KMZT-FM
Encyclopedia
KKGO is a commercial radio station
located in Los Angeles, California
, broadcasting on 105.1 FM
. KKGO airs a country music
format, branded as "Go Country 105".
KKGO-FM was founded by Saul Levine and is still owned by his corporation, Mount Wilson Broadcasting
, and remains the only independently owned-and-operated FM radio station licensed to Los Angeles.
. In 1979, the station changed its callsign to KKGO. This was prompted by a court challenge from KABC
, according to one local podcaster. The station aired a traditional jazz
music format until 1989.
When cross-town KFAC
dropped classical music
in favor of a popular music format on September 20, 1989, KKGO adopted KFAC's displaced classical music format. The official switch from jazz to classical occurred on January 1, 1990, and began with selections from Franz Lehár
's operetta The Land of Smiles
. In 2000, the call letters were changed to KMZT to reflect on their rebranding as "K-Mozart". The KKGO call letters were then moved to AM 1260.
The station began broadcasting an HD Radio
digital signal in 2005, and Mount Wilson Broadcasting started multicasting the programming of its two AM stations, KKGO in Beverly Hills and XESURF
in the Tijuana, Mexico-San Diego
border area, on its HD2 signal, which then had an adult standards
format known as "Unforgettable 540 & 1260". While the AM signals combine to cover much of the Southern California
area, they were still weak, especially at night in the Orange County
area, and the FM HD2 simulcast helped boost the reach of the format.
s in the United States
and three of the top four without a full-time country music station. The New York
area hasn't had such a station since WYNY
signed off in 2003 and as of today is still without an outlet for the format. In the San Francisco Bay Area
, KZBR
also changed format in 2005, only to return to country as "The Wolf" after Entercom took over the station in March 2007. The other top-3 market, Chicago, is served by WUSN
.
At 5 a.m. February 26, 2007, in a surprise move announced only three days earlier, citing declining ad revenues for the classical format, Mt. Wilson Broadcasters flipped K-Mozart to country as "Go Country 105." Saul Levine swapped the formats and callsigns of FM 105.1 with AM 1260, bringing the country format and the KKGO calls back to FM, while the classical format and the KMZT calls were moved to AM, with the "K-Mozart" (XESURF continued to play country music, first simulcasting KKGO's format, but later splitting its programming from that of KKGO). After playing Mozart's "String Quartet no. 23 in F, K.590", Los Angeles was left once again without a commercial classical music station on the analog FM dial.
"Go Country 105" brought country music back to the FM dial after a six-month absence. This was a dream come true for the country music fans who had spent those six months writing letters, making phone calls, wearing "I Want My Country Music Back" shirts, handing out and wearing Save Country Music Ribbons, letting the broadcasters and many others know that there were many reasons that the country music genre would be a viable asset for an L.A. radio station.
The first song on the new KKGO was "Only in America
" by Brooks & Dunn
.
KKGO airs many of the on-air personalities from the former KZLA, along with some programs from Westwood One
, United Stations Radio Networks
and Dial Global
's "Mainstream Country" 24-hour network.
On May 31, 2009, the classical format returned to KKGO 105.1 HD2.
airing a country music
format. It features local programming for New York
listeners along with California
's KKGO based signature music mix. The station was founded by Saul Levine who has been working since 2009 to return the country music format to the Greater New York City market.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
located in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, broadcasting on 105.1 FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
. KKGO airs a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
format, branded as "Go Country 105".
KKGO-FM was founded by Saul Levine and is still owned by his corporation, Mount Wilson Broadcasting
Mount Wilson Broadcasting
Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters, Inc., a subsidiary of Mt. Wilson Broadcasting Inc., is a Los Angeles-based company owned by Saul Levine. Levine is the only independent operator of an FM commercial radio station in Los Angeles today....
, and remains the only independently owned-and-operated FM radio station licensed to Los Angeles.
KBCA/Classical 105.1/K-Mozart
Saul Levine launched the station at 105.1 in February 1959 as KBCA, and was one of the first FM stations to broadcast from Mount WilsonMount Wilson
Mount Wilson can refer to several things:* Mount Wilson ** Mount Wilson Observatory* Mount Wilson, New South Wales, a mountain with a small hamlet in Australia* One of a list of peaks named Mount Wilson...
. In 1979, the station changed its callsign to KKGO. This was prompted by a court challenge from KABC
KABC (AM)
KABC is a Los Angeles radio station, and a West Coast flagship station for the Cumulus Media company. A pioneer of the talk radio format, the station went "all-talk" in 1960 and was one of the first stations to do so...
, according to one local podcaster. The station aired a traditional jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
music format until 1989.
When cross-town KFAC
KFAC
KFAC was a commercial classical music radio station in Los Angeles, broadcasting for most of its life on 1330 kHz AM, and subsequently in both simulcast and separate programming on 92.3 MHz FM as well. "Only 41 of nearly 9,000 commercial radio stations in the United States play classical music" and...
dropped classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
in favor of a popular music format on September 20, 1989, KKGO adopted KFAC's displaced classical music format. The official switch from jazz to classical occurred on January 1, 1990, and began with selections from Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
's operetta The Land of Smiles
The Land of Smiles
The Land of Smiles is a romantic operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The German language libretto was by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner. The performance time is about 100 minutes....
