KKGO

KKGO is a commercial radio station located in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting on 105.1 FM. KKGO airs a country music format, branded as "Go Country 105".

KKGO-FM was founded by Saul Levine and is still owned by his corporation, Mount Wilson Broadcasting, and remains the only independently owned-and-operated FM radio station licensed to Los Angeles.

History

KBCA/Classical 105.1/K-Mozart

Saul Levine launched the station at 105.1 in February 1959 as KBCA, and was one of the first FM stations to broadcast from Mount Wilson. In 1979, the station changed its callsign to KKGO. This was prompted by a court challenge from KABC, according to one local podcaster. The station aired a traditional jazz music format until 1989.

When cross-town KFAC dropped classical music in favor of a popular music format on September 20, 1989, KKGO adopted KFAC's displaced classical music format. The official switch from jazz to classical occurred on January 1, 1990, and began with selections from Franz Lehár's operetta The Land of Smiles. In 2000, the call letters were changed to KMZT to reflect on their rebranding as "K-Mozart". The KKGO call letters were then moved to AM 1260.

The station began broadcasting an HD Radio digital signal in 2005, and Mount Wilson Broadcasting started multicasting the programming of its two AM stations, KKGO in Beverly Hills and XESURF in the Tijuana, Mexico-San Diego border area, on its HD2 signal, which then had an adult standards format known as "Unforgettable 540 & 1260". While the AM signals combine to cover much of the Southern California area, they were still weak, especially at night in the Orange County area, and the FM HD2 simulcast helped boost the reach of the format.

Go Country 105

When longtime country station KZLA flipped formats in August 2006, it left the two largest media markets in the United States and three of the top four without a full-time country music station. The New York area hasn't had such a station since WYNY signed off in 2003 and as of today is still without an outlet for the format. In the San Francisco Bay Area, KZBR also changed format in 2005, only to return to country as "The Wolf" after Entercom took over the station in March 2007. The other top-3 market, Chicago, is served by WUSN.

At 5 a.m. February 26, 2007, in a surprise move announced only three days earlier, citing declining ad revenues for the classical format, Mt. Wilson Broadcasters flipped K-Mozart to country as "Go Country 105." Saul Levine swapped the formats and callsigns of FM 105.1 with AM 1260, bringing the country format and the KKGO calls back to FM, while the classical format and the KMZT calls were moved to AM, with the "K-Mozart" (XESURF continued to play country music, first simulcasting KKGO's format, but later splitting its programming from that of KKGO). After playing Mozart's "String Quartet no. 23 in F, K.590", Los Angeles was left once again without a commercial classical music station on the analog FM dial.

"Go Country 105" brought country music back to the FM dial after a six-month absence. This was a dream come true for the country music fans who had spent those six months writing letters, making phone calls, wearing "I Want My Country Music Back" shirts, handing out and wearing Save Country Music Ribbons, letting the broadcasters and many others know that there were many reasons that the country music genre would be a viable asset for an L.A. radio station.

The first song on the new KKGO was "Only in America" by Brooks & Dunn.

KKGO airs many of the on-air personalities from the former KZLA, along with some programs from Westwood One, United Stations Radio Networks and Dial Global's "Mainstream Country" 24-hour network.

On May 31, 2009, the classical format returned to KKGO 105.1 HD2.

On-Air Staff

The current lineup (as of May 1, 2011) is as follows

Morning Show: Ryan Fox, Ashley Paige

Mid-Days: Shawn Parr

Afternoon Drive: Paul Freeman

Nighttime: Ginny Harman

Friday Nights: The Road - Ginny Harman

Weekends/Fill-ins: Laurie Allen, Buzz Brainard, Jason Burns, Gary Campbell, Ashley Paige and Zack Taylor

Go Country NY

Go Country NY is a web based radio station airing a country music format. It features local programming for New York listeners along with California's KKGO based signature music mix. The station was founded by Saul Levine who has been working since 2009 to return the country music format to the Greater New York City market.

On-Air Staff

The current lineup (as of August 5, 2010) is as follows. :

Morning: Ginny Harman

Mid-Days: Ashley Paige

Afternoon Drive: Mike Johnson

See also

Brian Douglas, KKGO 1st Country Morning Radio Personality

References

External links

Official website

Countryboards.com, Country Music Message board set up as a command center for fans to get country music back on FM radio after losing KZLA.

"Johnny Cash Would Have Been Proud -- KKGO 105.1 Flips Over to Country", Press Release Regarding Country Music Returning to FM Radio in Los Angeles.

"Levine’s KKGO/KMZT Embrace HD Radio", RWOnline, Radio World Newspaper, May 23, 2007

Category:Country radio stations in the United States KGO-FM