KRKO-Los Angeles
Andrew Diamond
There is an old building in downtown Los Angeles with two towers
on the roof with the letters KRKO. I assume that it was owned by
RKO pictures. Anyone know the frequency or any other history
of the station?
Richard Vige
gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Andrew Diamond) wrote:
>Reply-To: gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Andrew Diamond)
Look closer-its KRKD
They were around when I was a Kid. Transmitter was moved sometime in
the forties or fifties I think, to a hilltop location just west of the
pasadena freeway. I dont live in Southern California anymore, so I
don't know the current call letters, but the frequency is 1150 AM.
I'm really surprised those two towers are sitll there on top of that
building.
wpe...@delphi.com
This is a self-generated P.S. to my prior post re KRKD. The two towers
now atop the building are ornamental only; KIIS-AM's towers are in the
Montecito Hts area of L.A. KRKD has an interesting history. It was
originally a share-time outlet with KFSG ("Four Square Gospel"), the
religious voice of the legendary Aimee Semple McPherson. KRKD was
a modest MOR station in the 50's and 60's, chicken rock in the early
'70s, hampered at the time by only 5 kw day, 1 kw nite, ND. After
being acquired by whoever owned KIIS-FM at the time (either Pacific
and Southern, Gannett, or someone else), they put up two additional
towers, and are now 5 kw D and Nite, DA nite. KFSG's letters still
exist on FM, where it is a religious station. KFSG's original towers
were atop the Four Square Gospel Church on Glendale Blvd near downtown
L.A.
Bob Fentress
Andrew Diamond wrote:
>
> Reply-To: gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Andrew Diamond)
>
> There is an old building in downtown Los Angeles with two towers
> on the roof with the letters KRKO. I assume that it was owned by
> RKO pictures. Anyone know the frequency or any other history
> of the station?
The station was KRKD AM 1150. Around 1970 the station changed to
KIIS as an adult contemporary station. After Combined Communications
bought the station in 1975, they renamed their successful top-40 FM
station KIIS-FM. Meanwhile the AM station struggled to survive with
various formats until they went to a full-time simulcast in the '80s.
Bob
Les Beigel
Actually it's K R K D station was at 1150 am , later became KIIS am
The xmitter moved to solid ground near Dodger stadium . The station was
put on by Amy Temple McPhearson the religious sensation and scandal
or the 30's .
wpe...@delphi.com
And one final P.S. KRKD became KIIS-AM in the very late 60's or early '70's.
I always assumed it was because the IIS could be written as 1150, although
they never used this in any advertising. The station that became KIIS-FM
was previously KKDJ (102.7), and prior to that KRHM, and prior to that
KLAC-FM (in the 60's, KLAC-FM and KRHM swapped facilities, giving KLAC-FM
94.7, which eventually became KMET, and KRHM the 8.3kw facility at 102.7).
In any case, KIIS-AM was a stand-alone AM until being acquired by the
corporate entity that owned KKDJ, which then took the letters KIIS-FM.
I believe the letters KKDJ are now in Fresno.
John Rethorst
In article <4grrdo$5...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu
(Andrew Diamond) wrote:
> Reply-To: gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Andrew Diamond)
>
>
> There is an old building in downtown Los Angeles with two towers
> on the roof with the letters KRKO. I assume that it was owned by
> RKO pictures. Anyone know the frequency or any other history
> of the station?
That would be KRKD (as in dog). Former call sign of the station at 1150
AM, and also an FM outlet. When I lived in LA (1960-66), KRKD had a
MOR/variety format with a nice style.
KHJ (now KKHJ-AM and KCAL-TV, not sure what happened to KHJ-FM) was owned
by RKO.
John
iRock.Communications
Andrew Diamond (gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu) wrote:
: Reply-To: gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Andrew Diamond)
: There is an old building in downtown Los Angeles with two towers
: on the roof with the letters KRKO. I assume that it was owned by
: RKO pictures. Anyone know the frequency or any other history
: of the station?
I believe that these two towers say KRKD and not KRKO. From what I
remember (it was way back when) KRKD was an AM radio station.
This was in the 1950's-60's. Oh, and the building and rooftop towers
are in Hollywood, not downtown LA...I think. I can't be exact because I
have a very fuzzy memory, thanks to Tom Rivers from 1050 CHUM. Besides that,
I want to portray the image of being a young whippersnapper who runs and
Internet radio station.
G. J. Goldwyn
iRock - Internet Music Radio
http://www.iRock.Com/
--
This is my sig. It's not much, but neither is this account.
Jerry Trowbridge
gv...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Andrew Diamond) wrote:
>There is an old building in downtown Los Angeles with two towers
>on the roof with the letters KRKO. I assume that it was owned by
>RKO pictures. Anyone know the frequency or any other history
>of the station?
No, the towers are labeled KRKD, and they stand on the roof of the
Spring Arcade Building in downtown Los Angeles.
KRKD began life as KFSG, the radio voice of the Four Square Gospel
ministry of Aimee Semple MacPherson. As I write this in a plane over
Kansas, I am listening to the recorded voice of our dear departed
Sister Aimee, transcribed.
Her early literature shows towers astride Angeles Temple, in Echo
Park, emblazoned with KFSG on their flanks, with lightening bolts
issuing from their caps. She sounds like Bette Midler in "For the
Boys."
