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KLOS Los Angeles Radio History
by Alex Cosper

see also American Radio History

Introduction 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s


Los Angeles Radio History


STATION HISTORY: KABC KBBQ KBIG KBLA KDAY KEZY KFAC KFOX KFWB KGBS KGFJ KGIL KHJ KIEV KIIS KIQQ KKBT KKDJ KLAC KLOS KLSX KMET KMPC KNAC KNX KOST KPOL KPPC KPWR KQLZ KRLA KROQ KRTH KSRF KTNQ KTWV KUTE KWST KZLA XPRS

KLOS has been one of the best known rock stations in America since the early seventies. The original station at 95.5 FM was KECA FM from 1947 to 1954. Both KECA FM and sister AM station 790 KECA were owned by ABC. The station became KABC FM in 1954. The station went all-talk in 1960, then experimented with an all-news format on January 1, 1968. KABC ironically gave up on the all-news concept and flipped to progressive rock on March 11, 1968. As a taped nationally syndicated format known as "Love" using voice tracks, the station did not have much impact.

In 1971 the station took on the new call letters KLOS. The freeform era of KLOS ended in the fall of 1971 when program director Tom Yates launched the nation's first "Album-Oriented Rock" format. The format was based on the most popular tracks from top selling rock albums, as KLOS billed the station as "Rock 'N Stereo." Yates told Playlist Research on January 31, 2018, "All the ABC stations had gone from being simulcasts or beautiful music stations to other formats. It changed to KLOS three months before I got there. I came in as the morning man. There were some shakeups and that's how I became PD."

Alan Shaw, who went on to become president of ABC, wanted to bring structure to the rock format. The AOR concept paid off, as KLOS entered the top ten in the Arbitron ratings for the first time in 1972. By that point it was the top FM rock station in the LA ratings and within a year it was top five overall in the market.

"Epic times" is what Yates called it. Asked what some of the key highlights of the era were for him, Yates said "the big one was when we beat KHJ in the ratings. And the other one was when Billboard gave KLOS the Radio Station of the Year award." That award came in 1976. Yates went on to program L.A. classic rock station KLSX from 1987 to 1990, when he decided to purchase Northern California station KOZT in Mendocino County, a station at 95.3 and 95.9 known as "The Coast FM."

By beating KHJ in the ratings, KLOS became the first FM station to take the market crown from an AM top 40 station. The key was that Yates developed programming that had value to both listeners and sponsors. The station's main competitor was KMET, which eventually caught up with KLOS in the ratings.

The station became involved with promoting one of the biggest concert festivals of all time in 1974 called California Jam at Ontario Motor Speedway. Yates was involved with the second California Jam in March 1978 as a consultant for KMET. The show attracted over 350,000 people.

The Mark & Brian Show featuring Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps began in the fall of 1987 under program director Charlie West. By the late eighties it was a top five station in Los Angeles. After West left in early 1989, Stephanie Mondello moved up from music director to program director. The station briefly moved away from its classic rock roots in the nineties to play more of the Seattle and alternative sounds that had infiltrated rock. By the late nineties KLOS returned to its core sound of established rock artists under program direction John Duncan, who arrived in 1997, but only stayed for about a year.

Ownership of KLOS switched to Citadel Broadcasting in 2007 following its merger with ABC Radio, owned by Disney. Cumulus Media acquired Citadel on September 16, 2011. Mark Thompson retired from radio on August 17, 2012 following an official announcement a few months earlier. Brian Phelps then announced he was leaving the station, as the Mark & Brian show was replaced by former KLSX and KABC hosts Heidi Hamilton and Frank Kramer.

KLOS Personnel

1970-1971 Elliot Mintz
1971-1971 Don Lennox
1971-1978 Tom Yates
1971-1980 J.J. Jackson
1972-1972 Paul Cassidy
1972-1972 Dick Lyons
1972-1972 Marshall Phillips
1972-1973 Joe Ortiz
1972-1976 Jeff Gonzer
1972-1977 Jerry Longden
1972-1983 Jerry Barber
1973-1996 Bill Sommers
1973-1985 Ruth Pinedo
1973-1974 Shauna (Zurbrugg)
1974-1977 William Shearer
1975-1983 Lee Larsen
1977-1977 Billy Juggs
1977-1979 Frank Cody
1977-1981 Joe Reiling, also 2003-2009
1977-1987 Michael Benner
1977-1978 Bob Griffith
1977-1998 Steven G. Smith
1978-1981 Terry Gladstone, also 2004-2009
1981-1981 Dusty Street
1979-1980 Jane Platt
1979-1979 China Smith
1979-1981 David Chaney
1979-1980 Jack Popejoy
1979-1984 Frazer Smith, also 1997, 2014-xxxx
1979-2005 Al Ramirez
1979-1981 B. Mitchell Reed
1980-1981 David Heller
1980-1981 Anita Gevinson
1980-1984 Bruce Coburn
1980-1985 Tommy Hadges
1980-1986 Shana (LaVigni)
1981-1981 John Sebastian
1981-1994 Uncle Joe Benson
1981-1983 Dan Carlisle, also 2004-2005
1983-1988 Frank DeSantis
1984-1994 Geno Michellini, also 1999-2003
1984-1985 Jack Snyder
1985-2012 Frank Sontag
1986-1990 Lynda Clayton
1986-1986 Raechel Donahue
1987-1989 Thrasher
1987-2012 Mark Thompson
1990-1994 Nicole Sanders
1993-1994 Grease Man
1994-2015 Stew Herrera
1994-1997 Kenny Sargent
1995-1995 Gary Poole
1996-1999 Frank Murphy
1997-2002 Mark Miller
2015-xxxx Lisa May


Introduction 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s


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