KNX (AM) - History

History

KNX began broadcasting under the callsign 6ADZ on September 20, 1920. By 1922, the station was in competition with many other stations in the area, all sharing a single wavelength of 360 meters (at roughly 833 kHz). At the time, the AM broadcast band had not yet been defined, and stations were required to share frequencies. The station officially became KNX on May 4, 1922.

During the 1920s KNX, like most stations across the country, changed frequencies several times, landing on 1050 kHz as a result of the Federal Radio Commission's reconfigurations of the AM radio band in 1927 and 1928. In 1929, the station's transmitter was upgraded from 500 to 5,000 watts, and in 1932, was raised to 10,000 watts of power. During this time, the station changed owners and was then operated by the Western Broadcast Company. In 1933, the station moved its studios to another part of Hollywood, and was granted permission by the FCC to raise its output to 25,000 watts. The following year, KNX's transmitting power was raised to the nationwide maximum of 50,000 watts, which the station continues presently. It changed to its current 1070 kHz channel in 1941.

CBS radio purchased and began operating KNX as its West Coast flagship station in 1936, ending an eight year affiliation with KHJ. In 1938, the CBS Columbia Square studios were dedicated for KNX as well as West Coast operations for the entire CBS radio network; that October, the station carried Orson Welles' infamous version of The War of the Worlds (which KNX has aired every October 30 since). Several legendary performers from the Golden Age of American network radio broadcast from there, including Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Edgar Bergen, and situation comedy star Bob Crane, who was KNX morning man between 1957 and 1965 at the same time he was appearing as a featured supporting player on ABC-TV's The Donna Reed Show.

KNX was a strong competitor in the Los Angeles market while Crane was morning personality, but began declining in popularity after he left to star in the CBS-TV show Hogan's Heroes. Following the example of corporate sister station WCBS in New York, which had enjoyed renewed success with an all news format, KNX then became an all-news station in the spring of 1968; its first major breaking news coverage was of the assassination of Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, in June of that year.

In August 2005, KNX moved out of Columbia Square after 67 years of operations there, and began broadcasting from new studios on Wilshire Boulevard in an area known as the Miracle Mile.

In 2009 KNX adopted the slogan "All News, All the Time" for its promotions and advertising. It was previously used for 40 years by KFWB, KNX's historic rival in the news radio wars before both became sister stations in the 1995 merger of Westinghouse Electric (KFWB's owner) and CBS. KFWB's format change to news-talk in September 2009 now leaves KNX the only all-news outlet in the Los Angeles area, which is now emphasized in its alternate slogan, "L.A.'s only all-news radio station". A slight variation, "Southern California's only all-news radio station", is played at :30 past each hour before the news headlines.