Broadcast area Greater Los Angeles Frequency 97.9 (MHz) | Branding 97.9 La Raza Format Regional Mexican | |
City East Los Angeles, California Audience share 1.9 (January 2017, Nielsen Audio[1]) | ||
KLAX-FM (97.9 FM, "La Raza") is an American commercial radio station located in East Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KLAX-FM airs a regional Mexican music format branded as "La Raza". The station has studios in the Century City district of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is based in Glendale.
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History
From 1983 to 1992, this station was known as "Super KQ", with the call sign KSKQ, and played Spanish-language hit music. For about two decades before that, this was KNOB, which played beautiful music and adult contemporary formats. KNOB's studios and offices were in Long Beach, California, which was then its city of license.
In 1992, under the direction of general manager Alfredo Rodriguez, KSKQ was turned into a Banda music station KLAX, simply called "La Equis," the station became the first Spanish-language station in Los Angeles to become the most-listened-to station in the market.
In 1997 KLAX-FM moved its city of license from Long Beach to East Los Angeles. In 2002, KLAX dropped the contemporary hits and went to a more focused regional format as "La Raza 97.9." In March 2017, KLAX began carrying the morning show hosted by Terry "El Terrible" Cortez, Kristel Yañez and Johnny Orta on WLEY, "La Ley 107.9" in Chicago. The program also airs on KRZZ in San Francisco. Before joining KRZZ in 2014, Cortez and Yañez had been part of Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo's syndicated morning show for 12 years.
Immigration debate
Renán "El Cucuy" Almendárez Coello, the station's morning show host, helped coordinate a demonstration held on the streets of downtown Los Angeles on March 25, 2006. The event drew an estimated 500,000 participants and was a springboard to further similar events held throughout the United States. The protesters marched in opposition to H.R. 4437, a proposal Congressional law that would theoretically make illegal immigration to the U.S. more difficult. Coello received attention in various media following the original protests, including an appearance on Tom Leykis' English-language radio talk show.