This is the Los Angeles History section of 
The Broadcast Archive

Maintained by: Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer
LA Archivist: Jim Hilliker
Last Update 3/9/01

Los Angeles, California has always been a unique market. As the #2 market in the country, and a radio dial filled with signals from top to bottom, LA Radio has been a "starting point" for many hits and trends. With the proximity of the movie studios, LA Television has had access to more talent than most other markets combined.

The history of broadcasting in Los Angeles is filled with interesting stories. Jim Hilliker has been researching LA Radio for quite some time, and has amassed a lot of details. We invite you to visit, enjoy, even share some history with us.

LA Beginnings
by Jim Hilliker

This is a review of the 87 AM radio stations that have operated in the greater Los Angeles area between 1921 and 1998. This includes Los Angeles County (except the Lancaster-Palmdale desert area), Orange County, the Riverside-San Bernardino area, and part of Ventura County, which has stations that can be heard in part of the San Fernando Valley.

I grew up in Anaheim, 28 miles southeast of Los Angeles City Hall. After hearing a local radio talk show host discussing the meaning of some of the call letters of L.A. AM stations, I became hooked on the idea of finding out more about the history of these stations. At the 1983 convention of the International Radio Club of America (AM band DX club), held in Seattle, WA, I saw Phil Bytheway's history of Seattle AM radio. This was in the form of a large wall chart tracing the call letters and frequencies of AM stations in the Seattle market, plus changes in the calls and frequencies over the years. Phil's project convinced me that I should do the same for the AM stations where I lived. This review grew out of that project, begun in 1983.

I had started collecting old radio logs and magazines from the 1920s, '30s and '40s at swap meets and antique stores. These provided some of the information I wanted on call letter and frequency history, but there were still many holes in this patchwork, and by 1987 I realized there was a lot of information left to find. I wanted to know not only when stations started broadcasting, were licensed, and changed call letters and frequencies, but also why these decisions were made. In many cases, I found the answers I needed. But in the case of a few radio stations in the '20s and '30s, I'm still trying to find out why some changed call letters, why some went off the air and if others did much broadcasting or even testing of their equipment. My research also determined that while some radio stations were licensed, they never got on the air for even one broadcast!

With the help of IRCA member Thomas H. White, I was able to finish the research by reviewing Department of Commerce, Federal Radio Commission, and Federal Communications Commission records. I assembled the information about station calls, owners, addresses, frequencies, and powers on 3x5 cards, which was then expanded into this review.

This was a complicated story to tell, but once I found the right resources, it was easy to put together. Amazingly, I found only one area of conflicting information out of all of these sources. That was the frequencies and transmitter power used by KFRP in Redlands. Other than that, all of my magazine and radio log sources matched up with official government frequency lists! Still, I would appreciate any comments you may have or information regarding omissions or mistakes. I had a lot of fun putting this all together and I hope you enjoy it.

Broadcasting Service Development

As an introduction to this detailed history project, I'd like to present an outline of U.S. radio broadcasting since 1921, and how it developed in and around Los Angeles. Radio broadcasting experiments were being done early in the 20th century, but were halted by World War I. After the war, ham radio operators, who had previously transmitted in telegraphic code, began experimenting with voice transmissions and playing phonograph records over the airwaves. Several Los Angeles area amateur radio enthusiasts appear to have done this around 1920 and ‘21. Fred Christian, who started what later became KNX and Major Lawrence Mott on Catalina Island, who later ran station KFWO, are two examples of hams who did this. By 1921, at least two amateur radio operators, a department store and an electronics company were broadcasting, using experimental ham radio call signs. Yet, even before World War I, there were at least a couple of wireless stations near Los Angeles doing some primitive broadcasting related to the way music and voice would be heard by numerous Americans during radio’s first big decade in the ‘20s.

George Farmer, W6OO, a Southern California ham whose wireless adventures began in 1906, wrote in his books "Radio Almanac" and "56 Years of Wireless", that he heard music sent out by Lee De Forest via wireless in 1908. In 1912, he heard a ham experimenter in Watts, California named Joe McCarthy play music over the air from his station. Later that same year, he heard another ham in Long Beach doing the very same thing! Imagine the thrill. You’re expecting to hear only the Morse code coming through your headphones. Then, like magic, you hear a human voice and music coming into your receiver without wires! It must have been quite a shock, but at the same time, very thrilling.

