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| Broadcast area | Southern California |
| Frequency | 570kHz |
| Branding | AM 570 LA Sports |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Sports radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | March 1924 (101 years ago) (1924-03) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | Los Angeles, California |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 59958 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 34°4′11″N118°11′39.3″W / 34.06972°N 118.194250°W /34.06972; -118.194250 |
| Repeater | 98.7 KYSR-HD2 (Los Angeles) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | am570lasports |
KLAC (570AM) is a commercialsports radio station licensed toLos Angeles, California, servingGreater Los Angeles. Owned by a joint venture betweeniHeartMedia, Inc. and theLos Angeles Dodgers baseball club, KLAC serves as the Los Angeles affiliate forFox Sports Radio; theflagship station for theLos Angeles Dodgers Radio Network and theLos Angeles Clippers; and the home of radio personalitiesFred Roggin,Rodney Peete,Petros Papadakis andMatt "Money" Smith.
The KLAC studios are located in the Los Angeles suburb ofBurbank, while the station transmitter resides in Los Angeles'Lincoln Heights neighborhood. Besides its mainanalog transmission, KLAC simulcasts over aHDdigital subchannel ofKYSR,[2] and streams online viaiHeartRadio.
KLAC first signed on in 1924 as KFPG. In 1925, it became KMTR, with thecall sign chosen for the new owner, K. M. Turner, a radio dealer. In the 1930s, it transmitted with 1,000 watts and had its studios at 915 North Formosa Street.[3]
In 1946,Dorothy Schiff, publisher of theNew York Post, bought the station and renamed it KLAC, for Los Angeles, California. During the 1940s, Douglas Adamson worked as a disc jockey on KLAC and was voted one ofBillboard magazine's top ten DJs in America. Al Jarvis created his West Coast version of theMake Believe Ballroom; in a KLAC advertisement in the 1947 edition ofBroadcasting Yearbook, Jarvis is described as "the dean of the nation's disc jockeys" and the show promised to give away "a newMercury, diamond rings, etc."[4]
KLAC added a TV station, KLAC-TV at channel 13, on September 17, 1948.[5] Both the radio and TV operations were housed in studios at 1000 NorthCahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. Al Jarvis notably hosted a TV edition of theMake Believe Ballroom, and a youngBetty White was part of his staff,Regis Philbin andLeonard Nimoy also worked behind the scenes at the station. KLAC-TV was sold to theCopley Press in 1953, and was renamedKCOP-TV.
Also in 1948, KLAC-FM began experimenting with FM broadcasts. The station official signed on the air on March 7, 1961, as KLAC-FM.[6] It mostlysimulcast the AM station. In the late 1960s, it began airing its own programming, a vocaleasy listening/MOR sound. In 1975, the station was sold toCombined Communications, later becomingKIIS-FM.
KLAC and KLAC-FM were purchased byMetromedia in 1963.[7] Metromedia programmed afull servicemiddle of the road (MOR) format of popular music, news and sports, similar to other Metromedia stations such asWNEW in New York City andWHK inCleveland. KLAC and KLAC-FM at different times featured the talents ofLes Crane,Louis Nye, andLohman and Barkley. Metromedia also ownedKTTV (channel 11), and all three stations were housed in studios atMetromedia Square onSunset Boulevard.
In the mid-1960s, KLAC switched to atalk radio format known as "Two-Way Radio". Hosts includedJoe Pyne. In the 1970s, KLAC switched to anadult standards format, playing music from the 1940s and early 1950s, along withsoft adult contemporary hits of the 1950s and 1960s. By early 1970, KLAC evolved to more of a full-service mainstreamadult contemporary format focusing on popular adult hits from 1964 up to that time.
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As the 1970s began, Los Angeles had twocountry music stations,KFOX andKIEV.[8] However, neither station had a signal as powerful as that of KLAC. With this, on September 28, 1970, KLAC, due to the leadership of Ron Martin, decided to drop adult contemporary for country music.[9] The number one on the station's first "Big 57 Survey" was "For The Good Times" byRay Price.
The original DJs included Deano Day, Gene Price, Harry Newman, Sammy Jackson and Jay Lawrence, joined the following year byDick Haynes,Charlie O'Donnell andLarry Scott. L.A. veteran DJ Nancy Plum (KTNQ,KMPC) was heard in the last days of the country format.
