• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

1540 KPOL Los Angeles

A

alok

Frequent Participant
Was KPOL on 1540, years ago, ever Top 40 or a Rock "N" Roll station ? If so ,what years ? How did they do in the ratings then ?

Also I noted in the late 1950's station was 10 kw day non-directional and 10 kw night directional, how many towers nighttime at 10 kw back then ,when did they go to 50 kw day directional and were these changes all done at the present transmitter site ?


Al
 
alok said:
Was KPOL on 1540, years ago, ever Top 40 or a Rock "N" Roll station ? If so ,what years ? How did they do in the ratings then ?
Click to expand...

They are listed in Broadcasting Yearbook as briefly being Top 40 in 1979 after giving up the "Good Music" format they launched with in 1952. This was immediately followed by a switch to country as KZLA, and then the mid-80's sale to Raúl Alarcón.

It appears to have gotten a 0.7 share in that period. Duncan's American Radio issues from 1976 to 2002 are available for ratings information at http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Duncan-American-Radio-Issue-Guide.htm

Also I noted in the late 1950's station was 10 kw day non-directional and 10 kw night directional, how many towers nighttime at 10 kw back then ,when did they go to 50 kw day directional and were these changes all done at the present transmitter site ?
Click to expand...

You can track the technical history at http://fccdata.org/?facid=&call=kmpc&ccode=1&city=&state=&country=US&arn=&party=&party_type=LICEN
 
DavidEduardo said:


They are listed in Broadcasting Yearbook as briefly being Top 40 in 1979 after giving up the "Good Music" format they launched with in 1952. This was immediately followed by a switch to country as KZLA, and then the mid-80's sale to Raúl Alarcón.

It appears to have gotten a 0.7 share in that period. Duncan's American Radio issues from 1976 to 2002 are available for ratings information at http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Duncan-American-Radio-Issue-Guide.htm



You can track the technical history at http://fccdata.org/?facid=&call=kmpc&ccode=1&city=&state=&country=US&arn=&party=&party_type=LICEN
Click to expand...

Broadcasting Yearbook was wrong. KPOL in 1979 was adult contemporary under former KVI, Seattle and future KMPC, Los Angeles PD Michael O'Shea. The call letters were changed to KZLA, and the station remained AC for a short time before the Country flip in 1980, just before KHJ's. KPOL was never Top 40.

As for the ratings, despite being signal-challenged compared to some of the bigs, KPOL did very well for a long time...tying KRLA and KFI for 4th place with a 7.0 in the Fall 1966 Pulse, tying KMPC for third with an 8.0 in Fall 1967, and then beginning its slide as L.A. became more competitive and FM receivers became more common. Fall 1968 saw them in 5th place with a 6.0, Fall 1969 6th with a 5.8, Fall 1970 5th with a 4.3 and Fall 1971 9th with a 3.8.

That was the station's last appearance in the top 10. Fall '72 saw 12th place with a 2.8, and KPOL-FM's first appearance (24th with a 1.3). Fall '73 was 11th with a 3.0 and Fall '74 20th with a 1.8.

From 1975 on, the numbers are Arbitron: 16th with a 2.0 for 1975, in 1976, 15th with a 2.4, 1977 saw 20th with a 1.8 and in 1978 and 1979, it didn't manage a 1 share. Arbitron shows KZLA AM/FM as a simulcast in the Country format, but never much better combined than the AM had on its own in the mid-70s.
 
Last edited:
And the flip to AC on 1540 followed by a couple of years the flip of 93.9 to a KNX-FM clone (but more chart-oriented) called "94 FM". My recollection at the time of the flip was that the AM was similar in sound to the FM afterwards, and there might have been some simulcast hours.

The subsequent flip to Country was indeed a full simulcast.

My best guess is that whoever it was at KPOL/KZLA that filled out the Broadcasting Yearbook information request for the 1979 edition thought the AC format was top-40, and listed it as such.
 
K.M. Richards said:
And the flip to AC on 1540 followed by a couple of years the flip of 93.9 to a KNX-FM clone (but more chart-oriented) called "94 FM". My recollection at the time of the flip was that the AM was similar in sound to the FM afterwards, and there might have been some simulcast hours.

The subsequent flip to Country was indeed a full simulcast.

My best guess is that whoever it was at KPOL/KZLA that filled out the Broadcasting Yearbook information request for the 1979 edition thought the AC format was top-40, and listed it as such.
Click to expand...

I noticed a "problem" with the Yearbook when in '76 I listed WQII as "contemporary" which Broadcasting took to mean "Top 40". In fact, the format was more like what we know today as Hot AC, but no rock at the time. I later amended my form to say Adult Contemporary as back then agencies on the mainland still checked formats in books like that.
 
Heard years ago that Cap Cities decision to purchase KPOL was based on two things: Beautiful Music format similar to their WPAT in NYC, and the previous owner wouldn't accept cigarette advertising. Cap Cities had no problem taking those new found dollars once they closed on 15~Forty and 93~Nine.
 
DrAkbar said:
Heard years ago that Cap Cities decision to purchase KPOL was based on two things ...
Click to expand...

Considering where Capital Cities ended up (owning ABC) what I found surprising in my research was that they wouldn't consider the deal unless Hugh Murchison spun off KPOL-TV/22 -- which had only gone back on the air a little over a year previous, in 1965, after a year of being off-air post-KIIX -- to his minor-interest partners.