In 1914 and 1915, Farmer tried his hand at broadcasting something besides code. His ham station, 6GF at Clearwater (now Paramount), and later in Burbank, CA, used early transmitting equipment on 200 meters, equal to 1500 kilocycles. That’s where amateur radio stations were assigned at the time. He decided to send out songs of the day into his microphone; such as "In My Merry Oldsmobile" and "The Little Ford Rambles Right Along." Farmer sang the songs himself, off key. So, it’s quite clear that in Southern California, San Jose, and in other parts of the nation, broadcasting of some sort was taking place well before Westinghouse’s KDKA, even if it was on a much smaller and more primitive scale before World War I.

In late 1921, the Commerce Department began to license the first radio stations for broadcasting to the public by "radiotelephone", as it was then called. At first, the broadcast service operated on a wavelength of 360 meters (833 kilocycles, now known as kilohertz) for entertainment, music, news, etc. to go out over the air. A second wavelength of 485 meters (619 kilohertz) was assigned to broadcast official government weather, crop and market reports. (In the Los Angeles area, only a handful of stations, including KFCL, KHJ, KWH, and KYJ received authorizations to broadcast on 485 meters. Use of this separate wavelength ended with the expansion of the broadcast band on May 15, 1923).

The first broadcasting station licensed in Los Angeles was KQL, owned by Arno A. Kluge at 1045 South Bixel Street. It was licensed on October 13, 1921, and tied with two other stations as the sixth station in the U.S. to receive a broadcast license. Kluge's station grew out of his radiophone experiments, broadcasting over his experimental station, 6XAO. Perhaps he only put KQL on the air a few times before giving up on broadcasting, as the May 11, 1922 issue of the Los Angeles Times doesn't include KQL in its schedule of 13 area stations. The Department of Commerce deleted KQL on June 9, 1922.

The three other L.A. broadcasting stations first licensed in 1921 also grew out of amateur radio broadcasting experiments KGC on 12/8 was formally 6ADZ; KZC on 12/9 was formally 6XD, and KYJ, also 12/9, was formally 6XAK. Of these stations, only KGC survives, as KNX-1070, which makes it the oldest broadcasting station in Los Angeles, and the seventh oldest in the country.

In early 1922 the radio craze spread quickly throughout the Los Angeles area. Radio was a free-for-all during this time. Anybody who had the proper equipment to broadcast was given a license for these new radio stations, just by applying to the Department of Commerce’s Radio Division. Station owners, announcers and technicians were all starting out with little or no experience, so everyone had their own ideas of what to put on the air. Listeners, using early crystal sets and one-tube radios were excited to hear voices and music come out of the air. Since commercial advertising didn’t exist yet, many stations went off the air after only a few months or less than two years. Some of the station owners got bored with radio. Others couldn’t find a way to pay for the operation of the station equipment, and many couldn’t make a profit from radio and couldn’t afford the electric bills! Others even went off the air when they couldn’t find a properly licensed engineer and the radio inspector shut them down.

By June 1, 1922 there were 25 stations in the L.A. area, all sharing time on 360 meters. With all the stations using the same wavelength, they had to negotiate a system of taking turns each day to get on the air! The Southern California Broadcast Association was established to maintain an elaborate time-sharing schedule. The Association met every 30 days to revise the station schedules, and came up with a couple of strategies to increase the amount of time stations could have on the air, especially during the coveted early evening hours. According to Radio Doings magazine, in many cases two stations were paired, so that one operated slightly above 360 meters and the other just below, allowing, at least in theory, a radio to be tuned to one or the other without interference. It also appears that lower-powered stations in different parts of the region were paired, to reduce interference. All of this made for some very complicated schedules. For example, the Monday evening schedule for August 6, 1922 had seven stations--KYJ, KUY, KFAC, KGO, KOG, KWH and KSS--signing on and off, with time slots as short as one-half hour. During most of the evening, two stations were broadcasting simultaneously, although from 500 to 515, three were on the air. Given the primitive radios and transmitters at this time, it's likely that instead of being able to choose between two offerings, many early radio enthusiasts instead heard only clashing programs or piercing heterodynes! One radio station made it quite clear it was trying to avoid interference from other stations. KFAW in Santa Ana ran its daily broadcast schedule in the Santa Ana Register, where the KFAW studio was located. From its first day on the air, KFAW printed in the paper that it would broadcast on 340 meters, not 360, "in order to avoid conflict with Los Angeles stations."

