I am old enough to remember when FM radio was a novelty. Back in the days of Brother John on KABC Love Radio. The early days of KMET and local standouts like KNAC (Long Beach), KTBT (Garden Grove) and KYMS (Santa Ana). I also recall with utter fondness the emergence of a puny little station that broadcast from the basement of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church that was known as KPPC.

KABC became KLOS and while the station grew a dedicated following, too soon it became a hollow shell of it’s former self – even though the underground format outlasted that of their main rival KMET.

KMET was born from the ashes of an all-jazz format and after turning to underground rock they donated their entire jazz record collection to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had lost his personal jazz collection in a devastating house fire. (I’ll bet the KWVE smooth jazz folks would like to have some of that back, please…)

KPPC emerged as the ultimate leader in frivolity and cutting-edge programming with an eclectic on-air staff and very few rules. I even heard Steven Segal (The Obscene Steven Clean) say that he programmed the music on his show by rolling dice. And who will ever forget their audio coverage of the famed Rose Parade. Brilliance! Then it happened. The on-air staff was fired en-masse and the format began to change. With that went the listeners and the station soon folded. The frequency was redeemed by Shadoe Stevens (and others) as KROQ but due to lack of proper funding and promotion the once-promising project went dark – and it was ultimately reborn as what we currently get when we tune in our local K-ROCK.

KNAC went through a couple free-form versions before converting to Heavy Metal and ultimately Spanish-Language programming. KTBT became a country station and KYMS was born-again as a Christian music station.

If we were fortunate enough to live in Southern OC we could get 91X from San Diego/Tijuana but reception quality depended on the thickness of the marine layer.

Until the emergence of INDIE 103.1, we were subjected to complete desolation if we were searching for something progressive and free of corporate knoodling. But let’s face it. As unique as INDIE was, it was doomed to failure from the start. Too many commercials for the listener’s taste and too few commercials for the owner’s taste.

And now we have come full-circle yet again. But look on the bright side, y’all…at least we have another Spanish-Language station in LA!

How truly, truly sad…

“The radio has learned all of my favorite tunes”

John Prine