KFAC (defunct radio station)

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KFAC was a commercial classical music radio station in Los Angeles, broadcasting for most of its life on 1330 kHz AM, and subsequently in both simulcast and separate programming on 92.3 MHz FM as well. On September 20, 1989 at 2 p.m., new owners changed both its name and its format, depriving Southern California of a major cultural institution. During its heyday, the station was arguably the most important cultural organization in the Los Angeles area, having greater influence on lovers of classical music than even the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Announcers such as Howard Rhines, Dick Crawford, Thomas Cassidy, Carl Princi, Fred Crane, Steve Allen, Alfred Leonard, Tom Dixon, Bill Carlson, Dick Joy, Tom Franklin, Ed Stoddard, Bernie Alan, Rodger Layng, Steve Markham and Doug Ordunio were featured on the station. For several years, the station also carried the daily syndicated "Adventures in Good Music" with Karl Haas. Other regularly scheduled programs were hosted by Leonora Schildkraut, Werner Klemperer, and Gussie Moran. ^[1][2]

Many of its programs, such as "The Gas Company Evening Concert," "Luncheon at the Music Center," and "The World of Opera" lasted for decades – with the Gas Company show airing for over 40 years. The station's "DJs" also had unusual career longevity; according to some estimates, their collective tenure at the station was over 400 years. This unique staying power, and the fact that at times KFAC was the only classical musical station in Los Angeles (KUSC, its last competitor, did not convert to full time classical music broadcasting until 1976, and despite being non-commercial never achieved the listenership of the professionally formatted KFAC) meant that several generations of Angelinos grew up listening to the station. That, along with its cultural authority, gave the station a special place in their affections.

[edit] Early Years

Like most radio stations in the 1940s, KFAC did not fill one niche, but rather broadcast a wide variety of programming, including baseball games from the Pacific Coast League. Its evolution into the all classical-music format was a slow process over many years. Its first classical music show began in December of 1943, when Thomas Cassidy began hosting a two-hour nightly program sponsored by the Southern California Gas Company. Eventually the station added a second show, "Musical Masterpieces". It was Cassidy's responsibility to build the musical library for these shows.

In 1945, the station's owner, E.L. Cord (the F.A.C. in the station's call letters stood for "Fuller Auburn Cord", the Auburn Cord & Duesenberg dealer in the Los Angeles area, and western region headquarters for the Auburn Automobile Co. The tranmitter was located on the roof of the building), was touring the station when he saw for the first time the huge collection of discs (a full symphony might take up twelve 78 rpm discs) KFAC owned. Cord decided to make better use of this investment by switching to all-classical music. Management tested the waters on this idea by asking the audience if they wanted another nighttime program, "Lucky Lager Dance Time" (which played pop and swing tunes) to continue or if they would prefer more classical. Classical won by a slim margin.

Tom Dixon hosted the afternoon shift. His frequent errors (from mispronouncing the names of conductors and performers to playing movements of concertos and symphonies in the wrong order), prompted listener Sarah Lee Halpern to write to Dixon suggesting he name his show "Music and Mistakes With Tom Dixon." For a long time afterwards, every time Dixon made an error, he would say, "I'm sorry, Sarah Lee…" Dixon's less-formal atmosphere and willingness to admit his errors on the air endeared him to audiences. (Another listener once asked Dixon, "Who writes your mistakes?") For years Dixon signed off with the phrase "TTFN" (ta ta for now). Dick Crawford on the weekends was famous for playing opera records out of order and once played Bach's Brandenburg Concerto at the wrong speed.

From 1952 – 1973 KFAC broadcast performances from the Hollywood Bowl. The station pioneered an early form of stereo broadcast by having two microphones on different sides of the Bowl. Listeners at home who had two radios were instructed to place them seven to twelve feet apart and tune one to the 92.3 FM band and the other to KFAC's AM frequency, 1330. This method of producing stereo came to an end with the advent of FM multiplexing.

