KMPC
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| KMPC | |
 |
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| City of license | Los Angeles, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Los Angeles |
| Branding | Radio Korea |
| Frequency | 1540 (kHz) |
| First air date | 1952 |
| Format | Korean programming |
| ERP | 50,000 watts (Day) 37,000 watts (Night) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 61647 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Callsign meaning | McMillan Petroleum Company (former owner) |
| Former callsigns | KPOL (1952-1981) KZLA (1981-1984) KSKQ (1984-1992) KXED (1992-1996) KXMG (1996-1997) KCTD (1997-2000) |
| Owner | P&Y Broadcasting Licensee, LLC |
| Website | www.radiokorea.com |
KMPC (Radio Korea, 라디오코리아) is a radio station based in Los Angeles, California that airs Radio Korea programming. It broadcasts news, information, and entertainment for the largest Korean community in the United States.
KMPC is one of three radio stations in L.A. that broadcast entirely in Korean; the others are KYPA and KFOX.
Contents |
[edit] KMPC 1540 history
KMPC began airing Radio Korea programming on May 1, 2007; before that, it was an owned-and-operated affiliate of Sporting News Radio as an all-sports station. However, some of the network's daily programming did not air on the station, except in certain situations.
It covered San Diego Chargers football (one of two flagship stations for the Chargers Radio Network; the other being KIOZ in San Diego), and selected Westwood One sports programming not carried by CBS Radio's KFWB-AM and KLSX-FM. Among the broadcasts that KMPC carried from Westwood One, they included NCAA basketball, PGA Tour golf tournament updates (mostly those covered from CBS Sports television), The Masters Tournament, NFL football (including Monday Night Football on occasion), and more.
In 2006, KMPC lost the broadcast rights to USC basketball and football to rival KSPN-AM, and in response, the station acquired the local broadcast rights of the University of Notre Dame's football games from Westwood One. The station also stopped covering NASCAR races after having done so for several years.
Among the station's regular talk-show hosts included Tony Bruno, who began his morning show in April 2005 following the departure of Roger Lodge; long-time local sports talk host Dave Smith (whose show became part of Sporting News Radio in June 2006), and a late-afternoon show hosted by former USC football player Petros Papadakis.
A new addition to KMPC was former Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter, who filled in for Roggin on an early-June 2005 broadcast.
Roger Nadel, former GM of all-news KFWB in Los Angeles, was the station's VP/GM and Program Director.
In June 2006, former afternoon host and current KNBC-TV sports director Fred Roggin left the station and a new program, the Atlanta-based 2 Live Stews, took his place. Roggin's departure (due to increased commitments to KNBC and NBC Sports) triggered a shift in the station's daily programming lineup, which had Smith and Papadakis switch dayparts, which in turn accommodated the Los Angeles debut of the 2 Live Stews.
On September 5, 2006, KMPC's parent company was sold to American City Business Journals for an undisclosed price, along with similarly-formatted stations in New York City, Chicago, and Boston, Sporting News Radio, and The Sporting News magazine.
In 2007, before the station's sale to Radio Korea, there were no local shows on the station. Bob Keisser of the Long Beach Press-Telegram said that KMPC is "on life support." (Page B2, December 29, 2006 issue).
On March 30, 2007, AllAccess.com, an online news service covering the radio and music industries, reported that AmCity had decided to sell the station to P&Y Broadcasting, doing business as Radio Korea Media Group. Again, the price was not revealed.
[edit] Dispersal of former programming
- The Chargers' new local affiliate in the Los Angeles area is KSPN. Some early season games were not available in 2007 due to that station's continuing coverage of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Major League Baseball postseason. However, all games in the 2008 season will be on KSPN, as the Angels have shifted their coverage to KLAA.
- Westwood One's NCAA tournament games will also be on KSPN, effective with the 2008 event. However, if the USC Trojans make the tournament field, its local flagship coverage will replace the national feed.
- NFL games are carried locally on KLAC on Sunday afternoons and KLAA on Monday nights. Thursday and Saturday games aired on both KLAC and KTLK in 2007 depending on KLAC's schedule. KABC, which aired Sunday night games in 2007, has become the Los Angeles Dodgers' flagship station, so whether KABC will carry a partial schedule in 2008 is not known. Alternately, Westwood One could switch affiliations for an entire season's worth of games.
- No new local affiliate has been found for Irish football or the Masters golf tournament.
- Roggin and Papadakis joined the lineup of KLAC, in morning drive and afternoon drive respectively. Roggin and co-hosts T.J. Simers and Tracie Simers were removed in October 2007 in favor of Dan Patrick. Papadakis remains on KLAC.
- Neither Bruno, the 2 Live Stews, nor Sporting News Radio are available in the L.A. area. Some SNR shows are available via satellite on XM Sports Nation.
[edit] Before KMPC
The history of AM1540 goes back to its days as KPOL. It aired a wide variety of formats until the early 1980s. KPOL also advertised on the 1959 television series Home Run Derby.
Throughout the 1980s and much of the 1990s, this frequency broadcast in Spanish, first as KXEZ then as KXMG "Mega 1540." In 1999, One on One Sports Inc. of Northbrook, Illinois purchased the station and converted it to sports radio. It was part of the sale to Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures in 2001.
[edit] KMPC-710
Prior to November 21, 1997 the call letters KMPC were assigned on AM-710, and it was at one time one of the top AM radio stations in Southern California. In the 1960s and 70s, it used the moniker "The Station of the Stars" and featured a number of notable DJs, including Dick Whittinghill, Robert W. Morgan, Bob Arbogast, Geoff Edwards, Ira Cook, Roger Carroll, Wink Martindale, Jim Lange, Gary Owens, Johnny Magnus, Kathy Gori, and Sonny Melendrez.
A powerhouse in local sports reporting, KMPC-710 broadcast Los Angeles Rams, California Angels, and UCLA football games. Some of the notable sports announcers were Fred Hessler, Don Wells, Bob Starr,Jim Healy, Dave Niehaus, Dick Enberg and Joe Torre.
KMPC-710 was also noted for its extensive use of field reporters and news/traffic aircraft. It was also the first station to issue Sigalert traffic alerts.
At one time, KMPC was owned by the famous singing cowboy Gene Autry.
KMPC appeared fictionally in the Steven Spielberg movie "1941" (see 1941 (film), the dance contest broadcast), and in That Thing You Do (brief interview).
Image: Brown Derby Restaurant, Geoff Edwards KMPC-710 Billboard
[edit] External links
- Radio Korea Website (Korean)
- Tony Bruno Show
- KMPC-710 Tribute Site
- Query the FCC's AM station database for KMPC
- Radio Locator Information on KMPC
- Aerial photo of KMPC transmitter from Google Local
