The big 1190
Growing up in San Pedro, I had numerous radio stations to choose from due to clear reception proximity not only to Los Angeles-area stations, but also San Diego and all points in between. One the the in-betweens was Anaheim, home to one of my favorites during the mid 1970s: KEZY (now Korean-Christian KGBN, 1190 AM).
The station signed on the air in May of 1959 as KEZY — “K-Easy” — an easy-listening station playing standards of the day. Studios were located in the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, the station’s city of license. According to Wikipedia, the first “voice” heard on the station at its launch was canine television Lassie, perhaps in tribute to the temporary calls used during construction: KDOG. As it turns out, Lassie’s owner Rudd Weatherwax was an investor in both the station and the hotel.
Details are a bit muddy, but sometime around 1967 or 1968, Arnie McClatchey became the program director, took the station in a top-40 direction, and helped move it to new studios at 1190 East Ball Road, the numerical address matching the station’s AM radio frequency. Remember, FM didn’t matter much in those days.
The station was never intended to compete in Los Angeles, then-dominated by the likes of KHJ (930 AM) and the original KRLA (now KWVE, 1110 AM). But it super-served the fast-growing Orange County teen audience, and in reality did compete quite well in metro-LA, considering its signal. According to Michael Hagerty in RadioDiscussions.com, KEZY earned a 2.3 share in 1972, tied for 16th place with LA locals KGBS (now KTNQ, 1020 AM) and KIIS (now KEIB, 1150 AM).
The earliest I remember listening to KEZY is 1974; it was here where I first heard the hit “Beach Baby” by the band First Class. The station was a true powerhouse, with an upbeat fast-moving sound that was far larger than its city of license would allude. Indeed, many famous Los Angeles personalities polished their craft at the Big 1190 and made the station sound bigger than life.
That list includes Mark Denis, Steve Sands, Bruce Chandler, Dave Sebastian, Mike Wagner, Paul Freeman, Rick Carroll, Russ O’Hara, Pat Evans (Beaver Stevens at KEZY), T. Michael Jordan and more, all of whom moved on to huge success in Los Angeles. The news department was also top-notch, featuring among others, Adam J. Demarais.
Top-40 lasted until 1978, when new programmer Dave Forman launched “1190 rock;” contrasting with a mellow sound on KEZY-FM (now KAIA, 95.9 FM) the advertisements stated that KEZY-FM “kicks back” while KEZY-AM “kicks a**.” Personalities heard in this era included Shana and Strawberry Jan; this is when I first heard the band The Plimsouls on the deluxe push-button radio in my 1974 Vega.
The station later tried all news (K-News), syndicated top-40 (“Maximum Rock”) and a hybrid oldies/classic rock/AOR format called simply “twelve.” Amy Hiatt and Rita Wilde are the personalities I remember from this era, which played anything from The Stray Cats to Three Dog Night.” I may be as much of a KEZY junkie as I am of KHJ.
But the glory days were truly top-40, and a great example of that can be found on YouTube. Head over to youtube.com/watch?v=hEtvRnRjItM and listen to Mike Wagner playing the hits of 1975, along with listener dedications and more.
Alan Oda tells a story of cheating a bit with the station’s signal, as posted on the KEZY page of socalradiohistory.com. At the time the station was authorized to broadcast with 5000 watts during the day — same as KHJ — but only 1300 watts at night, to protect distant stations on the same frequency.
“For a very short while in 1977, the station claimed that someone had vandalized their transmitter site, so that the station ‘had no choice’ but to broadcast without their directional pattern at night for a short while.
“While KEZY was broadcasting without a directional antenna, they were getting calls from East L.A., the westside, and places that the signal had never been heard before! People apparently did notice the difference, too bad they couldn’t keep it that way.”
Syndicated Country
Go Country KKGO (105.1 FM) has added the syndicated program Backstage Country to its weekday lineup, airing weeknights from 7 p.m. to 12 midnight. Hosted by Elaina Smith, the program takes listeners behind the scenes of today’s country music songs and artists, and is heard on roughly 80 stations across the country.
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