In the fall of 1980, KLAC got some serious competition in the country music field, including a station on FM;KZLA-FM (93.9) andKZLA (1540 AM) switched to country, followed in December 1980 byKHJ. (KHJ would return tooldies on April 1, 1983.) KZLA-AM-FM and KLAC competed through the 1980s. During this time, KLAC DJ Harry Newman could also be heard as the image voice for KCOP-TV, its former TVsister station. (KCOP later became a sister station to KTTV.)
In 1984, Metromedia sold KLAC toCapital Cities Communications, which subsequently sold its previous Los Angeles AM station, KZLA (1540 AM) toSpanish Broadcasting System. One year later, Capital Cities announced its acquisition ofABC; the newly-merged company opted to retainKABC andKLOS, with both KLAC and KZLA-FM being sold toMalrite Communications. KLAC moved toclassic country, playing country and western hits from the 1950s to the 1970s. One exception to the music format was a "combat talk" show hosted byOrange Countyconservative iconWally George, on Monday nights during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In late 1993, KLAC fired all its DJs and newscasters, including 31-year veteran Dean Sander, and dropped country forWestwood One's satellite-fedadult standards service, known as "AM Only". It playedFrank Sinatra,Barbra Streisand,Nat King Cole,Neil Diamond,Peggy Lee,Petula Clark,Dean Martin,Johnny Mathis,The Carpenters,Elvis Presley, theAmes Brothers,Tony Bennett,Perry Como,Dionne Warwick andBarry Manilow. The station concentrated on vocalists from the 1960s and 1970s, withbig band music no longer played. KLAC stayed with this format in some form until 2001.
KLAC was owned by Malrite until 1993, when the station was sold toShamrock Communications in a group deal along with KZLA. In 1995, Shamrock's stations were absorbed by Chancellor Media and KZLA was swapped toBonneville International in the late 1990s. Chancellor Media became AMFM Inc. when it merged with Capstar in 1999. In 2000, AMFM Inc. merged withClear Channel Communications. In 2014, Clear Channel changed its name to iHeartMedia, KLAC's current co-owner. In 2001, KLAC became atalk radio station, airingsyndicated programs fromDon Imus,Clark Howard, Dr.Dean Edell,The Truckin' Bozo show,[citation needed] and local hostMichael Jackson.
On September 12, 2002, KLAC returned to an adult standards format, becoming the "Fabulous 570". In addition to many of the station's previous standards artists, theplaylist also includedNorah Jones,Diana Krall,Harry Connick Jr.,Rod Stewart andMichael Bublé, contemporary artists whose music is influenced by theBig Band Era. During the standards/lounge music period,Brad "Martini" Chambers, Jim "Swingin' Jimmy D" Duncan, Daisy Torme (Mel Torme's daughter) and LA radio and TV veteranGary Owens were among the air talent.
On February 4, 2005, Clear Channel Communications conducted a format swap on three of their radio stations inSouthern California, including KLAC. KLAC switched formats tosports radio as "XTRA Sports 570"; with programming drawn from bothXETRA (690 AM) andKXTA (1150 AM). Concurrently, XETRA changed format from sports radio to adult standards, re-branded as "The Fabulous 690"; and KXTA changed formats from sports radio toprogressive talk as KTLK (1150 AM). All on- and off-air personnel were reassigned between the three stations; with KLAC retainingSteve Hartman,Lee Hamilton andVic "The Brick" Jacobs from both XETRA and KXTA, along with the local rights toThe Jim Rome Show. KLAC also initially marketed itself as servingboth the Los Angeles and San Diego markets with the switch.
In February 2006, KLAC phased out the use of the XTRA Sports nickname as part of a re-orientation to the Los Angeles market, and was simply referred to on air as "AM 570". The XTRA Sports name was later re-launched in San Diego onKLSD on November 12, 2007, with Lee Hamilton starting local programming. For a brief time, "AM 570" placed less emphasis on sports and more emphasis on male-oriented talk to compete with the now-defunctKLSX, then the local home ofAdam Carolla andTom Leykis, and previouslyHoward Stern's L.A. station. Local hosts on KLAC were instructed to not limit themselves to sports, but also include celebrities, relationships, politics and current events. In addition, non-sports hosts Erich "Mancow" Muller andPhil Hendrie were added to the lineup.
The switch also meant that former afternoon host and one-timeSan Diego Chargers radio voiceLee "Hacksaw" Hamilton was moved to weekend duty. He also hosted a daily 5 p.m. sports update on KLAC for several months until landing a weekday show on San Diego–based KLSD. The KLAC call letters were initially only announced during station identification at the beginning of each hour, but would soon be used more often under the "AM 570 KLAC" brand, starting when the station celebrated its 30th anniversary as the Laker radio flagship. Some promotions spelled out the meaning of the call letters as "K-Los-Angeles-California".