To further complicate matters, Radio Doings noted in the September 30, 1922 issue that Los Angeles stations had instituted a nightly 720 to 740 PM "Listening Period" when all the Los Angeles stations stayed off the air. This would allow radio fans "who have receiving sets powerful enough to 'listen in' on concerts in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Stockton, Sacramento, Fresno, Salt Lake City and Denver" to pick up the distant stations, which were also operating on 360 meters. By November 1st, the "Listening Period" had been moved to 730 to 800 PM nightly. These listening periods, also called "Silent Nights", were common in cities throughout the United States until 1927, when they started to threaten revenue from the newly formed commercial chain (network) broadcasts and local stations which started to air commercial advertising more frequently. In fact, Radio Doings reported in April of 1923 that Mondays would be the "Silent Night" for Los Angeles and vicinity, and that all broadcast stations in the region would go off the air that night. Monday, May 7th was the first official time this was tried. Radio Doings listed programs in Denver, Salt Lake City, Fort Worth, San Francisco and Portland with the times to try for those distant stations. The next week, one radio dealer placed an ad in the magazine, offering free advice for DXers who weren’t able to hear the distant stations listed in the Monday night schedule.

At the end of 1922, four more stations were added in the L.A. area, while six were deleted, leaving 23 stations. However, only 15 of these appear to have had regular broadcasting schedules!

In late September 1922, a second entertainment wavelength of 400 meters (750 kHz) was added, to ease the overcrowding on 360 meters. This was designated for use by "Class B" stations, which used 500 to 1000 watts of power, and generally had superior program offerings. The stations on 360 meters, which used lower powers, were now known as "Class A" stations. Out of about 30 stations nationwide to be given Class B status, two were in Los Angeles KHJ and KFI. (KJS applied for a 400-meter license but was turned down). KHJ and KFI set up their own time-sharing plan on 400 meters.

To deal with increasing interference, the broadcast service wavelengths were expanded on May 15, 1923, with stations now spaced in 10-kilohertz steps from 550 to 1350 kHz. Class B stations were assigned to the frequencies from 550 to 1040 khz, with Los Angeles allocated to use 640 kHz, assigned to KFI, and 760 kHz, which went to KHJ, as these continued to be the only Class B stations in the area. 1050 to 1350 kHz were available for Class A stations. Stations were also permitted to stay on 360 meters, which was now known as the Class C wavelength. (At this time both KFI and KHJ operated 500-watt transmitters. However, the most powerful area station was KJS, which remained on the Class C wavelength. But in June 1923, KJS installed a 750-watt transmitter, which made it more powerful than all but a handful of stations nationwide).

No new stations came on the air in 1923 in the L.A. area, but 9 were deleted, which left 14 survivors. In November 1924 the broadcast band was again expanded, with the upper limit moved from 1350 to 1500, making 15 more Class A frequencies available. During 1924, 11 new stations came on the air. However, two of these were deleted before the end of the year, along with six others that started in 1922! This left 17 on the air at the end of the year. Three of the radio stations that started broadcasting in the Los Angeles area in 1924 are still licensed today, although two of them have different call letters now.

In 1925 seven new stations were "born" in the L.A. area, and four of these are still on the air. Seven stations called it quits and signed off for good. Result The same number of stations at the end of 1925 as the year before 17. Station powers were increasing, along with the quality of programming. By the summer of 1925, five Los Angeles stations held prestigious "Class B" authorizations KFI-640, KHJ-740, KNX-890, KPSN-950, and KTBI-1020.

One thing to note from early 1925 is station KFI using 642 kHz. and KHJ on 742. This lasted only from January to February of 1925. The use of the "split-frequency", instead of an even 10 kilocycle-spaced frequency, was part of a short-lived--and unsuccessful--test by the Department of Commerce. They were thinking at the time about trying to reduce the separation between Class B stations to 7.5 kilocycles. Nearly 55 years later, KFI took part in another type of experiment during the overnight hours. This called for KFI to alternate between 639 and 640 kHz. This was a test requested by the FCC, when 9 kilohertz spacing was being considered on the AM band in North America. The FCC later decided against spacing AM stations 9 kHz. apart, which is done in other parts of the world, such as Japan and Australia.

