N 118.19333°W / 34.06972; -118.19333
Callsign meaning K "Los Angeles, California"
Former callsigns 1924-1925: KFPG
1925-1946: KMTR
Affiliations Fox Sports Radio
NBC Sports Radio
Owner iHeartMedia
Los Angeles Dodgers
(Los Angeles Broadcasting Partners, LLC)
Sister stations KBIG, KFI, KRRL, KIIS-FM, KOST, KEIB, KYSR
Webcast Listen Live (via iHeartRadio)
Website am570lasports.com

KLAC AM 570 is a radio station serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area. KLAC is one of eight Los Angeles radio stations in which San Antonio-based iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel Communications until September 2014) has an ownership interest. The station is co-located with its sister stations in suburban Burbank, and its transmitter is located on a site in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, east of downtown.

Since January 2009, the station has been the flagship of Fox Sports Radio and now originates most of the networks' programming, The Petros and Money Show, and Jay Mohr Sports. In 2015, the station was partly acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers and re-branded as AM 570 LA Sports.

KLAC can be heard in HD on 570 AM and also on KYSR HD2.[1]

History

Early years

KLAC began as KFPG in 1924. In 1925 it became KMTR after new owner K.M. Turner, a radio dealer. In 1946, Dorothy Schiff, publisher of the New York Post, bought the station and renamed it KLAC. During the 1940s Douglas Adamson worked as a disc-jockey and was voted one of Billboards top ten DJ's in America. Douglas' brother "Harold Campbell Adamson" was a noteworthy songwriter during this period with four Oscar nominations, having written Frank Sinatra's first Oscar nomination for film Higher and Higher. At Harold's funeral his nephew met Louis Nye.[2] The station was purchased by Metromedia in 1963. They ran a pop music format from the 1950s into the 1960s, similar to other AM Metromedia stations. KLAC at different times featured the talents of Les Crane, Louis Nye, and Lohman and Barkley.

In the mid-1960s KLAC had a talk format known as "two-way radio" including Joe Pyne, then became a middle of the road station playing music from the 1940s and early 1950s along with soft rock and non-rock hits of the 1950s and 1960s. By early 1970, KLAC evolved to more of an adult contemporary format focusing on soft rock hits from 1964 up to that time.

Country stations KFOX and KBBQ did not have a signal as powerful as that of KLAC, so on September 28, 1970, KLAC decided to drop adult contemporary for country. Number one on their first Big 57 survey was "For The Good Times" by Ray Price. Original DJs were Deano Day, Gene Price, Harry Newman, Sammy Jackson and Jay Lawrence, joined the following year by Dick Haynes, Charlie O'Donnell and Larry Scott. L.A. veteran Nancy Plum (KTNQ, KMPC) was heard in the last days of the country format. Many of the KLAC airstaff had previously worked at KBBQ.

In the fall of 1980, KZLA-AM-FM joined the country music competition, followed in December 1980 by KHJ. KHJ went back to pop oldies on April 1, 1983. KZLA-AM/FM and KLAC competed through the 1980s. During this time, KLAC DJ Harry Newman could also be heard as the image voice for KCOP-TV, which had been co-owned with KLAC until the late 1950s. (Interestingly, KCOP would become sister station to KTTV, which was co-owned with KLAC for 21 years.)

In this July 1984 photo, an advertisement poster of KLAC can be seen in the background during the 1984 Summer Olympics torch relay.

In 1984, Metromedia sold KLAC to Capital Cities Communications, which subsequently sold its previous Los Angeles AM station, KZLA (1540, now the current KMPC) to Spanish Broadcasting System. One year later Capital Cities announced its acquisition of ABC. As the newly merged Capital Cities/ABC opted to retain KABC and KLOS, both KLAC and KZLA-FM were sold, with both outlets going to Malrite Communications. The station moved to classic country from the 1950s to the 1970s, though 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 1980s and early 1990s.

In late 1993, KLAC fired all their DJs and newsman, including 31-year veteran Dean Sander, and dropped country for Westwood One's satellite-fed 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. 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 1990s. 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 show, and local host Michael Jackson.

On September 12, 2002, KLAC reverted to an adult standards format, becoming the Fabulous 570. In addition to many of the station's previous artists, the playlist included Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr., Rod Stewart and Michael Bublé, whose music was influenced by the standards artists. During the standards/lounge music period, Brad "Martini" Chambers, Jim "Swingin' Jimmy D" Duncan, Daisy Torme (Mel's daughter) and the omnipresent Gary Owens were among the air talent.

"XTRA Sports 570"

On February 4, 2005, Clear Channel Communications conducted a far-reaching format swap of three radio stations in the area.

Among the changes:

When the initial merger took place, the only surviving hosts that are still affiliated with the station to this day are Jim Rome and sportscaster Steve Hartman (both were holdovers from the 690 days) as well as 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-AM (1090 kHz, now known as "The Mighty 1090").

Branding and format tweaks

In February 2006, the station had phased out the use of the XTRA Sports nickname as part of a re-orientation to the Los Angeles market, and was simply referred to on air as AM 570. The XTRA Sports name was later re-launched in San Diego on November 12, 2007, with Lee Hamilton starting local programming.

For a brief time, AM 570 placed less emphasis on sports and more emphasis on male-oriented programming to compete with the now-defunct KLSX, then 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. In addition, non-sports hosts Erich "Mancow" Muller and Phil Hendrie were added to the lineup.

