KLSD

KLSD (1360 AM) is a Sports radio station, primarily affiliated with the Fox Sports Radio network. KLSD is based in San Diego, California, and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It operates with 5,000 watts by day and 1,000 watts at night. KLSD is San Diego's oldest licensed radio station, first going on the air in 1922. Its history includes previous formats Top 40 (as KGB), Adult standards (as KPOP) and progressive talk radio.

Sports programming began on November 12, 2007. KLSD broadcasts Los Angeles Chargers football games, in conjunction with the team's San Diego flagship radio station, co-owned KGB-FM. KLSD also broadcasts Los Angeles Lakers basketball, San Diego State University football and men's basketball, as well as college and pro football games from the Sports USA Radio Network and also was the broadcaster for the San Diego Fleet of the short-lived Alliance of American Football.

The station shares a broadcasting tower with KGB-FM and KHTS-FM in the East San Diego area. The station's studios are located in San Diego's Serra Mesa area on the northeast side.

History[]

Timeline of Significant events[]

• 1922: W.K. Azbill was issued a license and the Call sign KFBC, operating at 10 watts on 833.3 kHz.
• 1927: This license was assigned to Dr. Arthur Wells Yale.
• 1928: Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation bought the station and made George Bowles vice president and manager of the station, changing the call sign to KGB to follow his name.
• 1931: Don Lee, Inc. bought KGB.
• 1932 August 5: The Federal Radio Commission authorized KGB to increase its power from 500 watts to 1,000 watts. At that time the station operated on 1330 kHz.^[1]
• 1934: Don Lee died and the license went to his son Thomas Lee, and was managed by Marion R. Harris.
• 1942: The station began operating at 1360 kHz.
• 1949: KGB was operating at 1000 watts. Don Lee, Inc. was merged with Mutual Broadcasting Company.
• 1954: The station was sold to Marion R. Harris.
• 1958: KGB's studios moved from the Pickwick Hotel to 4141 Pacific Highway, and the transmitter moved to 52nd Street and Kalmia. Power was increased at the new transmitter site to 5,000 watts by day and 1,000 watts at night. (Because AM radio waves travel farther at night, some stations must reduce power after sunset to avoid interfering with stations in nearby cities operating on the same frequency.)
• 1996: Nationwide Communications acquires the station, it would merge with Jacor two years later
• 2000: Clear Channel acquires all stations owned by Jacor Communications.
• 2014: Clear Channel spins off its radio divisions into iHeartMedia

Early years (1922-1959)[]

KLSD is San Diego's oldest licensed radio station still broadcasting today, first going on the air as KFBC on July 14, 1922, broadcasting on 833.3 kHz (360 meters) and sharing the time with eight other San Diego radio stations. As the government expanded the AM band to numerous frequencies, the station soon moved to 1210 kHz, and later to 1330 kHz.

The call sign was changed to KGB in 1928, and the frequency moved to its present 1360 kHz in 1942. The call letters have nothing to do with the Soviet-era KGB. In 1928, the U.S.S.R. intelligence and internal security service was still known as the OGPU and would not become the KGB, Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, until 26 years later, in 1954.

Music era (1960-1981)[]

In the 1960s, KGB was an important player in the San Diego AM Top 40 race, being one of the first markets for the Boss Radio format. In the 1970s, with its FM sister station KGB-FM, KGB became an early adopter and pioneer of what is now called the album oriented rock format. KGB-FM still plays classic rock from that era on 101.5 MHz. The AM side of KGB returned to the top 40 format for a few years in the late 1970s under the moniker "13K", with a good amount of success.

Format and callsign changes (1982-2003)[]

As music was being phased off of AM radio, KGB became KCNN with an all-news format in 1982, using the audio from CNN Headline News, now the HLN Network. In 1986, the station switched to KPQP, playing Adult Standards. In 1997, the call sign changed to KPOP, with the same adult standards format. (The KPOP callsign did not associate the station with the music genre.)

Progressive Talk era (2004-2006)[]

The station became a progressive talk station under the call sign KLSD (with LSD standing for “Liberal San Diego”) in August 2004. Most of the programming came from the Air America Radio Network. KLSD also aired the Ed Schultz show from Jones Radio Network and Mike Malloy from Nova M Radio. Local programming included the morning show, hosted by Stacy Taylor^[2] (last heard on San Diego 1700 AM) and the nationally syndicated Air America host Jon Elliott.^[3] Its logo during this period was similar to that of sister station and progressive talk outlet KABQ in Albuquerque.

In August 2005, Clear Channel applied to the FCC to increase KLSD's power to 50,000 watts day and night, planning to share the six-tower KSDO array in Santee, California, since the owners of KLSD also owned the broadcast site for KSDO.^[4] However, due to the added cost, Clear Channel decided against the move, and KLSD still broadcasts at 5,000 watts day/1,000 watts night.

Sports era (2007-present)[]

KLSD's first logo as a sports station, used from 2007-2014

In August 2007, format change rumbles had started in the market and were reported by SDRadio.net. There was speculation that KLSD would soon adopt an all-sports format, possibly called "XTRA Sports." (The format and tagline was used by XETRA-AM for many years in the San Diego market.) Clear Channel had an agreement with Fox Sports Radio to market and distribute the service, adding to the speculation that the parent company wanted an outlet for Fox Sports in San Diego.

About October 22, the station started (possibly accidentally) slipping in station identifications for the name "KHTS-FM HD-3," to which the Air America content was rumored to be moving. Jon Elliot had also mentioned "93.3 HD-3" as a possible new home for the Air America and similar programs, implying the Progressive Talk format would be leaving KLSD for an HD Radio channel, only available to owners of HD radio receivers.

When it became known that KLSD was going to change format from liberal talk to sports talk, listeners organized and held rallies to attempt to persuade Clear Channel to keep the format.^[5][6][7] Station officials at first denied the rumor.^[8] A documentary titled Save KLSD: Media Consolidation and Local Radio was being made about the effort.^[9][10]

On November 12, 2007, KLSD flipped to the new format as XTRA Sports 1360, inheriting the former branding from XETRA-AM, which would change its callsign to XEWW a month later. The first local live program, which aired at 3 p.m. that day, was Lee Hacksaw Hamilton. Hamilton left the station in 2008 when his contract was not renewed.

During the first ratings period since the format change to sports, Winter 2008, KLSD’s ratings dropped below the minimum Arbitron standard of 0.3. As a comparison, the progressive radio format of KLSD last received a 1.6 for Fall 2007. This was the first time in station history when the station did not meet the minimum ratings threshold.

On July 21, 2014, KLSD rebranded as "Xtra 1360 Fox Sports San Diego" as a partnership with the Fox Sports San Diego TV network.

In September 2014, Clear Channel Communications became iHeartMedia.

KLSD’s second logo as a sports station, used from 2014-2021

Today, San Diego is served by two other English language sports radio stations, Entercom-owned KWFN (97.3 FM), and Bill Hagen’s XEPRS (1090 AM).

References[]

External links[]

• XTRA 1360 Fox Sports San Diego official website
• KLSD in the FCC AM station database
• KLSD on Radio-Locator
• KLSD in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

• FCC History Cards for KLSD
• K277DH in the FCC FM station database
• K277DH on Radio-Locator
• San Diego Radio History by Alex Cosper
• History of KGB Radio by David Leonard
• "KLSD still makes waves at 85" from North County Times
• "KPOP morphs into KLSD" by Joe Crawford
• San Diego, California antenna sites 2005

Coordinates: 32°43′49″N 117°05′01″W / 32.73028°N 117.08361°W / 32.73028; -117.08361