During 1926, three new stations began operations, two of which continue to this day. No station went silent this year, bringing the number of radio stations in the area to 20.

Regulatory Collapse and Reorganization

Up to this point, the Department of Commerce, through its Bureau of Navigation, regulated broadcasting under the Radio Act of 1912, which really didn't address broadcasting. It was written at the time to regulate wireless telegraphy to and from ships at sea. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover asked Congress to strengthen his power to regulate the fledgling business of radio broadcasting, but it didn't. In 1926, there were several legal opinions that said Hoover didn't have the authority to deny station licenses, or assign frequencies or transmitter power for any radio station. Thus, from July, 1926 to the February 1927 formation of the Federal Radio Commission, anyone was free to bring a new station on the air, and stations could use powers and frequencies of their own choosing. The Los Angeles area, like most major metropolitan regions, saw a number of new stations go on the air during this seven-month period. With their new freedom from government regulation, many of the new stations and established broadcasters took part in the nationwide practice of "wave jumping".

Many of the new stations, and most of the "wave jumpers", showed up on choice Class B frequencies, increasing interference for the older stations. Some examples of this include KMTR on 1260 (Class A) jumped to 810 khz (Class B), KFXB moved from 1480 to 850, KWTC went from 1140 to 880 and 870. In addition, some new stations chose to broadcast on split frequencies. KMIC came on the air on 1/10/27 on 775 kHz. and KGFJ made its debut in February of 1927 on 1375 kHz. Other new stations that came on the air during this chaotic period include KGER, which took the Class B frequency of 920, KGEF on 580 and KELW on 560. A few small stations chose to raise their transmitter power. In early 1927, just before the Federal Radio Commission was formed, KFQZ bumped up its power to 500 watts from its assigned 50 watts; KNRC was listed at 1,000 watts, up from 500; KWTC in Santa Ana, which was licensed for only 5 watts (one radio log says 15 watts), was listed at this time with 250 watts; and KFVD decided to go up to 500 watts instead of its previously assigned 50 watt power; quite an increase in those days!! After the FRC was given the right to oversee the regulation of radio broadcasting by Congress, those stations had to lower their transmitter power by mid-1927.

KFI spearheaded a novel demonstration one night in support of the restoration of government controls. According to the June, 1927 issue of Radio Broadcast "Between the hours of eight and nine on February 11, KFI, and ten other Pacific Coast stations presented what they called an Interference Hour. The stations were paired off and so changed their wavelengths as to interfere seriously with one another. After an hour of squeals howls, indistinguishable announcements, and distorted music, the stipulated wavelengths were resumed, following which pleas were made from each of the stations in support of the radio bill before the senate." The radio bill was soon passed, which resulted in Congress creating the Federal Radio Commission, which would have sole control over broadcasting. It began to reassign stations to new frequencies to reduce interference. This plan took 1-1/2 years to complete.

While broadcasting was undergoing these historic changes in 1927, seven new radio stations were added to the airwaves in and around Los Angeles, bringing the total to 27.

Time Sharing and Reallocations

An explanation about the stations that shared time is needed here. On the charts, most stations sharing time are listed with dots separating them. For example, all stations on 833 kHz (360 meters) from 1921 to early 1925 shared time, as shown on the charts. With all the frequency changes that took place, it proved impossible to show all of the time-sharing setups on the charts, so following is a recap.

Time-sharing was popular in the early days of radio, especially in the bigger cities where there were many stations. With only a limited amount of space on the broadcast band, some radio stations were forced to divide time on a frequency. This meant that two or more stations had to come up with a schedule in which one station turned on its transmitter, came on the air for a few hours, then would go off the air so the other station could broadcast its own programming!

There was only a limited amount of time-sharing following the band expansions in 1923 and 1924, although KFSG divided 1080 with KDZF until the latter station was deleted. Others that divided time briefly in 1923-24 were KFAR/KFAW on 1070, KUY/KNV on 1170, KFCL/KFOC on 1270, and KFON/KFQI on 1280 kHz. In 1925 KFWC-San Bernardino shared time on 1420 with KFWO on Catalina Island until May 1927.