Starting in late 2006, KLAC shifted its focus again to more sports content. Phil Hendrie voluntarily retired from his syndicated show to pursue an acting career (but would later revive the program on KTLK). Hendrie's time slot was filled by Joe McDonnell, who would last for two years at KLAC.Into The Night withTony Bruno, which KLAC co-produced withThe Content Factory, replaced McDonnell in September 2008.
Mancow was replaced withRoggin and Simers2(Squared), hosted byKNBC sportscasterFred Roggin,T.J. Simers of theLos Angeles Times, and Simers' daughter, Tracy Simers.Roggin and Simers2 lasted 11 months before being replaced in September 2007 byDan Patrick's syndicated morning show, also produced by The Content Factory. FormerUSC Trojans football running back and former KMPC afternoon hostPetros Papadakis joined KLAC in January 2007, teaming up with sportscasterMatt "Money" Smith (then the host of the Lakers Radio Network's pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage) to host an afternoon drive program dubbed thePetros and Money Show.
On December 11, 2008, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that KLAC would no longer be the team's flagship station following the 2008–2009 season, with Laker games moving toKSPN,ESPN Radio's Los Angeles station.[10] On September 23, 2011, theLos Angeles Dodgers announced that KLAC would become the flagship for the team'sradio network beginning in the 2012 season.[11]
On January 20, 2009, the station announced a "merger" between KLAC andFox Sports Radio. Many of the network shows would be based at KLAC, with the end of most local programming. General manager Don Martin was named KLAC's program director, and also became the network's program director, replacing Andrew Ashwood, who died a few months earlier. Some programs would be based at the Clear Channel studios in Burbank and some would be based at the Fox Sports Radio network offices inSherman Oaks, which also housed thePremiere Networks' studios for Jim Rome. According to a report byLos Angeles Daily News media columnist Tom Hoffarth, Fox Sports Radio hostsBen Maller,Andrew Siciliano,Krystal Fernandez,Craig Shemon andJames Washington were released from their duties.
Shemon and Washington's morning slot was replaced byDan Patrick, whileChris Myers' FSR show and Hartman's KLAC show were combined intoMyers and Hartman; Myers effectively replacedMychal Thompson (who was expected to leave the station at the end of the Laker season), and Vic "The Brick" Jacobs was reassigned to delivering brief sports updates. Siciliano and Fernandez's early evening show was replaced byPetros and Money, who would be carried on Fox Sports Radio between 2009 and 2014. KLAC initially dropped IntoThe Night with Tony Bruno to clearJT The Brick's existing FSR show, while Ben Maller's overnight show,The Third Shift, was canceled and replaced by a clip show entitledFox Sports Soup. JT The Brick's show replacedFox Sports Soup later in the year as the network assumed production ofInto The Night and rehired Maller for weekend duty.
Myers left "Myers and Hartman" in March 2010 to focus on his other duties withFox Sports, replaced byPat O'Brien as co-host of the resurrectedLoose Cannons, alongside Hartman and Jacobs.
In September 2014, the Dodgers announced the team would buy an equity stake in KLAC, co-owning the station with iHeartMedia.[12] The Dodgers wanted to be the principal sports franchise carried on the station, with advertising imaged around the team. Dodgers President Stan Kasten said, "We will be teaming up with the fantastic creative team at iHeartMedia on a number of projects and initiatives, to enhance our fans engagement."
On March 15, 2015, KLAC announced that it would drop its branding connected with Fox Sports Radio, changing to "AM 570 LA Sports", with a greater emphasis on Dodgers coverage, including a weeknight "Dodgers Talk" show all year round. The "LA" in KLAC's logo is derived from the Dodgers' cap insignia. Nevertheless, KLAC continued to carry some of the Fox Sports lineup such as Dan Patrick's morning show andColin Cowherd's midmorning show.[13] The change in ownership was consummated on August 5, 2016.
KLAC took over as the flagship station of theLos Angeles Clippers on March 16, 2016, following previous flagshipKFWB's sale and conversion to foreign-language programming mid-season. In case of a scheduling conflict with the Dodgers, the Clippers would be heard on KEIB.[14]
In 2017, KLAC and its sister stationKFI acquired the rights to theLos Angeles Chargers. The play by play would air on KFI, with team shows and special programming on KLAC.[15] In 2020, Chargers play-by-play would move toKYSR, also a KLAC sister station; KLAC would simulcast select games and continue to feature the Chargers during its programming.[16]