For decades, it was the original home of KRLA, known for its Top 40 format and its role as a champion for Chicano artists and R&B selections thanks to the influence of the late Art Laboe, who co-owned the station along with Bob Hope in the 1970s. It would later come under Greater Media ownership, and then CBS Radio. In 2000, thanks to Infinity Broadcasting’s merger with CBS, then-head Mel Karmazin signed off on a deal that would send this Class B AM with a signal covering all of Southern California to The Walt Disney Company.
Now, after three different format presentations under Disney — and the divestment of every one of its other radio properties — the station at 1110 kHz licensed to Pasadena, Calif., is being spun.
Who’s the buyer? It is a religious broadcaster adding the property to complement its longtime FM at 107.9 MHz in Orange County, Calif.
For $5 million, KRDC-AM 1110 is being sold by Disney to Calvary Costa Mesa, owner of KWVE-FM in San Clemente, Calif. A 10% deposit is being held at Citibank N.A. as an escrow payment.
KRDC uses 2 towers, from its famed Irwindale, Calif., site adjacent to a popular speedway with directional 50kw patterns; RBR+TVBR‘s initial coverage of this story provided outdated transmission information for KRDC. It has been there since 1987. And, it also has a very small FM translator — K256CX at 99.1 MHz, which puts a signal over Arcadia and Sierra Madre in order to avoid interference with KGGI in Riverside.
The selling party is officially “ABC RADIO LOS ANGELES ASSETS, LLC,” with Assistant Secretary John Zucker signing off on the sale.
Greg Guy of Patrick Communications served as the seller’s broker, while RBR+TVBR has learned that Rob Branch is representing Calvary in this transaction.
TWENTY-THREE YEARS UNDER DISNEY
From September 1, 1959 through the “Boss Radio” era, KRLA was a strong player in the L.A. pop music scene, outlasting its first big competitor KFWB “Channel 98” and “93 KHJ” thanks to Laboe’s local music savvy. But, by 1983, a shift to “Good Time Oldies” came for KRLA, which by the mid-1990s started to see its audience erode thanks to the growth of both KODJ “Oldies 93” and KRTH “K-Earth 101” on the FM dial.
On November 30, 1998, under CBS Radio, Talk programming fully replaced the music KRLA had been known for. Then came the November 2000 sale of KRLA, along with KRAK-AM 1470 in Sacramento, to ABC Radio for $68.31 million.
According to archived documentation surrounding the purchase, KRLA’s value was $65 million. Twenty-three years later, KRLA’s value is $60 million less, given the sale price agreed upon.
That said, since ABC’s purchase the facility has been home to ESPN Radio Los Angeles (KSPN). That format’s success led to a swap of formats with ABC Radio’s property at 710 kHz. As such, the 1110 kHz signal became KDIS, and the Los Angeles flagship for “Radio Disney,” the Top 40 pre-teen format that lasted as an over-the-air offering until the mid-2010s. In June 2017, KDIS became KRDC, adopting the “Radio Disney Country” identity and a Country format that was kid-friendly.
The end of 2020, however, “Radio Disney Country” ended its run; a switch back to Radio Disney, now digitally distributed across the U.S., was made. Since April 2021, KRDC has been a simulcast of KSPN.
What’s the plan for KRDC under Calvary? It provides it with a signal audible from San Diego to Oxnard, and well into the Inland Empire, to complement Class B KWVE, which can mainly be heard in Riverside-San Bernardino; southern Orange County; and in North County San Diego.
The KRLA call letters today can be found at what was once KIEV-AM, at 870 kHz in Glendale, Calif. That station gained the KRLA call sign in 2001.