Bowl broadcasts featured an intermission program and interview hosted by Thomas Cassidy. On non-broadcast nights, Cassidy appeared onstage at intermission to welcome the audience to the venue. Ultimately he was christened "The Voice of the Hollywood Bowl." However, Ernest Fleishmann, who had been hired as executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, upon assuming management of the Hollywood Bowl, terminated Cassidy's appearances.

From 1953 to 1986 Carl Princi hosted "The World of Opera." Heard weekdays at 3 p.m., this hour-long program played selections from a wide variety of operas, both famous and obscure. Another well-known program was "Continental Varieties" which played every weekday afternoon at 3 PM with distinctive theme music by the English light music composer Eric Coates.

The Los Angeles Music Center, a three-theatre complex, opened in 1964. "Luncheon at the Music Center" was created in the early 1960s by Thomas Cassidy, who also hosted the program for its first eleven years. The progam was considered by many the pre-eminent talk show on which to plug theatrical and musical events in the Southern California area. Broadcast weekdays live from the then Pavilion Restaurant of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center (with recorded shows only on holidays), the show interviewed not only musicians but also actors and directors who were either involved in local productions or just visiting the area. The guests actually did eat lunch during the show – during musical interludes – though the host did not. Nonetheless, the presence of other diners at the restaurant gave the show one of its hallmark elements: the sounds of plates and cutlery clacking in the background. Originally the program was broadcast using one microphone in the middle of the table. Eventually that was increased to three, which decreased the need for everyone talking to lean so far forward. Martin Workman succeeded Thomas Cassidy and hosted the show for 14 years.

[edit] Sales and ultimate conversion

Cleveland Broadcasting purchased KFAC from the Cord estate, and was itself purchased after a successful campaign by Atlantic States Industries (ASI), a subsidiary of the McGavrin-Guild "rep" company. Under ASI, KFAC ended its ban on commercial "jingles." Previous policy had been that all commercials had to be voiced by KFAC announcers. While music beds, usually classical, were OK, ad agency jingles were anathema. ASI also instituted the combo operation of broadcast consoles, so that KFAC announcers finally became radio DJs. Previously, engineers had spun the records and announcers had merely announced, either live or on tape. When time came for FCC license renewal, a group of challengers also applied for the license, claiming that KFAC was not serving the local African-American community. This seemed a ludicrous charge because the station never discriminated against any group in its choice of featured composers or performers.

Investigations seemed to uncover that the protesting group had challenged other station licenses for the purposes of extorting substantial amounts of money from the station owners. It is not known precisely how much money was paid by the owners of KFAC to settle a possible lawsuit, but typically when a station’s license is being contested during the renewal process, there is a slim chance of it being sold.

In 1986 a group of investors headed by Louise Heifetz (daughter-in-law of the violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz) purchased the station for around $33 million. She and her hatchet-man, program director Robert Goldfarb fired most of the staff announcers in the hope that new talent would attract new listeners. The highly respected engineering staff was also laid off in the new years blood bath of 1987. Supposedly, Goldfarb had been hired to do the same for manager Wally World Smith at KUSC a few years before.

During the next three years the station's ratings declined and it was sold to Evergreen Media, who changed its format and recast it as KKBT-FM "(The Beat", which eventually moved to 100.3 FM), an R&B station. Several years ago, Ralph Guild, the top man in charge of the company that owned KFAC confided that putting the station up for sale was one of the biggest mistakes he ever made.

In 1989, the new owners donated both the KFAC call sign and the classical record library to University of Southern California Radio station KUSC, which assigned the call sign to its Santa Barbara satellite.

Today the 92.3 frequency is home to HOT 92.3 Old School and R&B. The KFAC call letters, at home on the Santa Barbara translator for KUSC for over a decade, were replaced when the station chose to have all of its affiliates have call letters ending with "SC."

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