Broadcast area Santa Maria and Lompoc First air date December 15, 2005 ERP 2,450 watts | Frequency 89.7 MHz Format Public radio | |
City Santa Maria, California | ||
KCLM is a radio station on 89.7 MHz FM licensed to Santa Maria, California, serving the Santa Maria and Lompoc areas.
The FCC granted a construction permit to build the station in 2002. In June 2005, the station — at the time holding the call sign KHFR — received permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to start test broadcasts, and was officially licensed on December 15, 2005. The station was originally owned by Family Radio, a non-commercial and non-profit operation headed by Harold Camping. The station sold no airtime, as the few outside ministries that air on Family Radio are not charged to be on the air. Programming included traditional Christian music, along with conservative fundamentalist teaching and preaching.
On January 25, 2013, Family Radio filed an application with the FCC requesting authorization to sell KHFR and translator K209CE (licensed to San Luis Obispo, California) to California Lutheran University for $475,000. The plan was for the two stations to simulcast public radio station KCLU-FM, which is licensed to Thousand Oaks, California. On May 6, 2013, the station changed its call sign to the current KCLM, after the purchase was consummated.
KCLM's signal was modified to expand KCLU's programming from the Santa Ynez Valley to the Five Cities area, although the signal can be heard as far north as Morro Bay and Los Osos. KCLU moved translator K209CE to 92.1 in San Luis Obispo, to provide coverage to parts of the city where the primary 89.7 signal is blocked.