Hi! Very interesting discussion, since I love L.A. radio history and the history of Southern California in general, including Hollywood.
Actually, the building at 5515 Melrose was originally built to house the Consolidated Film Laboratories, before the National Broadcasting Company turned it into audience studios and production facilities to broadcast NBC radio shows from Hollywood for coast-to-coast entertainment shows, mostly. I think this was mostly between 1935 and 1938, but I'm not certain when the building was first used for NBC radio. As more and more NBC shows began moving from New York City to Hollywood, NBC wanted to expand studio space, so they built their new Radio City offices and studios at Sunset and Vine, which opened in 1938. Then, 5515 Melrose was vacant for more than a year, until KHJ and the Don Lee-Mutual Network moved from the Don Lee Building at 7th and Bixel to 5515 Melrose in late-1940.
Since KHJ-930 turned 85 years-old this year, I thought I'd run down the locations of the KHJ studios over the years, from the FCC license files:
April 13, 1922 100 North Broadway, L.A.; Los Angeles Times Building
November 10, 1927 Don Lee, Inc. new owner, 1st and Broadway
January 31, 1929 1076 West 7th Street, L.A. (Don Lee Building, 7th and Bixel)
December 1, 1940 5515 Melrose Ave. L.A./Hollywood
July 1, 1948 1313 N. Vine Street Hollywood
December 22, 1961 5515 Melrose
I'm lucky to have a photocopy of an article from Radio Life magazine from August of 1948 on KHJ and the Don Lee-Mutual network moving into its "new $3,000,000 studio and executive building at 1313 N. Vine St.
Of course, we all know that later, the owners at the time changed the historic KHJ call letters to KRTH-AM on February 1, 1986, and then again to KKHJ on April 1, 1990. In an effort spearheaded by then-CE Jerry Lewine, the FCC returned the KHJ call letters to L.A.'s 930-AM on March 15, 2000.
Now, I've lost track of when 930-AM finally moved from the 5515 Melrose studio site. Maybe one of the readers can give me that information.
Thanks.
Jim Hilliker
Monterey, CA