KMPC

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KMPC
City of license	Los Angeles, California
Broadcast area	Greater Los Angeles
Branding	1540 The Ticket
First air date	February 19, 1927
Frequency	1540 (kHz)
Format	Sports/Talk
Power	50,000 watts (Day) 37,000 watts (Night)
Class	B
Callsign meaning	McMillan Petroleum Company (former owner)
Owner	Sporting News Radio (a subsidiary of American City Business Journals)
Website	www.1540theticket.com

KMPC-1540 is known to the Los Angeles and Orange County area as "1540 The Ticket". It is owned and operated by the radio division of the Sporting News magazine, although some of the network's daily programming does not air on the station, except in certain situations. It is an all-sports formatted AM station which covers San Diego Chargers football (one of two flagship stations for the Chargers Radio Network; the other being KIOZ-FM in San Diego), and selected Westwood One sports programming not carried by CBS Radio's KFWB-AM and KLSX-FM. Among the broadcasts that KMPC carries from Westwood One, they include NCAA basketball, PGA golf tournament updates (mostly those covered from CBS Sports television), NFL football (including Monday Night Football on occasion), and more.

In 2006, KMPC lost the broadcast rights to USC basketball and football to rival KSPN-AM, and in response, the station acquired the local broadcast rights of the University of Notre Dame's football games from Westwood One. The station also no longer covers NASCAR races after having done so for several years.

Among the station's regular talk-show hosts include Tony Bruno, who began his morning show in April 2005 following the departure of Roger Lodge; long-time local sports talk host Dave Smith (whose show became part of Sporting News Radio in June 2006), and a late-afternoon show hosted by former USC football player Petros Papadakis.

A new addition to KMPC was former Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter, who filled in for Roggin on an early-June 2005 broadcast.

Roger Nadel, former GM of all-news KNX in Los Angeles, is the station's VP/GM and Program Director.

In June 2006, former afternoon host and current KNBC-TV sports director Fred Roggin left the station and a new program, the Atlanta-based 2 Live Stews, took his place. Roggin's departure (due to increased commitments to KNBC and NBC Sports) triggered a shift in the station's daily programming lineup, which had Smith and Papadakis switch dayparts, which in turn accommodated the Los Angeles debut of the 2 Live Stews.

On September 5, 2006, KMPC's parent company was sold to American City Business Journals for an undisclosed price, along with similarly-formatted stations in New York City, Chicago, and Boston, Sporting News Radio, and The Sporting News magazine.

There are currently no local shows on the station. Bob Keisser of the Long Beach Press-Telegram has said that KMPC is "on life support." (Page B2, December 29, 2006 issue).

On March 30, 2007, AllAccess.com, an online news service covering the radio and music industries, reported that KMPC had been sold to Radio Korea "for an undisclosed price."

[edit] 1540 history

The history of this frequency goes back to its days as KPOL. It aired a wide variety of formats until the early 1980s. KPOL also advertised on the 1959 television series Home Run Derby.

Throughout the 1980s and much of the 1990s, this frequency broadcast in Spanish, first as KXEZ then as KXMG "Mega 1540." In 1999, One on One Sports Inc. of Northbrook, Illinois purchased the station and converted it to sports radio. It was part of the sale to Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures in 2001.

[edit] KMPC-710

Prior to November 21, 1997 the call letters KMPC were assigned on AM-710, and it was at one time one of the top AM radio stations in Southern California. In the 1960s and 70s, it featured a number of notable DJs, including Dick Whittinghill, Robert W. Morgan, Bob Arbogast, Geoff Edwards, Ira Cook, Roger Carroll, Wink Martindale, Jim Lange, Gary Owens, Johnny Magnus, Kathy Gori, and Sonny Melendrez.

A powerhouse in local sports reporting, KMPC-710 broadcast Los Angeles Rams, California Angels, and UCLA football games. Some of the notable sports announcers were Fred Hessler, Dave Niehaus, and Dick Enberg.

KMPC-710 was also noted for its extensive use of field reporters and news/traffic aircraft. It was also the first station to issue Sigalert traffic alerts.

At one time, KMPC was owned by the famous singing cowboy Gene Autry.

KMPC appeared fictionally in the Steven Spielberg movie "1941" (see 1941 (film), the dance contest broadcast), and in That Thing You Do (brief interview).

Image: Brown Derby Restaurant, Geoff Edwards KMPC-710 Billboard

[edit] External links

• 1540 The Ticket
• Tony Bruno Show
• KMPC-710 Tribute Site
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KMPC
• Aerial photo of KMPC transmitter from Google Local