| Broadcast area | Greater Los Angeles |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 900kHz |
| Branding | KALI 900 AM |
| Programming | |
| Format | Mandarin Chinese |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | September 25, 1963; 62 years ago (1963-09-25)[1] |
Former call signs |
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| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 56779 |
| Class | D |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 34°1′48″N117°43′39″W / 34.03000°N 117.72750°W /34.03000; -117.72750 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | Multicultural Broadcasting |
KALI (900kHz) is acommercialAMradio stationlicensed toWest Covina, California, and serving the eastern suburbs ofLos Angeles. The station is owned byMulticultural Broadcasting and broadcastsMandarin Chinese and other ethnic programming.
By day, KALI broadcasts at 5,000watts. As900 AM is a Mexicanclear channel frequency reserved forXEW-AM inMexico City, KALI reduces power to 150 watts at sunset. It uses adirectional antenna with a three-tower array. Thetransmitter is on East Olive Avenue inChino.[3]
The station was put on the air by formerKTLA contract engineer[4] Robert Burdette and his wife Gloria on September 25, 1963 (with call letters standing for Gloria and Robert Burdette). The station was adaytimer, broadcasting with 250 watts, and required tosign off at sunset.
It gained an FMsister station when Burdette acquired KSGV from the San Gabriel Valley Broadcasting Company and rechristened itKBOB on January 1, 1967. The stations promoted themselves as "KGRB, KBOB, The Twin Voices of The (San Gabriel) Valley".
Burdette, who had once been an engineer forTommy Dorsey and other big band artists, programmed abig band andadult standards format for KGRB.[5] The station featured a library including original78 rpm recordings.[4] KGRB was authorized to increase its daytime power to 500 watts in 1975, though the higher power level did not take effect until 1977. KGRB and KBOB became only partial simulcast partners in 1977 when, to satisfy FCC regulations, KBOB programs began to originate for five hours a day from theUniversity of La Verne campus.[6]
In 1994, after Burdette suffered a stroke, KGRB was put into a conservatorship. Steve Ray (who had worked atKCLU,KLIT,KMPC, andKRCI) was brought in to manage the stations. He made KGRB anNBC Radionetwork affiliate, renaming it "AM 90 NBC". Ray was in the process of acquiring the KNBC (AM) call letters, but the format ended on December 28, 1995, when a court-appointed conservator took over.[7]
The conservator leased KGRB and KBOB to El Dorado Broadcasting, and KGRB reemerged at the start of 1996 with aRegional Mexican format as "El Ranchito".[8] A new KRRA call sign debuted on May 6.
Later in 1996, El Dorado bought the combination outright, but it did not hold on to the cluster for long, selling KRTO (the renamed KBOB) toCox Radio and then selling KRRA to Multicultural Broadcasting. On June 28, 1999, KRRA became KALI, call letters formerly associated with the 1430 AM frequency (which becameKMRB).
In 2008, Multicultural was forced to place KALI in a trust, known as Transition Radio, when Multicultural's owner, Arthur Liu, acquiredKHIZ television.[9] TheFCC does not permit one owner to hold too many media outlets in the same market.
When Multicultural soldKYPA 1230 AM, it was able to reclaim KALI from the trust. It changed the programming of the station toMandarin Chinese and other ethnic shows.