Under the FRC reorganizations, the number of time-sharing arrangements gradually increased. One of the first nationwide frequency shifts came on June 15, 1927. Eighteen stations in the L.A. area were affected. Among the stations which were required to share time under the new arrangement KFPR and KFQZ on 1290; KELW and KPPC on 1310; KFWC and KWTC on 1350; KGER and KRLO on 1390; and KGFJ was paired with KFVD on 1440.

February 1928 brought frequency changes for ten L.A. area stations and the following time-share plans KPSN and KPPC on 950; KWTC and KSMR-Santa Maria on 1100; KGEF and KGFH on 1140; KFSG and KEJK (x-KRLO) on 1190; and KGER and KFVD (after KRLO moved to 1190) on 1390.

On May 25, 1928 the Federal Radio Commission issued General Order 32, which challenged 164 stations nationwide to prove they were operating in the "public interest, convenience, or necessity". Only a handful of West Coast stations appeared on this list, and the Los Angeles Forestry Department's KFPR was the only one in the L.A. area. However, it failed its review, and was deleted 8/1/28, one of about 50 stations nationwide the FRC took off the air under the proceedings.

On November 11, 1928 the FRC assigned 22 L.A. area stations to new frequencies, as part of a nationwide adjustment of the broadcast band. (Only KFI-640 and KPSN-950 remained on their old frequencies.) Stations were now assigned to frequencies classified as Clear Channel, Regional and Local.

This plan created eight time-share pairings KMTR and KPLA on 570, KTM and KELW on 780, KPSN and KFWB on 950, KFSG and KMIC on 1120, KFWC and KPPC on 1200, KFON and KEJK on 1250 (which lasted only until February 1929), KTBI and KGEF on 1300; and KWTC and KFWO on 1500.

During 1928 no new stations came on the air in the area, while two were deleted. As noted earlier, one of these, KFPR, was denied renewal of its license by the FRC. A third station, portable station KGGM in Inglewood, moved east to become a "stationary" station in Albuquerque, NM.

The FRC shifted frequencies once again on November 15, 1929 for nine L.A. area stations. KPPC and KFXM were moved to share 1210 kHz, while KPSN was shifted to 1360 with KGER, which lasted until KPSN's demise in 1931.

Earlier in 1929 the FRC refused to renew KGFH's license and it went silent, which allowed KMTR to become a full-time station on 570. Also, when KFWO went silent in January 1929 KWTC was able to become a full-time station on 1500 kHz.

Twenties Recap

A total of fifteen-area station licenses dating from this crazy first decade of broadcasting have survived to the present KNX-1070 (established December 1921 as KGC); KWKW-1330 (March 1922 as KJS); KHJ-930 (March 1922); KFI-640 (March 1922); KFRN-1280 (February 1924 as KFON); KLAC-570 (March 1924 as KFPG); KABC-790 (February 1925 as KFXB); KFWB-980 (February 1925); KSZZ-590 (February 1925 as KFWC); KTNQ-1020 (March 1925 as KFVD); KVNR (ex-KWIZ)-1480 (October 1926 as KWTC); KLTX-1390 (December 1926 as KGER); KXTA-1150 (January 1927 as KMIC in Inglewood); KYPA-1230 (February 1927 as KGFJ); and KDIS-710 (February 1927 as KRLO). A sixteenth station, KPPC-1240 in Pasadena lasted from December 1924 until it went off the air in September of 1996. The KPPC license was deleted by the F.C.C. in 1997.

Some of the longtime AM stations that were first licensed in the 1920s have changed call letters very recently. The 1330 khz. license was known for many decades as KFAC. KSZZ-590 had the call of KFXM until the early-‘80s.

The station on 710 known as Radio Disney with the calls of KDIS had been familiar to Southern Californian radio listeners as KMPC, until early 1997.

KFRN-1280 in Long Beach was KFOX until 1977. Other stations such as KGFJ-1230 and KGER-1390 had their historic call letters changed after new owners bought the stations in the late-1990s.

The Thirties and Early Forties

KFQZ signed-off forever in 1930, KPSN did the same in 1931, followed by KGEF in 1932. Also, KPWF, which was to be a new radio station in Orange County, had its construction permit canceled in 1931 and never got on the air (see KPWF). The only new station to go on the air in the Los Angeles area in the '30s was KIEV-Glendale, built by David Cannon in 1932. Overall, the thirties, which saw the replacement of the Federal Radio Commission by the Federal Communications Commission in 1934, were fairly stable, though economically times were tough for radio, especially for the smaller stations. Network radio was growing and L.A./Hollywood became a big radio center by 1938, when NBC and CBS built new studios there.

