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| Broadcast area | Greater Los Angeles Area |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 790kHz |
| Branding | 790 KABC |
| Programming | |
| Format | Talk Radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | August 1925; 99 years ago (1925-08) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | Formerly owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 33254 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 34°1′10″N118°20′44″W / 34.01944°N 118.34556°W /34.01944; -118.34556 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | |
| Website | www |
KABC (790kHz) is acommercialAMradio stationlicensed toLos Angeles, California, and serving theGreater Los Angeles area. The station is owned byCumulus Media and broadcasts aconservative talk radioformat. Thestudios are located in the Los Angeles suburb ofCulver City. Thetransmitter is off West Martin Luther King Boulevard in theCrenshaw District, shared withKWKW (1330 AM) andKFOX (1650 AM).[2] KABC’s power is 6,600watts daytime and 7,900 watts nighttime, using adirectional antenna.
KABC carries a mix of local andnationally syndicated talk shows. In afternoondrive time, John Phillips hosts a three-hour show, followed by Frank Mottek and Randy Wang. Syndicated programs includeArmstrong & Getty,The Dan Bongino Show,America in the Morning andRed Eye Radio. On weekends,The Kim Komando Show is heard, along with paidbrokered programming. National news fromNBC News Radio and local news updates begin each hour. Early on weekdays, KABC 790simulcastsKABC-TV's morning newscast.University of Southern CaliforniaTrojans sports air on some weekends.
The station firstsigned on in August 1925; 99 years ago (1925-08). The originalcall sign was KFXB, licensed toBig Bear Lake, California, and broadcasting at 1430 kHz. KFXB moved to Los Angeles in 1927, changing its call letters to KPLA in the process. (TheKPLA calls now are on anAdult Contemporary station inColumbia, Missouri.)
On November 15, 1929, KPLA was sold toEarle C. Anthony, aPackard automobile dealer and owner of rival radio stationKFI. Anthony changed KPLA's call letters to KECA, representing Anthony's initials.[3] KECA and KFI were located in studios at 1000 Hope Street. KFI, then and now, transmitted with 50,000 watts, while KECA broadcast at 1,000 watts.
In August 1939, Anthony purchased KEHE (780 kHz, formerly KTM) and took that station off the air so he could relocate KECA to that station's frequency. In 1941, KECA moved one step up the dial to 790 kHz as part of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), which shifted the frequencies of many radio stations.[4] The power was increased to 5,000 watts, with a directional antenna used at night.
In 1944, newFederal Communications Commission (FCC) rules went into effect prohibiting any person or company from owning more than one radio station in the samemedia market. Anthony decided to keep KFI, and divested KECA to theBlue Network for $800,000 in July 1944; the FCC approved the transfer on July 18.[5] The studios and offices were then moved to 1440North Highland Avenue inHollywood.[6] (AChick-fil-A restaurant now stands on the site.)
KECA became theWest Coastflagship station of the ABC network. Some of the programs broadcast nationally by ABC originated in the KABC studios. In 1947, an FM station was added at 95.5MHz.[7] At first,KECA-FM transmitted with 4,500 watts and it largely simulcast the AM station; in 1971, it becamealbum rock station KLOS.
In 1949, ABC putKECA-TV (channel 7) on the air. It was the last of Los Angeles' six originalVHF television stations to sign on and the last of ABC's five originalowned-and-operated stations to go on the air. To reflect their corporate ownership, in 1954, the call letters for the three ABC stations were changed to KABC, KABC-FM, and KABC-TV, after that call sign was released by astation in San Antonio. The studios for KABC-AM-FM-TV were at 1539 NorthVine Street in Hollywood. The radio stations later moved to 3321La Cienega Boulevard, where the AM station transmitter and towers had been located since 1938.
