KLAC (AM)
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KLAC AM 570 is a radio station serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Branding itself as XTRA Sports 570, it is the radio flagship of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Jim Rome show, and the Phil Hendrie show, and is also the Los Angeles home of shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller.
It also carries the Oakland Raiders, UCLA Bruins football and men's basketball, 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 name XTRA Sports derives 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. 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 are only announced at the top of an hour by themselves with no other note paid attention to them. In February 2006, the station has phased out the use of the XTRA calls and is simply referred to on air as AM 570.
More recently, XTRA Sports 570 has 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 have been instructed to not limit themselves to sports, but also include politics, celebrities, relationships, and current events. [link] The switch also means that legendary San Diego sports icon Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton was changed from the host of an afternoon talk show host to hosting a three hour show on the weekends. As of 2006, he no longer appears on weekdays in any form; he had been doing a daily news and commentary update. In that same vein, the station carries Mancow's morning show and was the local broadcast home for Phil Hendrie's show before it ended on June 23, 2006. In January of 2006, the station added sports talk legend Joe McDonnell as a weekend host and primary fill-in during the week. McDonnell also does a politically oriented talk show on [KTLK 1150] in Los Angeles.
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 Xtra Sports 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 syndicater; 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.
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 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 (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. (Ironically, both KSPN and KMPC now have the same all-sports format as KLAC.)
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, 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.
External links
| AM radio stations in the Los Angeles market | |
|---|---|
| By frequency | 570 | 590 | 640 | 670 | 710 | 740 | 790 | 830 | 870 | 900 | 930 | 980 | 1020 | 1050 | 1070 | 1110 | 1150 | 1190 | 1230 | 1240 | 1260 | 1280 | 1290 | 1300 | 1330 | 1350 | 1370 | 1390 | 1410 | 1430 | 1440 | 1460 | 1480 | 1510 | 1540 | 1570 | 1580 | 1600 | 1650 | 1670 |
| By callsign | KABC | KAHZ | KALI | KAZN | KBLA | KBRT | KCAA | KCAL | KDIF | KDIS | KEZY | KFWB | KFI | KFRN | KHJ | KHPY | KIRN | KKDD | KKGO | KLAC | KTLX | KMBR | KMPC | KMXE | KNX | KPRO | KRLA | KSPA | KSPN | KTDD | KTIE | KTLK | KTNQ | KTYM | KVNR | KWKW | KWRN | KXMX | KYPA |
| Past Stations |
KIEV | KPPC | KSKQ | KTZN | KXED | KXMG
|
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