Goodbye, Dumpy Little Building

This appears to have flown somewhat under the radar, but Entercom has sold 5901 Venice Boulevard for a reported $26 million and is moving KROQ and KCBS-FM in with the rest of the cluster (KAMP, KTWV, KRTH, KNX) at 5670 Wilshire Boulevard. Employees of both stations had a carnival on the grounds this Thursday.

The building has had several uses over the years, first as KHJ-AM's transmitter site. The portion of the property where the towers were situated was sold and the towers themselves were taken down in early 2013. Single-family homes have been built on that land. KHJ-FM (later KRTH) operated from 5901 Venice for many years, and for a while the AM was housed there (though that may have been during the period when its calls were KRTH-AM). KROQ moved in with KRTH quite a while back, and when Columbia Square at 6121 Sunset Blvd was closed in 2005, KRTH went to the then-new Wilshire facility and KCBS-FM, which had been at Columbia Square, took its place on Venice.

The building is famous with radio listeners thanks to KCBS-FM's liner: "From a dumpy little building in Culver City, this is JACK-FM".

Not really that dumpy, although the other place is in a much nicer neighborhood. I imagine the parking is more expensive.

I found that building breathtaking. From the auto on/ off hallway lights to the automatic fragrance squirter in the bathroom, to its two air huge Trane air conditioners for each Studio, to the tile glass exterior windows which looked futuristic for its time, to the automatic entrance gate which a few people were assaulted at gunpoint entering the property, to the treasures that lay inside. I'm surprised RKO didn't line the hallway with expensive collector art as well. Quite a bit of filming went on at 5901 Venice. Metro traffic was housed there after AM 930 closed and KRTH FM moved into KRTH AMs Stand up Studio, the nicer set up. Above your head was a series of colored spot lights that lit up when different events were happening, the Mic on, the Hotline ringing, Transmitter problems, end of message cues that would light you up in blue. The best feature however was the armed police force RKO maintained there. When CBS took over the Guards were the first to go, one night my friend Bruce Chandler was doing his shift and the door flung open and some local area criminal said to Bruce..."Hey where's Dooby", looked around and walked out. Luckily Bruce called the Police and had the pair of burglars arrested!

Hot Hits said:

I'm surprised RKO didn't line the hallway with expensive collector art as well.

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As they did in some of their other facilities.