The switch also meant that former afternoon host, San Diego sports icon and former NFL Chargers radio voice Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton (who also, like Rome and Hartman, was a holdover from the sports format's origin on 690) was moved to weekend duty. He would also host a daily 5 p.m. update on KLAC for several months until landing a weekday show on San Diego-based sister station KLSD, which had revived the former "XTRA" brand.

The KLAC calls were initially only announced at the top of an hour by themselves with no other note paid attention to them, but soon were started to be used more often under the "AM 570 KLAC" brand, starting when the station celebrated its 30th anniversary as the Laker radio flagship. Some promotions have spelled out the meaning of the call letters as K Los Angeles California.

Back to sports

Starting in late 2006, KLAC shifted its focus again to more sports content. Phil Hendrie voluntarily retired from his syndicated show so as to pursue an acting career (but would later revive the program on KTLK). Hendrie's time slot was filled by Joe McDonnell, who would last for two years at KLAC; Into The Night with Tony Bruno, which KLAC co-produced with The Content Factory, replaced McDonnell in September 2008.

Mancow was replaced with Roggin and Simers2(Squared), hosted by Fred Roggin of KNBC (and formerly of one-time rival sports talker KMPC-AM), T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times, and Simers' daughter, Tracy Simers. Roggin and Simers2 only lasted 11 months before being replaced by Dan Patrick's syndicated morning show, also produced by The Content Factory, on September 2007.

Former USC running back and former KMPC afternoon talk-show host Petros Papadakis join KLAC in January 2007, teaming up with sportscaster Matt "Money" Smith (then the host of the Lakers Radio Network's pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage) to co-host the stations' 4 to 7p.m. weekday afternoon slot, dubbed the Petros and Money Show.

On December 11, 2008, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that KLAC would no longer be the team's flagship station following the 2008-2009 season, and that Laker games would be moving to KSPN AM 710, ESPN Radio's Los Angeles station.[3]

On September 23, 2011, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced that KLAC would become the flagship for the team's radio network beginning in the 2012 season.[4]

Merger with Fox Sports Radio

On January 20, 2009, the station announced a merger with the Fox Sports Radio Network, which effectively ended the shows as local programming. General manager Don Martin emerged as program director for both the station and the network, the latter in which he succeeded Andrew Ashwood, who died a few months earlier.

There was no initial word whether the station programming would continue from the Clear Channel Studios in Burbank, or would relocate to the Fox Sports Radio network offices in Sherman Oaks, which also housed the Premiere Radio studios for Jim Rome. According to a report by Los Angeles Daily News media columnist Tom Hoffarth, Fox Sports Radio hosts Ben Maller, Andrew Siciliano, Krystal Fernandez, Craig Shemon and James Washington were released from their duties.

Shemon and Washington's morning slot would be replaced by Dan Patrick's syndicated morning show, while Chris Myers' and Hartman's midday shows combined into one, Myers and Hartman. Myers replaced Mychal Thompson (who was expected to leave the station at the end of the Laker season) while Vic "The Brick" Jacobs was relegated to reading the sports updates. Siciliano and Fernandez's early evening show was replaced by the Petros and Money Show.

KLAC initially dropped "Into The Night with Tony Bruno," clearing JT The Brick instead. Ben Maller's overnight show, the Third Shift, was canceled and replaced by a clip show entitled Fox Sports Soup. JT The Brick's show would replace Fox Sports Soup later in the year as the network assumed production of Into The Night and rehired Maller for weekend duty.

Myers left Myers and Hartman in March 2010 so as to focus on his other duties with Fox Sports, and would effectively be replaced by Pat O'Brien as co-host of the resurrected Loose Cannons show, alongside Hartman and Jacobs.

AM 570 LA Sports

On March 15, 2015, the station announced that as part of their recent sale of partial ownership in the station to the Dodgers, they would drop the Fox Sports Radio and KLAC branding and be re-branded as AM 570 LA Sports with a greater emphasis on Dodgers coverage, including a daily Dodger Talk show all year round. However, they would continue to carry some of the Fox Sports lineup such as Dan Patrick and Jay Mohr. The change in ownership was consummated on August 5, 2016.

On March 16, 2016, it was announced that KLAC would take over as the flagship station of the Los Angeles Clippers. In case of a scheduling conflict with the Dodgers, the Clippers will be heard on sister station KEIB.[5]

In 2017 it along with sister channel KFI acquired the rights to the Los Angeles Chargers with play by play on KFI and daily and special programming on KLAC.[6]

Current daily broadcast schedule

Sports play-by-play rights

References

  1. ↑ Is KFI switch a sign AM radio is really dead? Los Angeles Daily News - August 12, 2015
  2. ↑ Documentary Our Pal Hal; An Affair to Remember Bruce Adamson
  3. ↑ "Lakers set to switch to 710 ESPN next season". Los Angeles Times. December 11, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Dodgers make deal to move radio flagship to KLAC next season". Los Angeles Times. September 23, 2011.
  5. ↑ The LA Clippers and iHeartMedia are joining forces to broadcast Clippers games live! KFI - March 16, 2016
  6. ↑ "Chargers find broadcast home at iHeartMedia-LA's KFI-AM 640". KLAC website. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
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