| Simulcast withKNSNSan Diego | |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Southern California |
| Frequency | 740kHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | K-BRITE |
| Programming | |
| Format | Christian talk and teaching |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KNSN San Diego | |
| History | |
First air date | June 1, 1952; 73 years ago (1952-06-01) |
Former call signs | KBIG (1952–1979) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 34588 |
| Class | D |
| Power | 50,000watts day 190 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 33°49′44″N117°38′18″W / 33.82889°N 117.63833°W /33.82889; -117.63833 |
| Translator | 100.7 K274CI (Corona) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | kbriteradio.com |
KBRT (740AM, known on-air as K-BRITE) is aSouthern Californianradio station. It airs aChristian talk and teachingradio format and is owned byCrawford Media Group. It islicensed toCosta Mesa, California, and servesLos Angeles andOrange counties and can be heard inThe Inland Empire and northSan Diego County. National religious leaders heard on K-Brite includeDavid Jeremiah,Alistair Begg,J. Vernon McGee,Charles Stanley andRick Warren. Theradio studios and business offices are on Airway Avenue in Costa Mesa.
By day, KBRT transmits 50,000watts, the maximum for American AM stations. It is aClass D station broadcasting on the Canadianclear-channel frequency of740 AM, so to avoid interference with Class A stationCFZMToronto and Class B stationKCBSSan Francisco, at night KBRT greatly reduces power to 190 watts. It uses adirectional antenna with a four-tower array. Thetransmitter is on Black Star Canyon Road in theSanta Ana Mountains.[2] KBRT is licensed by theU.S. Federal Communications Commission to broadcast in theHD Radio hybrid format.[3][4] Programming is also heard on 13-wattFM translatorK274CI at 100.7MHz inCorona.[5]
The stationsigned on the air on June 1, 1952; 73 years ago (1952-06-01). It was adaytimer station, powered at 10,000 watts during the day but required to go off the air at night. The station was founded by entrepreneur John H. Poole as KBIG. Poole had worked atKEZY inAnaheim, and was founder of KBIC-TV (nowKSCN-TV) in Los Angeles. Later, he would ownKBIG-FM. Studios were located at the transmitter site inAvalon onSanta Catalina Island. But because it required a boat ride to get to and from the site, the studios were later relocated to the mainland coast.
From the beginning, there were contentious disagreements with co-channelKCBS 740 inSan Francisco over interference between the stations. Much of the path between stations' transmitters was over highly conductive seawater.
According to the July 28, 1979 issue ofBillboard Magazine,Bonneville Communications owned KBRT prior to the sale to Crawford Media Group. Bonneville, owned by theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), has dabbled on and off in the Los Angeles radio market and also once ownedKSWD, "The Sound" at 100.3 FM. After changing call signs from KBIG, KBRT was a mixture of secular and Christian music, with all programming taped, and all song "intros and outros" recorded by professional announcers. There was no live, "on-air" talent until after changing over to a completely Christian radio format.
In 1980, the station switched to a Christian talk and teaching format after being purchased by Donald Crawford ofCrawford Media Group. Upon the death ofPercy Crawford in the late 1950s, the company's founder, the assets of the original Crawford Media Group were split up among his heirs. Just prior to the switch, KBRT playedContemporary Christian Music from sunrise to sunset. The daily sign-on began with a recording of a man's voice: "Good morning. This is K-B-R-T Avalon, and we now begin another day of broadcasting over Southern California. K-B-R-T radio broadcasts on an assigned frequency of 740 kilohertz with a power output of 10,000 watts by authority of theFederal Communications Commission. K-B-R-T's transmitter was located on Santa Catalina Island and is operated by Kiertron, Incorporated." (Note: Disc jockeys made multiple mentions of "Transmitter Tom," who lived on Catalina Island, and oversaw the station's transmitter.)
On-air personalities over the decades have includedRich Buhler,Paul McGuire, Jane Chastain, Greg Koukl, Greg Cynamon, Rich Agazino, Paul McGuire, Tim Berends, Al Gross, Helen Fabian, and Roger Marsh.
Contractors cutting a steel antenna cable with a gas-powered circular saw caused a wildfire on Catalina Island that began on May 10, 2007. KBRT had to shut down the transmitter, which was not damaged. In February, 2013, KBRT moved to a new transmitter site no longer on Catalina Island, instead near Corona, California. It began broadcasting at 50,000 watts, still sunrise to sunset, added nighttime authorization at 190 watts and had its city of license changed to Costa Mesa.In 2011, KBRT featured David Housholder, Orange County author and pastor, and Roger Marsh in the 3pm-5pm drive-home slot, with "The Bottom Line", a current events show with features in legal, educational, health, and finance segments. Housholder exited "The Bottom Line" in April 2013.[6] "The Bottom Line" reaches most AM radios in California, since it is syndicated on KCBC 770 AM in the Sacramento/Bay Area region. A few years later The Bottom Line was Housholder left the station and Marsh hosted the program alone for over a decade until August 2024 when he left to work full time for the ministry Family Talk withJames Dobson.