By 1937 there were only two time-sharing plans left around L.A. 780 and 1120. KEHE merged with KELW to get full-time hours on 780, reducing the number of broadcast band stations in the L.A. area to 19. The time-share plan on 1120 (later 1150) between KRKD and KFSG was the longest in the L.A. area, lasting until March 21, 1961. (KPPC, on 1210 and later 1240, originally shared time with KFXM-San Bernardino. However, in later years KFXM was allowed to remain on the air with reduced power when KPPC operated under its specified hours schedule.) As the 1930s ended, KECA moved from 1430 to 780, consolidating with and taking over the facilities of KEHE-780.

March 29, 1941 saw the next big change for the Broadcast Band. The North American Regional Broadcast Agreement expanded the band from 1500 to 1600 kHz, and a major frequency reallocation was put in place across the U.S.

For the 18 L.A. area stations then on the air one moved down 10 kilohertz, one moved up 10 kHz, three moved up 20 kHz, ten moved up 30 kHz, and three stayed put -- KFI-640, there since 5/15/23; KMTR-570, dating back to 11/11/28; and KMPC-710, there since 11/15/29. During World War II, three new stations came on the air KPRO in Riverside, KPAS in Pasadena and KWKW in Pasadena.

It should be noted that during the ‘30s and early ‘40s, there were several applications for new stations or construction permits, which never got on the air. These included a new station on 1160 kHz. in 1934, that would have been on only in the daytime with 250 watts, licensed to Los Angeles; a new station in L.A. that proposed using 1300 kHz. with 1,000 watts and would have shared time with KFAC in 1935; two applications in 1940 for a station on 1390 in Riverside (one planned to use 1,000 watts and the other was to be a 250 watt daytimer); and also in 1940, a new station for Santa Monica which applied to broadcast on 1160 kHz. with 250 watts day and 100 watts at night. All of these applications were denied by the FCC.

Post World War II

With improved directional antenna systems, and a reduction by the Federal Communications Commission of interference standards, thousands of new stations came on the air across the United States. Most were in small cities and towns that in most cases, had either no radio stations or a single one. In the greater Los Angeles area, the new stations turned up mainly in the Riverside-San Bernardino areas and the suburban cities around L.A. and Orange County. Most were successful, with the exception of KTED-1520 in Laguna Beach.

Twenty-three new stations came on the air from 1940 to 1970, while 4 disappeared KTED-1520 in 1951, KFSG-1150, which left the AM band in 1970, KBBV-1050 which "went dark" in 1991, (and may be on again at this date, but I haven't verified that fact), and KPPC-1240 signed-off for good in 1996 after more than 72 years of broadcasting. Only one station came on in the region during the '70sKGOE-850. The '80s saw the breakdown of the Clear Channels, which provided room for four new AM stations in the L.A. area.

The last of these, KPLS-830 in Orange County didn’t get on the air until 1992.

This makes the current total 44 AM band stations, fighting it out for ratings and advertising dollars. All these stations must also deal with increased interference from co-channel stations, along with man-made noise from light-dimmers, florescent lights, and leaky cable TV signals, not to mention the loss of AM band listeners to FM over the years. So far no stations have had to go silent, although KRCK-1500 has yet to make it on the air, apparently due to difficulty in procuring a transmitter site. In addition, the past ten years have seen many L.A. area stations that carried music and AM stereo in 1982 and '83 switch to non-music formats, i.e. talk, business, sports or foreign language.

Call Letters

Through April 1922, new broadcasting stations in the western U.S. received three-letter calls starting with "K". After that date four-letter calls were assigned to most new stations, although in a few cases, such as KTM, station owners were able to get three-letter calls by special request. At first most new stations receiving four-letter calls got ones assigned alphabetically, starting with KD--, and later followed by KF--, KG--, and calls. By the end of the twenties it became common for some station owners to request descriptive calls of their own preference. This was the case for KFSG, KFWB, KELW, KWTC and a few others. KFSG was one of the first (at least in Los Angeles), to request their own call in January of 1924.