In those early years, our dear sister's transmitting apparatus shared
a frequency with KGEF, radio's "Kind, Gentle, Emphatic Friend" owned
by Reverend "Battling Bob" Shuler, (no relation to the Crystal
Cathedral's "Smiling Bob" Shuler.)
Shuler, who a left-leaning paper of the era dubbed "the Cotton Mather
of Flower Street" was an unrepentant pain in the ass to the corrupt
administration of Los Angeles in the 30s, just about the time that the
feds were asserting increasing control over radio broadcasting.
Aimee kept a good watch on her tongue, but let her frequency drift a
bit more than the regulators liked, but when they shut her down, she
dispatched a fiery telegram telling those heathen bureaucrats that she
was fitting into the almighty's wavelength. "Order your minions of
Satan to release my station at once!" They did.
Shuler was not so lucky. The Federal Radio Commission sent Battling
Bob a collect telegram one day, telling him his broadcasting service
was no longer needed, and Sister Aimee's KFSG no longer needed to
share its precious ether. It ultimately wound up as KRKD at 1150 AM.
Aimee went to that great broadcasting station in the sky where all
shows can be "sustaining," and KRKD moved to the Spring Arcade
building, and operated from a longwire between the towers during the
40s. Today, the old KFSG AM is KIIS AM. Its transmitter was moved
during the KRKD days to a hilltop near the Silver Lake Reservoir. Its
one of the nicest transmitter sites in LA.
Today's KFSG FM is the original Four Square Gospel FM, owned by the
church. 1150's new sister station, KIIS FM, is the former KKDJ, which
before that was KRHM, one of the early privately owned "quality for
the sake of quality" FM stations in Los Angeles.
The Spring Arcade building with its self-supporting towers, is a
historic radio landmark for two reasons. It not only housed KRKD's
studio during the days that program were "commercial" or "sustaining"
and came in 1/4. 1/2, and full-hour sizes, it also was home to Radio
Central.
This was a facility where all the major stations sent 24-hour
broadcast loops, and there was a big patchbay where programs could be
switched to and fro amongst LA's stations. You could buy an hour on
KFWB, Hollywood, and then a half an hour on KFOX, Long Beach, and
Radio Central would see that you could do both programs from one
studio...from anyplace you could get a studio or broadcast line.
RKO did own a station in Los Angeles...KHJ, but that was in the days
of RKO-General. Except for KFWB, which was owned by Fox &Warner
Brothers, Los Angeles radio was pretty well dominated by new car
dealers and preachers, with an occasional network, oil company and
receiver manufacturer thrown in for good measure.
KHJ is a good example. It went on the air as the radio voice of the
Los Angeles Times, during the days of Harry Chandler. Its three
canaries, named Kindness, Happiness and Joy, lifted their voices in
song during the breaks.
But Chandler got out of radio, probably in response to the increased
government control that was silencing Shuler and cramping Aimee's
errant frequency hopping. He sold KHJ to Don Lee.
Lee's Cadillac agency was not going to take a back seat to the Packard
dealership owned by Earle C. Anthony, who put the jewel of the west
coast, KFI, on the air in 1922.
Anthony was not just a fast-talking jalopy peddler, he was an
engineer, and understood broadcasting as well as anyone in Los
Angeles. He was also a thorn in the side of NBC, which tried many
times to buy his 50K Class 1-A clear-channel powerhouse, but it was
not for sale, and they could't bear to lose KFI-640 as their Los
Angeles affiliate.
Anthony was even able to force NBC to put the Red network on his KECA,
which today is known as KABC, 790--now in duopoly with KMPC-710, the
radio voice of the marvelous "ring -free"oil from the MacMillan
Petroleum Company. It started its life licensed to Beverly Hills, and
had its own share of trouble with the Radio Commission.
NBC, in fact, never owned a radio station in Los Angeles. During the
golden years, NBC programs came from the corner of Sunset and Vine, in
a building that has given way to a Home Savings edifice. But an
occasional program came from Anthony's KFI Theater on Vermont, which
still stands, but today is a Korean Newspaper.
But you asked about KRKO, and I'm sorry to tell you there never was
such a station in Los Angeles. About the closest you'll get is at the
corner of Melrose and Gower. You can get a greasy hamburger at the
Astro, and look across the street at the southwest corner of the
Paramount lot.
You'll see there, that the corner of the building is capped with a
globe, now painted over. The careful observer will note that the
continents are in relief upon it, hard to detect under the wash of
paint. And the oldtimer will tell you that once, when that was the
southwest corner of the RKO Radio Pictures lot, there was a model of a
self supporting radio tower there, making complete the RKO Radio
Pictures logo. So I suppose, in fact, there is a KRKO after all.
NOTE: I wrote this on a plane from memory, without access to any
sources, so please forgive any inaccuracies, which I'm sure my good
friend Stan, an excellent Los Angeles radio historian (who lurks on
this group), will be more than happy to point out. Much of his
research is in these paragraphs.
Jer...@touchmap.com
[now taking his hands _off_ the radio]
Joe Capitano
Just for the record, KRKO is located here in Everett, Washington. It's on
1380 kHz, and currently runs news, talk shows and local sports.
Catchy station slogan: "Talk too hot for Seattle. Supertalk 1380 KRKO".
-
JOE CAPITANO BSN...@prodigy.com Everett, WA