City Pasadena, California First air date 1942 | Slogan Your Music Your Way | |
Broadcast area Greater Los Angeles Area Branding Radio Disney Los Angeles Frequency 1110 kHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
KDIS (1110 AM) is a children's contemporary hit radio formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving the Greater Los Angeles Area. The station is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. The KDIS broadcast license is held by ABC Radio Los Angeles Assets, LLC.
Contents
KDIS was broadcast in the HD (hybrid) format until late 2014 when all Radio Disney affiliates were sold except for the Los Angeles station which returned to analogue transmissions. KDIS is still licensed for digital (HD) operation.
History
The station initially signed on as KPAS in 1942, a station featuring popular music. In 1945 they took the call sign KXLA, playing country music. On-air personalities included Tennessee Ernie Ford and Stan Freberg. The station originally broadcast from its El Monte transmitter site, near Santa Anita Ave and the Pomona, or "60" Freeway, in the vicinity of the Peck Road exit.
KRLA (1959-2000)
The station later became KRLA, "The Big 11-10", on September 1, 1959 and became one of the top radio stations in the Los Angeles area, competing with KFWB and later KHJ to be L.A.'s dominant top 40 station. The air personalities that made KRLA such a memorable station to Baby Boomers included Dave Hull (The Hullabalooer), Emperor Bob Hudson, Ted Quillin, Reb Foster, Jimmy Rabbitt, Casey Kasem, Bob Eubanks, Dick Biondi, Sam Riddle, Dick Moreland, Jimmy O'Neill, Wink Martindale, Johnny Hayes, and others too numerous to mention. In 1968, news director Lew Irwin created The Credibility Gap which broadcast topical comedy along with the news. In 1969, John Gilliland debuted the Pop Chronicles music documentary. The 1969 film The Model Shop features a radio newscast by Ralph Thompson, KRLA. During the 1960s, the KRLA studio was just off the parking lot of the old Huntington Sheraton Hotel on Oak Knoll in Pasadena, making it possible to drop by and watch the on-air DJ do his show. When the station switched to oldies, KRLA was noted for its prominence in Southern California Chicano culture. One of the highlights of this station was the "Big 11 Countdown Show" hosted by Johnny Hayes, with stories and facts about the songs and the artists, as well as the historical events that were going on at that time. The show also included a trivia question that Hayes asked for people to call in with their answer in order to win a prize. The show counted down the top 11 songs on the Southern Californian charts as well as a few extras. Some of the shows were a tribute to a rock legend or a producer.
The station evolved to an Adult contemporary format by 1982, and focused on Oldies by 1983. They dropped current music in 1984, electing to play the oldies of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
By 1994, KRLA leaned towards an Urban Oldies format.
On February 25, 1997, CBS announced that will trade WMMR in Philadelphia, and WOAZ and WBOS in Boston, in exchange of acquire Greater Media's KRLA and sister station KLSX, as part of its acquisition of the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation. The swap was completed on August 22.
KRLA abandoned music entirely in 1998, and went all talk. As a Talk radio station, KRLA featured many cast-offs from KABC, such as Michael Jackson and Ken Minyard.
KSPN (2000-2002)
In 2000, Infinity sold KRLA (alongside KRAK in Sacramento) to the Burbank-based Walt Disney Company due to ownership limits. On December 1st, the station became the ESPN Radio outlet for the Los Angeles market (as KSPN). Disney completed the acquisition on March 1st, 2001.
KDIS (2003-present)
AM 710 and 1110 swapped formats on January 1, 2003, with the sports format moving to 710, and Radio Disney moving to 1110 (a change made reportedly because the 1110 signal could not be heard in Orange County at night, when Anaheim Angels games are played).
Sometime in May 2014, Mediabase has moved KDIS to the Top 40/CHR panel. Although Radio Disney is still considered a Children's station.
On August 13, 2014, it was revealed that all of Radio Disney's remaining stations, excluding KDIS, were to be sold in an effort to focus more on digital distribution of the Radio Disney network. KDIS will be retained to serve as the originator of Radio Disney's programming, and its operations will be assumed by the network's national staff.
KDIS is now the only Radio Disney broadcast station. As of May 2016, Radio Disney is also heard on the HD2 channel of the CBS-owned classic hits station KRTH.
Transmitter
In 1987 KRLA moved its transmitter site from South El Monte to Irwindale, where a similar antenna array was installed. During the 1990s, KRLA was authorized to increase nighttime power from 10,000 to 20,000 watts. When the power increase went into effect, KRLA started broadcasting from a new transmitter site in Irwindale, California. This is a few miles north of the old El Monte site.
The El Monte transmitter building still stands as a shell. The entire inside is burned out, however there are still clues to its historic past, namely the first incarnation of its directional antenna arrays (four in-line 135 degree towers, one days, four nights), the second incarnation (four 135 degree towers in a parallelogram, days and a 90-, two 135-, and a 180-degree towers, nights), and the last incarnation, with seven total towers, four days and four nights, with one tower in common, days and nights). There are numerous ducts to keep the equipment cool and an underground channel to divert the cooling water for the transmitters. A well nearby supplied the water. Still visible is the wooden archway where the transmission cables gently bent toward underground conduits running to the transmission towers in the nearby field. All that remains of these towers are the concrete pylons, all aligned as described.
The present Irwindale site includes five 135 degree towers, two days and four nights, with one in common. The significantly northern location, relative to the old El Monte site, allows the large "Inland Empire" to be served with 50,000 watts and only two towers. not four, days, and the greater Los Angeles metro to be served with 20,000 watts and four towers, nights.
K256CX
K256CX is a construction permit for a broadcast translator that will be licensed in Beaumont, California, despite the station's transmitter will be located In Irwindale. It was acquired by Disney in 2017 with the intention of rebroadcast KDIS on 99.1 MHz.
History
The Federal Communications Commission granted an original construction permit on December 6, 2013 to build a FM translator (K293BZ, now K256CX) licensed in Beaumont, California, and located in the 106.5 MHz frequency, which would rebroadcast KWVE-FM in San Clemente.
On october 18, 2016, KDIS' licensee ABC Radio Los Angeles Assets agreed to acquire from the Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa the permit with the intention to rebroadcast the AM station for $45000. On November 8, the FCC, as part of the AM revitalization program, granted a modification to move the transmitter location to Irwindale (although the translator will maintain the Beaumont as it's license city) and change the frequency to the 99.1. The transaction was closed on February 7, 2017.