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KWVE (AM)

KWVE (1110 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles as a simulcast of Christian talk and teaching station KWVE-FM. The station is operated by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, who acquired the station on September 8, 2023.[2][3][4]

Simulcasting KWVE-FM San Clemente

1110 kHz

K-Wave 107.9 FM & 1110 AM

1942 (1942)

  • KPAS (1942–1945)
  • KXLA (1945–1959)
  • KRLA (1959–2000)
  • KSPN (2000–2003)
  • KDIS (2003–2017)
  • KRDC (2017–2023)

K-Wave

FCC

25076

B

  • 50,000 watts (day)
  • 20,000 watts (night)

99.1 K256CX (Pasadena)

KWVE is powered at 50,000 watts during the day and 20,000 watts at night and uses a directional antenna at all times.[5] It broadcast in the HD Radio (hybrid) format until late 2014 when all Radio Disney affiliates were sold except for the Los Angeles station which returned to analog transmissions.[6] KWVE is still licensed for digital (HD) operation.[7]


For 18 years, under the ownership of The Walt Disney Company, AM 1110 was the flagship station for Radio Disney, carrying the main service from 2003 to 2017 as KDIS, then Radio Disney Country from 2017 to its late 2020 shutdown as KRDC. Until September 8, 2023, KRDC had simulcast former sister station KSPN, the Los Angeles market's primary ESPN Radio affiliate, as the last station to be operated by Disney.[3][8]

Transmitter[edit]

In 1987, KRLA moved its transmitter site from South El Monte to Irwindale, where a similar antenna array was installed.[77] During the 1990s, KRLA was authorized to increase nighttime power from 10,000 to 20,000 watts. When the power increase went into effect, KRLA started broadcasting from the new transmitter site in Irwindale. This is a few miles north of the old El Monte site.[77]


The El Monte transmitter building still stands as a shell. The entire inside is burned out; however, there are still clues to its historic past, namely the first incarnation of its directional antenna arrays (four in-line 135-degree towers, one days, four nights), the second incarnation (four 135-degree towers in a parallelogram, days and a 90-, two 135-, and a 180-degree towers, nights), and the last incarnation, with seven total towers, four days and four nights, with one tower in common, days and nights). There are numerous ducts to keep the equipment cool and an underground channel to divert the cooling water for the transmitters. A well nearby supplied the water. Still visible is the wooden archway where the transmission cables gently bent toward underground conduits running to the transmission towers in the nearby field. All that remains of these towers are the concrete pylons, all aligned as described.


The present Irwindale site includes five 135-degree towers, two days and four nights, with one in common. The significantly northern location, relative to the old El Monte site, allows the large "Inland Empire" to be served with 50,000 watts and only two towers, not four, days, and the greater Los Angeles metro to be served with 20,000 watts and four towers, nights.

in the FCC AM station database

KWVE

in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

KWVE

FCC History Cards for KWVE

in the FCC FM station database

K256CX

at FCCdata.org

K256CX

The "KRLA Beat" website, one of America's earliest rock-n-roll newspapers

Beem, Donald C. (1980). (PDF). Fullerton, California: California State University, Fullerton. p. 278. Masters thesis

Standard Broadcast Station KRLA: A Case Study

Earl, Bill (1991). (PDF). Desert Rose.

Dream-House: The history of a major West Coast radio station and Southern California's 50 years of "Radio Eleven-Ten"