Just think, if Cap Cities had also wanted the television station back then, we would never have had the KWHY-TV financial news for just under 25 years (November 1966 to September 2000).
 
K.M. Richards said:
Considering where Capital Cities ended up (owning ABC) what I found surprising in my research was that they wouldn't consider the deal unless Hugh Murchison spun off KPOL-TV/22 -- which had only gone back on the air a little over a year previous, in 1965, after a year of being off-air post-KIIX -- to his minor-interest partners.

Just think, if Cap Cities had also wanted the television station back then, we would never have had the KWHY-TV financial news for just under 25 years (November 1966 to September 2000).
Click to expand...

Is it just under 35 years or are the dates wrong?
 
That .7 rating reminded me there was a PD after Michael O’Shea, and before they became KZLA-AM in 1979. It was Rollye James. She was working somewhere in the southeast when she got the job. I think she knew it wouldn’t last. When everyone congratulated her on making the big time, she had teeshirts printed up that said ‘a .7 is STILL a .7’. I don’t know about the tower site, but I do know they had engineering problems. She said by then Cap Cities only owned it because they couldn’t pass a proof of performance. I think that allowed her to do things that she wouldn’t have gotten away with anywhere else. She had a lot of wacky stories about the place. One I remember was about their newsman who I guess was like Les Nesman. He was on the air complaining about not reaching Caltech to confirm the earthquake he felt, while at the same time Channel 5’s helicopter was showing pictures of a truck hitting KPOL’s building.
 
Cap Cities upgraded their Ancient Modulation presence in LA by selling 15~Forty and buying KLAC. 5~Seventy was then sold when they purchased ABC and upgraded to (he-he-he) 7~Ninety KABC. And of course 15~Forty is now KMPC. hmmmm...beginning to think KPOL is radio's equivalent to the six degrees of Kevin Bacon!
 
michael hagerty said:
Broadcasting Yearbook was wrong. KPOL in 1979 was adult contemporary under former KVI, Seattle and future KMPC, Los Angeles PD Michael O'Shea. The call letters were changed to KZLA, and the station remained AC for a short time before the Country flip in 1980, just before KHJ's. KPOL was never Top 40.

As for the ratings, despite being signal-challenged compared to some of the bigs, KPOL did very well for a long time...tying KRLA and KFI for 4th place with a 7.0 in the Fall 1966 Pulse, tying KMPC for third with an 8.0 in Fall 1967, and then beginning its slide as L.A. became more competitive and FM receivers became more common. Fall 1968 saw them in 5th place with a 6.0, Fall 1969 6th with a 5.8, Fall 1970 5th with a 4.3 and Fall 1971 9th with a 3.8.

That was the station's last appearance in the top 10. Fall '72 saw 12th place with a 2.8, and KPOL-FM's first appearance (24th with a 1.3). Fall '73 was 11th with a 3.0 and Fall '74 20th with a 1.8.

From 1975 on, the numbers are Arbitron: 16th with a 2.0 for 1975, in 1976, 15th with a 2.4, 1977 saw 20th with a 1.8 and in 1978 and 1979, it didn't manage a 1 share. Arbitron shows KZLA AM/FM as a simulcast in the Country format, but never much better combined than the AM had on its own in the mid-70s.
Click to expand...

I can't believe I was totally unaware of KPOL in the late 60s. Like most kids, I was primarily a listener of KRLA, KHJ and KFWB. But as a general radio junkie, I was all over the AM dial, listening to Top 40 and soul stations like KBLA (for the short time it lasted), K-Day, XERB, KGFJ, and even KEZY in Orange County. I would even tune in the brokered Top 40 oriented shows on KTYM. So it seems strange that I missed KPOL.
 
michael hagerty said:
As for the ratings, despite being signal-challenged compared to some of the bigs, KPOL did very well for a long time...tying KRLA and KFI for 4th place with a 7.0 in the Fall 1966 Pulse, tying KMPC for third with an 8.0 in Fall 1967, and then beginning its slide as L.A. became more competitive and FM receivers became more common. Fall 1968 saw them in 5th place with a 6.0, Fall 1969 6th with a 5.8, Fall 1970 5th with a 4.3 and Fall 1971 9th with a 3.8.

That was the station's last appearance in the top 10. Fall '72 saw 12th place with a 2.8, and KPOL-FM's first appearance (24th with a 1.3). Fall '73 was 11th with a 3.0 and Fall '74 20th with a 1.8.

From 1975 on, the numbers are Arbitron: 16th with a 2.0 for 1975, in 1976, 15th with a 2.4, 1977 saw 20th with a 1.8 and in 1978 and 1979, it didn't manage a 1 share. Arbitron shows KZLA AM/FM as a simulcast in the Country format, but never much better combined than the AM had on its own in the mid-70s.
Click to expand...

The pre-1975 ARB numbers were similar to the Pulse numbers (ARB started measuring LA in Spring 1965). In the ARBs, KPOL peaked with a 7.5 in April/May 1967, good for 4th in the market. It was downhill from there though, and the station never again got in the 6 share range, much less the 7s.
1968 average: 5.4
1969 average: 4.8
1970 average: 4.2
1971 average: 3.5
1972 average: 3.5
1973 average: 3.3
1974 average: 2.6
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom