Travel 150 miles from the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, Calif., up Highway 14, and you’ll reach the quirky High Desert community of Ridgecrest, a gateway to Death Valley and famed petroglyph canyons as well as China Lake Naval Weapons Center.
Television stations available to locals are based in Los Angeles, and several L.A.-area radio stations including KCRW, the tastemaker NPR Member station based at Santa Monica College, have long used FM translators to serve Ridgecrest and China Lake.
Yet, there’s also a local radio broadcasting company with multiple stations, and ownership of it has been passed to the sole owner’s widow, following the November 2022 passing of Bob Adelman.
Adelman died on November 16 at the age of 73 of respiratory failure; he had been suffering from metastatic lung cancer.
As the owner of Adelman Broadcasting, Bob Adelman served the High Desert and the area surrounding Edwards Air Force Base, adjacent to Lancaster-Palmdale, with a group of stations comprised of KGBB-FM 103.9 “BOB FM” in Edwards (using 94.3 MHz to reach China Lake via K232AM); CBS Sports Radio affiliate KLOA-AM 1240, Adult Contemporary KZIQ-FM 92.7 “Qlite,” Country Gold KWDJ-AM 1360 and regional Mexican KEPD-FM 104.9 “KePadre” in Ridgecrest; and Country KGIL-FM 98.5 and rhythmic adult contemporary KRAJ-FM “100.9 The Heat,” licensed to the “ghost town” of Johannesburg, Calif.; and serving Ridgecrest.
Adelman Broadcasting also owns an FM pair serving coastal San Luis Obispo County cities including Cambria, Morro Bay and Cayucos — KCJZ-FM 105.3 “BOB FM” and Soft Classic Hits KTEA-FM 103.5.
The nine radio stations, inclusive of all FM translators, have been involuntarily transferred to Bob’s wife, Christine Adelman. She is the executor of Bob Adelman’s estate.
While an FCC filing notes the transfer of control of KWTY-FM in Cartago, Calif., the station’s license was cancelled and its call letters have been deleted by the FCC, pursuant to an October 2015 action.
With the stations now in Christine Adelman’s control, she will now decide whether to keep them or shop them. In Ridgecrest, local competition includes KSSI “I-Rock”; and KZFX Digital Media, owner of wide-ranging Rocker “Z93.7” and home to former Los Angeles radio personality Jim “Poorman” Trenton in morning drive.
In Ridgecrest, some 230 miles to Las Vegas, Nevada Public Radio also has a presence, with a KNPR translator at 88.1 MHz and a KCNV translator at 107.1 MHz, while jazz programming originating from KVNV in Reno, Nev., airs on an FM translator at 96.7 MHz.