KABC became a pioneer of thetalk radio format,[8] going "all-talk" around the clock, in September 1960. It was the second radio station to make a 24-hour commitment to the format, a few months afterCBS-ownedKMOX in St. Louis. Through the 1970s, on into the early 1980s, KABC was frequently Los Angeles' top radio station, and among the most listened-to radio stations in America. In the 1961–1962 edition ofBroadcasting Yearbook, an advertisement shows a KABC microphone, the headline reading "Here's Los Angeles' Conversation Piece" and stating KABC's talk programming is "newsworthy, stimulating and provocative".[9]
Along with co-ownedKGO in San Francisco, ABC built a nationally syndicated radio network around the personalities of the two top-rated West Coast talk outlets. The ABC TalkRadio Network featured KABC personalitiesMichael Jackson who hosted middays, psychologistDr. Toni Grant in afternoons, and Ira Fistel andRay Briem at night. The network was heard on scores of radio stations around the country, including co-ownedWABC in New York City. The station has also served as the home of psychiatristDavid Viscott and early talk radio pioneersJoe Pyne andLouis Lomax. In 1992, KABC hired its first African American woman news anchor, Yolanda L. Gaskins. Two former KABC hosts,Dennis Prager andLarry Elder, were later syndicated on theSalem Radio Network; Prager is still heard on its Los Angeles stationKRLA.
The talk radio duoJohn and Ken (John Chester Kobylt and Kenneth Robertson Chiampou) came over to KABC to host mornings after they were released from the afternoon show on KFI. Their KABC stint lasted from July 1, 1999, to October 20, 2000. They later returned to afternoons on KFI.
ABC Television and Radio were acquired byThe Walt Disney Company in 1996. Disney sold off its radio division toCitadel Broadcasting in 2006. Citadel later merged withCumulus Media on September 16, 2011.[10] After Cumulus Broadcasting took over, airborne traffic reporterJorge Jarrín, son ofLos Angeles Dodgers Spanish-language broadcasterJaime Jarrín, was let go after 26 years. Also fired were imaging voice Howard Hoffman and news director/morning newscaster Mark Austin Thomas, who joinedKNX.
A lawsuit alleged that school employees of Academia Semillas del Pueblo (ASDP) received death threats, and that the school was the target of a bomb threat, because ofDoug McIntyre's extensive on-air criticism of the school, in which he accused ASDP of espousing a racist and separatist anti-American philosophy.[11] The suit was dismissed in January 2008.
On March 31, 2016, KABC was granted an FCCconstruction permit to move to the same transmitter site as the one used byKWKW; the daytime power would increase to 6,600 watts and nighttime power would be raised to 6,800 watts.[12] An application to modify this construction permit the following February increased the night power to 7,900 watts.[13]
As of August 2018, KABC was the 40th-ranked station in the market in a 50-station survey, tied withPersian language stationKIRN; in intervening years Cumulus stopped reporting KABC's ratings for services that made their rankings public.[14]Jillian Barberie,Drew Pinsky,Leeann Tweeden, and Peter Tilden were all dismissed at the end of 2019 as KABC changed to an all-syndicated talk lineup; John Phillips, Randy Wang, andLarry O'Connor (fromWMAL-FM in Washington, D.C.) were the lone local hosts retained.[15]
From 1974 to 1997, KABC was the flagship station of theLos Angeles Dodgers and theirhall-of-fame broadcasterVin Scully. After some years onKFWB, the team returned to KABC in2008.[16] On September 28, 2011, the final Dodgers baseball game was broadcast on KABC fromChase Field in Phoenix. The games moved toKLAC for the 2012 season. In August 2014, KABC became the flagship radio station of theLos Angeles Kings hockey team; that arrangement ended in 2018, with the games switching toKEIB. TheLA Galaxysoccer team also had its games on KABC, later moving toESPN Radio-ownedKSPN.Los Angeles Lakers games were also previously broadcast.[8]
KABC airedUSC Trojans football andmen's basketball games during the 1970s.[8] On May 2, 2019, theUniversity of Southern California announced play-by-play coverage of its football and men's basketball teams would return to KABC.[17]
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