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Sources

The following are the major sources used for these charts and station background information:

• Radio Service Bulletin. Issued monthly, beginning in January 1915 by the Bureau of Navigation, Department of Commerce.
• Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States. Annual list issued as of June 30th for 1920 through 1931 by the Department of Commerce.
• Department of Commerce card files, station "History Cards" on microfiche, and call letter files at the Federal Communications Commission, 1919 M Street, NW, Washington, DC.
• Los Angeles Times newspaper. Various issues from March-May 1922, January 1923, July 1929 and July 1930. Also 1/10/77(KWIZ's 50th anniversary) plus 2/5/81 and 2/10/81 (KWTC, KREG, KVOE and KFAW).
• Pasadena Star-News/Independent Star-News. June 6, 1962 story by C. Fred Shoop on history of KPPC-1240 and KPSN.
• Santa Ana Register newspaper. Various issues in August 1922, October-December 1926 and January and December 1928.
• New York Times newspaper. Several issues from 1925-1931, which mentioned Los Angeles stations in the paper's radio column.
• Radio Doings (The Red Book of Radio) magazine, a Los Angeles weekly. Ten issues from 1922 and 1925-1928.
• Radio Index (RADEX) magazine. Station lists from this monthly from 1934, 1935, and 1940.
• White’s Radio Log. Station lists from September 1934 and 1950.
• Radio Life magazine. Two issues from 1941 and 1943.
• Radio Daily's "Radio Annual" yearbook. 1938-1964 editions.
• Broadcasting Yearbook. Various issues from 1939 to the 1980s.
• Various U.S. radio station logs including Temple Radio Directory (1929); Cunningham Radio Tubes Map and Log (1931); Stevenson's Bulletin of Radio Broadcasting Stations (February 1926); Radio News(December 1927 and May 1928 issues with U.S. radio station lists); and Citizen's Radio Call Book (May 1924).
• Station history information from KFAC, KFI, KFWB, KFXM, KIEV,KMPC, KNX, KPPC and KWIZ, plus KFON/KFOX information from an interview with the station's original engineer, Larry McDowell. Historical societies in Altadena, Big Bear Lake, Burbank, Catalina Island, El Monte, Pasadena and San Pedro were also very helpful in sending information about their early stations. Biola University provided marvelous details on KJS/KTBI, while Glendale Library's Special Collections supplied information about KGFH, KFSG and the first KFAC in Glendale (1922-23). Orange County historian Jim Sleeper provided details about KFAW. Additional information on KFI and KYJ came from personal memories of Jack Bascom of Glendora, CA. in letters he wrote to me. George Riggins of Long Beach, CA reviewed KGEF in his "Old Timer" column in Radio World and in a letter to me. Thanks also to KFI chief engineer Marvin Collins for encouragement and some information on the station. Letters from Mr. F.A. Bartlett of Paradise, CA also proved to be helpful regarding KGER, KNX and early news operations at a few of the L.A. area stations.
• Earl, Bill. "Dream House" (book) History of KRLA-1110, with background on KPAS/KXLA.
• Emery, Walter B. "Broadcasting and Government" (book) Page 39 provided details of Rev. Dr. Bob Shuler's court battle to keep his license for KGEF in 1932.
• Farmer, George. "Radio Almanac" (book) 1981, memories of a longtime amateur and wireless radio operator who worked at several radio stations in the west in the 1920s and '30s, including KHJ and KFI, and grew up in Southern California.
• Freeland, Michael. "The Warner Brothers" (book) 1983, Saint Martin's Press.
• Herstell, Bruce. "Sunshine and Wealth Los Angeles in the '20s and '30s" (book) Includes details about KGEF's history.
• Oldradio.com ... and the research bunch there.
• Poindexter, Ray. "Golden Throats and Silver Tongues The Radio Announcers" (book) Includes information on KMIC-Inglewood, KECA's move to KEHE-780's frequency, and stories on early L.A. radio announcers.
• Skretvedt, Randy. "Laurel and Hardy" (book) 1987, Moonstone Press. Gives some information about KFVD when it was located at the Hal Roach movie studio lot in Culver City.
• Starr, Kevin. Material Dreams Southern California Through the 1920s. (book) University Oxford Press, 1990. Included a chapter with many details on Reverend Dr. Bob Shuler and KGEF.
• WPA Writer Program. Los Angeles A Guide to the City and Its Environs. Hasting House. 1941, 1951. Additional information on the history of KFI, KHJ and KNX, plus smaller L.A. stations and what they were broadcasting, as of 1940.