KSCA (101.9

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

, "LA Nueva 101.9") is a commercial FM

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to

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and broadcasting to the

Greater Los Angeles area Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, ...

. KSCA is owned by

TelevisaUnivision TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in Miami and Mexico City that owns American Spanish language broadcast network Univision and free-to-air channels in Mexico such as ...

, and it airs a

regional Mexican Regional Mexican music refers collectively to the regional subgenres of the country music of Mexico and its derivatives from the Southwestern United States. Each subgenre is representative of a certain region and its popularity also varies by ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. The station has studios and offices on Center Drive (near Interstate 405) in West Los Angeles. KSCA's

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Mount Wilson. KSCA broadcasts in the HD Radio format. KSCA is also broadcast on a 90-

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

booster station in Santa Clarita, California, KSCA-FM1 at 101.9 FM.

History

Early years

The station first signed on the air on March 22, 1952 as KUTE, originally programming a "good music" format from studios in downtown Los Angeles and transmitter atop Flint Peak, just west of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was owned by Robert P. Adams, who served as its president and general manager. In 1972, KUTE was sold to the Progress Radio Network (which changed its name to Tracy Broadcasting one year later) and changed hands again in 1979 to Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, a black-owned radio company based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was during this tenure that KUTE shifted to a Disco format under Inner City's first year of ownership.

KUTE - Urban Contemporary and The Quiet Storm

Under Inner City's ownership, KUTE became one of the original stations in the United States to launch a format that would later be called

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...

(after shifting away from Disco in 1980), playing the latest R&B,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

, featuring local DJs such as "Humble Harve", Brian Roberts and "Lucky Pierre." KUTE was also the starting point for many successful radio careers, including veteran program director Rick Thomas, who was hired in 1982 to do weekends on air by then-PD Lucky Pierre. During this time, mornings were hosted by Brian Roberts, afternoon drive by Charlie Fox and evenings with Joe Greene. Weekends also featured Ed Mann, Buster Jones, Scott Lockwood and Strawberry Jan Marie. At 2:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings, KUTE would host an hour of disco/dance mixes, usually pre-mixed vinyl albums specially created for DJs. KUTE was one of the first radio stations to air a "mega-mix" when the "

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

Mega-Mix" debuted in the summer of 1983, capitalizing on the success of Jackson's Thriller album earlier in the year. DJ Mario Flores later hosted a disco dance DJ 12" specialty show Sunday mornings from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. featuring 15-minute disco mixes, mixed by well known DJs around the U.S. KUTE was quite successful in this format, and became a template for the Urban Adult Contemporary stations of today. In late 1983, KUTE changed its format and name to "The Quiet Storm", playing very mellow, soft, contemporary smooth jazz. Just two years later, in August 1985,

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

's Golden West Broadcasters, which owned KMPC (now KSPN), bought KUTE in the range between $10 and $16 million.

KMPC - "Full Spectrum Rock"

Golden West initially maintained the Quiet Storm format, but its ratings plummeted by 50% in 1987, prompting the station to fire its airstaff and prepare for a new direction. On October 4, 1987, KUTE changed its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

to KMPC-FM, and flipped to a format dubbed "Full Spectrum Rock", a mixture of

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

, adult album alternative and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

. Many of the DJs who were let go from the defunct KMET that same year joined KMPC-FM, including Paraquat Kelley, Cynthia Foxx and Jim Ladd. J. J. Jackson, veteran of KLOS throughout the 1970s, and one of the original MTV VJs in the early 1980s, was program director at this time.

The short-lived KEDG - "The Edge"

In March 1989, the call letters were once again changed, this time to KEDG, referred to by listeners as "The Edge." KEDG continued the same rock format as its predecessor until May 12, 1989, when its call letters and format were once again changed.

KLIT - "K-Lite"

On May 12, 1989, the station adopted a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format, rebranded as "K-Lite", and changed call letters to KLIT.

FM 101.9 - "LA's Finest Rock"

On July 1, 1994, at 5 p.m., KLIT reverted to KMPC's and KEDG's adult album alternative ("AAA") format as "FM 101.9", featuring the Dr. Demento show in the afternoons. Also added to the already eclectic playlist were the then new folk-rock artists that became very popular during the resurgence of that genre in the 1990s, including Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, The Wallflowers, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin and

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She is noted for her Optimism, optimistic and Idealism, idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including Rock music, rock, Po ...

(the latter artist's " All I Wanna Do" was the first song played). Upon FCC approval, the

switched to KSCA on September 1, 1994. FM 101.9 was known as "Southern California's Album Alternative", which later morphed into "LA's Finest Rock". Mike Morrison joined as Program Director from WXPN in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Nicole Sandler, formerly with KLOS and The Mark & Brian Show, joined for middays. The station later hired Chuck Moshontz, also from KLOS and paired him with Nicole to do mornings. After the first year, Sandler was promoted to Music Director. Others on the staff included Mimi Chen, Rich Guzmán, Terry Gladstone, Anita Gevinson and Merilee Kelly. The "KSCA Music Hall" (the hallway outside the deejay booth) hosted live performances by dozens of artists, some of whom had their debuts there before going on to superstardom, including the Dave Matthews Band. The AAA format lasted until midnight on February 5, 1997, when Golden West Broadcasting sold off its last radio property. The last song on "FM 101.9" was " Her Majesty" by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, which was preceded by a brief monologue from general manager of KSCA, Bill Ward.

Switch to Spanish-language programming

KSCA was bought by the Heftel Broadcasting Corporation in February 1997 for $112.5 million. At 12:15 a.m. on February 5, the station signed off the air for about six hours; around 6:15 that evening, following a 12-hour loop of a laugh track, KSCA became "La Nueva 101.9," switching to a Spanish-language Ranchera music format, aimed at Los Angeles' growing Mexican-American population. At the time,

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

only had a couple of full power FM stations broadcasting in Spanish; KLVE, airing a Latin Soft AC format, and KLAX-FM, which was also broadcasting Regional Mexican music. KSCA's morning host, Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo, co-sponsored a large immigration rally in Los Angeles on March 25, 2006, along with other local radio personalities including KLAX's "El Cucuy" Renán Almendaríz. An estimated half-million protesters marched through Downtown Los Angeles. The morning show is now called "El Bueno, La Mala y El Feo" ("The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"). On September 16, 2011, KSCA rebranded as "LA 101.9". On March 1, 2016, the station rebranded again to "Zona MX 101.9". However, KSCA would return to the "LA 101.9" branding. On Sunday February 5, 2023 The Station Would Rebrand To LA Nueva 101.9, A tribute to the station when it first began in February 5, 1997. In March 2019, KSCA joined the Uforia Audio Network, one of two networks owned by Univision.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for KSCALA 101.9 official website
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at SoCalRadioHistory.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Ksca SCA Regional Mexican radio stations in the United States SCA Univision Radio Network stations Glendale, California Mexican-American culture in Los Angeles Radio stations established in 1973 1973 establishments in California Mass media in Los Angeles County, California