City Delano, California Frequency 1010 KHz | Slogan La Que Toca Exitos First air date December 1951 | |
Broadcast area Bakersfield, California Branding El Gallito 92.1 FM & 1010 AM | ||
KCHJ (1010 AM "El Gallito 1010") is a radio station that broadcasts a ranchera and Norteño oldies format to the Bakersfield, California, area. Licensed to Delano, California, the station is currently owned by Lotus Bakersfield Corporation.
History
KCHJ was an outlet for Country Western music in the 1960s and 1970s. It was owned by Charles H. Johnes (pronounced Jones) hence the call letters KCHJ. It was a clear channel station so it had listeners over a large geographical area in Central California, as Mr. "Jones" was fond of pointing out on the air. He was one of the disk jockeys, using the name Gable Herman.
In the early 1960s the station featured an evening program known as "Freeway 99" (California's Freeway 99 ran right through the City of Delano). The Freeway 99 Show, hosted by Gable, featured music from the Easy Listening, Big Band, and Jazz genres such as Bert Kaempfert's "Wonderland by Night."
Charles was a pilot before he died. He died in an auto accident in 1968, and from 1968 until the station was sold in 1991, it was operated and managed by his widow, Jean Johnes. She died in 2009 at the age of 94. Tapes of his program were broadcast on the radio station for many years after he died. Other popular disk jockeys were Bill Lambert, Cousin Rich Allison, Gilbert Oeste, and Todd Welch, better known (as " DJ Sir T). KCHJ Debut Disco, Funk , Soul & R&B And Then Rap Music" Was In Late 1978 Dan Bigelow And local Record Store Owner Rueben Mendoza Jr Of Centro Musical. Todd Welch aka DJ Sir T joined The station in January 1979 at the age of 13. He was the youngest Program Director/ Music Director in the world at that time. Sir T is also credited as the first Radio PD, DJ / MD To play the very first recorded Rap song on the radio in March 1979 off the Fatback Band XII Album King Tim III and the very 1st Radio Programmer to incorporate Rap, Soul, Funk, Disco And R&B into Radio Rotation. The station played Country Music all day and It switched to R&B, Rap, Disco, Soul & Funk at night. From 7pm til 11pm sometimes Midnight. The signal covered 14 Counties in California Mr. Oeste broadcast a popular Spanish language program and there was also a program called Filipino Ling Ling Dai broadcast in Tagalog and other Filipino languages. There was a studio at the station which was located north west of Delano. A live program called "The Barn Dance" was broadcast on weekends and the public was invited to visit during the show.
The station was sold in 1991 and became a Spanish-language outlet.
In 2000, KCHJ adopted the "El Gallito" format of classic ranchera and Norteño hits.