. In 2000, the call letters were changed to KMZT to reflect on their rebranding as "K-Mozart". The KKGO call letters were then moved to AM 1260.
The station began broadcasting an HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
digital signal in 2005, and Mount Wilson Broadcasting started multicasting the programming of its two AM stations, KKGO in Beverly Hills and XESURF
XESURF
XESURF-AM is a Mexican-licensed radio station. The transmitter site is located near Tijuana, Baja California. The AM station is operated by Zion Multimedia Inc. located in Downey, California, United States. The station is owned by a company in Mexico and Zion Multimedia has the programming...
in the Tijuana, Mexico-San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
border area, on its HD2 signal, which then had an adult standards
Adult standards
Adult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...
format known as "Unforgettable 540 & 1260". While the AM signals combine to cover much of the Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
area, they were still weak, especially at night in the Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
area, and the FM HD2 simulcast helped boost the reach of the format.
Go Country 105
When longtime country station KZLA flipped formats in August 2006, it left the two largest media marketMedia market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
s in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and three of the top four without a full-time country music station. The New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
area hasn't had such a station since WYNY
WXPK
WXPK, , is an adult album alternative rock radio station in White Plains, New York. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and transmits from a tower in the Westchester County Correctional Facility with an ERP of 1.9 KW.-History:...
signed off in 2003 and as of today is still without an outlet for the format. In the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
, KZBR
KGMZ
KKOL-FM is an oldies music formatted radio station serving Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. The Salem Communications outlet broadcasts at 107.9 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW and is licensed to Aiea, Hawaii.-History:...
also changed format in 2005, only to return to country as "The Wolf" after Entercom took over the station in March 2007. The other top-3 market, Chicago, is served by WUSN
WUSN
WUSN is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, The station broadcasts on 99.5 MHz and is a country radio station owned by CBS Radio. The station focuses on country music from the '90s, along with current product and some classic country from the '70s and '80s.-99.5 WEFM/99-"We" FM:Until 1978,...
.
At 5 a.m. February 26, 2007, in a surprise move announced only three days earlier, citing declining ad revenues for the classical format, Mt. Wilson Broadcasters flipped K-Mozart to country as "Go Country 105." Saul Levine swapped the formats and callsigns of FM 105.1 with AM 1260, bringing the country format and the KKGO calls back to FM, while the classical format and the KMZT calls were moved to AM, with the "K-Mozart" (XESURF continued to play country music, first simulcasting KKGO's format, but later splitting its programming from that of KKGO). After playing Mozart's "String Quartet no. 23 in F, K.590", Los Angeles was left once again without a commercial classical music station on the analog FM dial.
"Go Country 105" brought country music back to the FM dial after a six-month absence. This was a dream come true for the country music fans who had spent those six months writing letters, making phone calls, wearing "I Want My Country Music Back" shirts, handing out and wearing Save Country Music Ribbons, letting the broadcasters and many others know that there were many reasons that the country music genre would be a viable asset for an L.A. radio station.
The first song on the new KKGO was "Only in America
Only in America (song)
"Only in America" is the title of a song recorded by the American country music duo Brooks & Dunn on their 2001 album Steers & Stripes. Kix Brooks, one-half of the duo, co-wrote the song with Don Cook and Ronnie Rogers, although it features Ronnie Dunn on lead vocals...
" by Brooks & Dunn
Brooks & Dunn
Brooks & Dunn was an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, who were both vocalists and songwriters. They were paired by record producer Tim DuBois in 1990. Before the duo's foundation, both members of the duo were solo recording artists...
.
KKGO airs many of the on-air personalities from the former KZLA, along with some programs from Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
, United Stations Radio Networks
United Stations Radio Networks
United Stations Radio Networks is a radio network providing a wide range of programs and programming services for radio stations across the US and elsewhere...
and Dial Global
Dial Global
Dial Global is a radio syndication company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group and is a sister company to Townsquare Media, both of which are owned by Oaktree Capital Management....
's "Mainstream Country" 24-hour network.
On May 31, 2009, the classical format returned to KKGO 105.1 HD2.
On-Air Staff
The current lineup (as of May 1, 2011) is as follows- Morning Show: Ryan Fox, Ashley Paige
- Mid-Days: Shawn Parr
- Afternoon Drive: Paul Freeman
- Nighttime: Ginny Harman
- Friday Nights: The Road - Ginny Harman
- Weekends/Fill-ins: Laurie Allen, Jason Burns, Gary Campbell, Ashley Paige and Zack Taylor
Go Country NY
Go Country NY is a web based radio stationRadio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
airing a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
format. It features local programming for New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
listeners along with California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
's KKGO based signature music mix. The station was founded by Saul Levine who has been working since 2009 to return the country music format to the Greater New York City market.
On-Air Staff
The current lineup (as of August 5, 2010) is as follows.- Morning: Ginny Harman
- Mid-Days: Ashley Paige
- Afternoon Drive: Mike Johnson
External links
- Official website
- Countryboards.com, Country Music Message board set up as a command center for fans to get country music back on FM radio after losing KZLA.
- "Johnny Cash Would Have Been Proud -- KKGO 105.1 Flips Over to Country", Press Release Regarding Country Music Returning to FM Radio in Los Angeles.
- "Levine’s KKGO/KMZT Embrace HD Radio", RWOnline, Radio World Newspaper, May 23, 2007