City Glendale, California Branding ZonaMx 101.9 | Broadcast area Greater Los Angeles First air date March 22, 1952 | |
Frequency 101.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) Format Regional Mexican
HD2: Spanish Oldies | ||
KSCA is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Los Angeles, California, area on 101.9 FM. The station has studios located on Center Drive (near I-405) in West Los Angeles. As of 2007 KSCA is the most listened to radio station in the Los Angeles Metro Area.
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KSCA airs a Regional Mexican music format branded as "LA 101.9", and broadcasts in the HD Radio format.
History
The station first went on the air March 22, 1952 as KUTE, making it one of Los Angeles' first FM radio stations, originally programming a "good music" format from studios in downtown Los Angeles and transmitter atop Flint Peak, just west of the Rose Bowl in nearby Pasadena.
In 1972, KUTE was sold to Progress Radio Network (which changed its name to Tracy Broadcasting one year later) and changed hands again in 1979 to Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.
Under Inner City's ownership, KUTE became one of the original stations in the United States to launch a format that would later be called Urban contemporary, playing the latest Funk, R&B and New wave music, featuring local DJs such as "Humble Harve", Brian Roberts and "Lucky Pierre." KUTE 102 was also the starting point for many successful radio careers, including veteran PD Rick Thomas, who was hired in 1982 to do weekends on air by then PD Lucky Pierre. During this time, mornings were hosted by Brian Roberts, afternoon drive by Charlie Fox and evenings with Joe Greene. Weekends also featured Ed Mann, Buster Jones, Scott Lockwood and Strawberry Jan Marie. At 2:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings, KUTE 102 would host an hour of disco/dance mixes, usually pre-mixed vinyl albums specially created for DJs. KUTE 102 was one of the first radio stations to air a "mega-mix" when the "Michael Jackson Mega-Mix" debuted in the summer of 1983, hot on the heels of the enormous success of Jackson's Thriller album earlier in the year. DJ Mario Flores later hosted a disco dance DJ 12" specialty show Sunday mornings from 2:00 am to 3:00 am featuring 15-minute disco mixes, mixed by well known DJ's around the U.S. The mixes changed in 1983 when electro funk began to dominate the station.
KUTE was very successful in this format until in late 1983, when it became a template for Urban Adult Contemporary stations today, changing its format to what is now called "The Quiet Storm" format. KUTE 102's Urban Adult Contemporary format would last until 1987, when the station was sold to Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasting, who would later replace it with an eclectic Rock format.
In 1987, it changed call letters to KMPC-FM and played "Full Spectrum Rock", a mixture of classic rock, adult album alternative and progressive rock radio . Many of the DJs who were let go from the defunct KMET that same year could be heard again on this radio station, including Paraquat Kelley, Cynthia Foxx and Jim Ladd. J.J. Jackson, veteran of KLOS throughout the 1970s, and one of the original MTV VJs in the early 1980s, was program director at this time. In March 1989, KMPC became "The Edge", and later changed its call letters to KEDG and played the same format until May 13, 1989, when the station became KLIT and adopted a soft AC format.
On July 1, 1994, at 5PM, KLIT switched to an adult album alternative ("AAA") format as "FM 101.9" (featuring the Dr. Demento show in afternoons). The call-sign switched to KSCA on September 1, 1994 upon FCC approval. It was known as "Southern California's Album Alternative" and later morphed into "LA's Finest Rock". Mike Morrison joined as Program Director from WXPN/Philadelphia. Nicole Sandler, formerly with KLOS and The Mark & Brian Show, joined for middays. The station later hired Chuck Moshontz, also from KLOS and paired him with Nicole to do mornings. After the first year, Nicole Sandler was promoted to Music Director. Others on the staff included Mimi Chen, Rich Guzman, Terry Gladstone, Anita Gevinson and Merilee Kelly. The KSCA Music Hall hosted live performances by dozens of artists who had their debuts there, and went on to superstardom, including the Dave Matthews Band. This format lasted until Midnight on February 4, 1997, after new owners bought it and made it the Spanish-language station that it is today. The last song on FM 101.9 was "Her Majesty" by The Beatles, which was preceded by a brief monologue from general manager of KSCA, Bill Ward.
When the station was sold to Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (now Univision Radio) in 1997, it was the last station owned by Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasters.
KSCA's morning host, "Piolín" Sotelo, co-sponsored the massive immigration rally in Los Angeles on March 25, 2006, along with other local radio personalities like KLAX's "El Cucuy" Renán Almendaríz .
Programming
Other stations in the market have other primary interests; KLAX-FM has their regional Mexican format, and KBUE does not cover the market in full (KBUE/KBUA/KEBN/KRQB broadcasts from four separate Class A transmitters in Long Beach, San Fernando, Garden Grove and San Jacinto that are limited in signal range vs KSCA's Class B).
KSCA launched a Spanish Oldies HD2 subcarrier channel called Recuerdo.
On September 16, 2011 KSCA rebranded from "La Nueva 101.9" to "LA 101.9".