The History of KFI-FM -- Mt. Wilson's First FM Station
Jim Hilliker, Monterey, California
December 2009
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At the invitation of The CGC Communicator newsletter, radio
historian Jim Hilliker has traced the history of KFI-FM, the first FM
station located on Mt. Wilson:
I was asked to write a short history of KFI-FM, so I'll do my best to
tell about its few years on the air. While space doesn't permit an entire
history of the early FM band in southern California, I'll throw in a few of
the old FM call letters to show most of the other stations on the FM band
at the time KFI-FM was on the air.
The first FM station west of the Mississippi went on the air in Los
Angeles in August of 1941 from Mt. Lee. That was K45LA on the old 42-50
megacycle FM band. This was what soon became KHJ-FM and is today's KRTH at
101.1 MHz. It was on 44.5 MHz initially but, when the old 42-50 megahertz
band was needed for television, the FCC allocated 88-108 MHz as the FM
band. So, KHJ-FM was moved to 99.7 in 1945 and by 1948 to 101.1 FM.
On November 29, 1944, KFI officials broke ground on Mount Wilson for
construction of a new FM and TV transmitting facility. The ceremony was
broadcast live over KFI(AM) from Mount Wilson from noon to 12:15 pm that
afternoon. KFI-FM went on the air from that site at 105.9 megacycles (MHz
today) in July of 1946 with its first test program, though some later
sources say the station went on the air in 1947. The station only lasted
until 1951 when the owner, Earle C. Anthony, decided to turn off the FM
station and returned the license to the FCC. This was common at the time,
when some station owners saw no money from FM and no future in FM. In the
early '50s, while the audio quality was much better than AM, FM radios were
not cheap, there were no AM-FM combination radios yet and stereo
broadcasting on FM didn't happen until 1961.
KFI-FM was the first Los Angeles FM station to have its transmitter on
Mt. Wilson. According to an article written by Marvin Collins several
years ago, KFI-FM used a General Electric 3 kW Phasotron transmitter,
operating with a 2-bay antenna, giving the station an ERP of 10 kw. Later,
the 1951 Broadcasting Yearbook listed KFI-FM's power as 16,500 watts.
Through 1948 and '49, KFI-FM was broadcasting its own music programs,
separate from KFI 640-AM. A sample from the Los Angeles Times radio page
for December of 1949 from 3 to 9 pm shows KFI-FM offering those with FM
receivers programs with titles such as Afternoon Melodies, Classics, Music
For You, Symphony Moods and World of Music. By 1950, KFI-FM was simply
broadcasting simultaneously the same programs from KFI-640. Five other FM
stations were also simulcasting the programs from their AM stations, while
at least three other area FM stations had their own programs, according to
a Los Angeles Times radio log. Most of the FMs were only on the air from
mid-afternoon to about 9 pm, while some like KFI-FM were on the air from 6
am to midnight with the simulcast of their AM stations.
Along with KHJ-FM, other early day FM stations in the Los Angeles region
that went on the air in 1946 were the non-commercial KUSC-91.5 and
KCRW-89.9. KFI-FM and KMPC-FM were broadcasting by 1947. By 1948 and 1949,
other early FM stations on the band around L.A. included KNX-FM at 93.1;
KWIK-FM in Burbank at 94.3; KFMV-Hollywood at 94.7; KECA-FM 95.5; KRKD-FM
96.3; KVOE-FM in Santa Ana at 96.7; KKLA (owned by KFSG-AM 1150) at 97.1;
KAGH-FM in Pasadena at 98.3; KMGM (owned by the movie studio) at 98.7;
KMPC-FM at 100.3; KNOB in Long Beach at 103.1 (moved to 97.9 by 1958);
KFAC-FM at 104.3 (moved to 92.3 by 1955); KCLI-105.1 and KFI-FM on
105.9. (KCLI was owned by the founders of KIEV-870 in Glendale.)
By 1950, KCLI was gone along with KMPC-FM. KFI-FM was listed in the
1951 Broadcasting Yearbook, but was gone from newspaper radio logs by
mid-1951 and gone from the 1952 Broadcasting Yearbook. KKLA-97.1 also went
off the air for good in 1951.
So, while KFI-FM made history as the first Los Angeles FM to transmit
from Mt. Wilson, its short history lasted only about five years on
105.9. The station was not sold. The owner, Earle C. Anthony, simply shut
the station down and returned the license to the FCC. A new license for
105.9 in Los Angeles was issued in 1956 with the call letters KBMS (Better
Music Station). This FM station's original city of license was Glendale.
The new station license had no ties to the defunct KFI-FM. After a few call
letter changes, the current 105.9 FM license is still on the air today and
has been known over the years as KWST, KMGG and since 1986 as KPWR or Power
106.
The information in this essay is believed to be accurate based on
considerable research. Quite a few CPs for FM stations were never built in
the '50s while some old magazines had listed them as if they were actually
on the air, so that issue had to be sorted out. A letter to the author
(jimhilliker (at) sbcglobal.net) would be appreciated if any of the
material posted above appears to be in need of correction.
________
In response to Jim's story, Marvin Collins (KFIam640 (at) aol.com),
retired Chief Engineer of KFI(AM) and KOST-FM, added the following comments:
Jim, your story looks very good to me.
Something that might be of interest to mention is how the FM stations
made money in the early to mid 50s by doing what was known as
storecasting. The younger generation probably is not aware of this
today. The main purpose of several FM stations was to provide background
music to stores, etc. I remember KUTE 101.9 having a 20 or 21 kHz tone
that was transmitted whenever they opened their microphone. The tone would
mute receivers in stores and cut out the commercial massages since all of
their few commercials were done live. This system was referred to as
simplex. I also remember KUTE using RCA 45 RPM record players for
music. 35 mm film cans contained stacks of instrumental music to be played
on the RCA players.
I think it was in the late fifties that the FCC wanted to encourage FM
development and changed the rules such that stations could no longer do the
tone-mute simplex system. They had to go to subcarriers for their
storecasting and then run regular programming on the main channel. I
believe KBMS (Better Music Service) was another station that had to put on
a subcarrier in order to continue serving their storecasting
business. KMLA 100.3 also converted to storecasting on a
subcarrier. There was a period where the subcarrier and the main carrier
carried the same music but not the station IDs and commercials.
Then as the main channel became more valuable than the subcarrier, the
main channel programming went a different path than the sub. Later several
of the stations were sold but the previous owners retained the rights to
the subcarriers. The former owners really did not want to be in the
broadcasting business but instead only the music selling to stores
business. I know KOST 103.5 had a subcarrier that I believed originated
with a former owner. KFI Inc. finally got rid of the subcarrier after
owning KOST for a number of years.
Posted by Steve Blodgett
earthsignals.com