KVTO

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KVTO
City of license Berkeley, California
Broadcast area San Francisco area
Branding The Voice of the Orient
Frequency 1400 kHz
Format World Ethnic
Audience share 0.6, #34 (Fa'07, R&R[1])
ERP 1,000 watts
Class C
Facility ID 28681
Transmitter Coordinates 37°50′58.00″N 122°17′44.00″W / 37.8494444, -122.2955556
Former callsigns KBLX (1986-1989)
KBFN (1989-1986)
KBLX (1986-1989)
Owner Urban Radio Iii, L.L.C.

KVTO (1400 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a World Ethnic format. Licensed to Berkeley, California, USA, the station serves the San Francisco area. The station is currently owned by Urban Radio Iii, L.L.C..[2]

Prior to the late 1990's when KVTO was launched, the 1400 AM frequency was a simulcast of KBLX 102.9 FM, which is now a sister station of KVTO as both are owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.

The station began in Berkeley in 1922 as KRE. Later, programming was simulcast on KFE-FM, and there were occasional AM-FM stereo broadcasts, including some classical music programming. KRE's call letters changed to KPAT in 1963, then back to KRE in 1972. The call letters KBLX were adopted in 1986, then changed to KBFN in 1989 and back to KBLX in 1990. The current call letters, KVTO, were adopted in 1994.[3]

The Maxwell Electric Company put KRE on the air on March 11, 1922, with studios and transmitter at the Claremont Resort Hotel. In May of that year, KRE was sold to the Berkeley Daily Gazette. It was bought in January 1927 by the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, which moved the studios and built a new transmitter. In January 1930, the Chapel of the Chimes (an Oakland funeral home) bought KRE. Ownership passed in December 1936 to Central California Broadcassters, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chapel of the Chimes. New studios and transmitter were built at 601 Ashby Avenue from 1937 to 1938. KRE-FM went on the air on February 14, 1949, with a transmitter on Round Hill Mountain, which was moved to the Ashby Avenue site in 1950. In March 1963, KRE was taken over by the Wright Broadcasting Company of Patterson, New Jersey.[4]


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