KBIG AM 740

KBIG AM 740:
RADIO CATALINA

By David Fiorella and Jim Hilliker

KBIG AM 740 broadcast from Avalon (Catalina Island). At one time, they broadcast from a ship called the S.S. Catalina. It would broadcast sailing into the Avalon Harbor. The chief host was a gentleman by the name of Carl "Mr. Big" Baily.

KBIG went on the air around June 1952 and was basically a middle of the road station. Its start up song was quite probably Twenty Six Miles (Across the Sea) by The Four Preps. Artists like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney, Kay Starr and Vic Damone were its main staple. It was known as Radio Catalina.

According to FCC records, the station changed calls twice in one year, first becoming KGOL on April 21, 1963 and then KGLM on May 2. (It changed back to KBIG on January 12, 1965.)

Later on, they purchased the FM outlet at 104.3, using the now-familiar calls KBIG FM, and simulcast most of their programming through the late 1960s or very early 1970s. As KBIG AM was only a daytime station, the night programming was on the FM only. KBIG-FM played instrumentals and was classified as a Beautiful Music station.

The station was purchased by the Mormon Church and the call letters were changed to KBRT on August 12, 1974. With the purchase of 104.3, the FM eventually became the main music station. KBIG-FM's chief competition was KOST 103.5 FM. Dick Clark (of American Bandstand Fame) advertised on television in behalf of KOST-FM. Meanwhile actress Teri Garr would advertise KBIG-FM.

Some time later, KBIG FM changed its format to more of a middle of the road vocal type station. It did full battle with KOST competing for the same audience. It changed formats again with a light album rock flavor which KBIG-FM is what it is today. Although now defunct, KBIG AM 740 was the original KBIG.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: "K-Bright" (KBRT) is still on the air at AM 740 as an all-talk Christian station. It's always been a 10,000 watt daytimer, sunrise to sunset only...back in the '80s, they tried being on at night with low post-sunset power, but still got too much interference from KCBS-740 in San Francisco. So, KBRT-740 still signs off each day at sunset. The 10kw directional antenna array and transmitter is still on Catalina Island.

KBIG 104.3 is an Adult Contemporary station similar to KOST 103.5.

MR. LUDWIG MAXIMILIAN SHARES SOME MEMORIES FOR US

Here on my ranch in Langasi, Ecuador, I remember with nostalgia those by gone days of old L.A. Radio. Growing up in Palos Verdes and Mendocino, California I recall a golden era in broadcasting in which Beautiful Music was ubiquitous. Through elementary school and high school my friends and I went to the old ice rink which we called "The Old Place" every Friday there in Harbor City. During the break we sipped hot chocolate from the old clunker vending machine and were always accompanied by the greatest of the beautiful music stations--the legendary KBIG. We called it "The KBIG Zone."

KBIG transmitted grocery store music throughout the southland for over thirty years during a golden era in which different vocalists and orchestras interpreted the same popular song. KBIG featured a documentary segment called Today's World with Phil Reed, hourly news updates, and of course its own it house choral singers led by Sally Stevens who sang the stations jingles. I have been unsuccessful in locating the old jingles either at the Museum of Radio and Television or on the web in mp3 files. All that survives are two rare recordings on cassette of the great KBIG.

Also, I was in Southern California during the days of KPRZ during the early 1980s. The broadcast day started off with Gary Owens at 7am followed by Jerry Mason at 10am. At 4pm Dick Whittinghill took over until 7pm when Johnny Magnus entered the studio. His trademark was "The Weather With a Beat". Johnny offered up "big triple scoops of pure nostalgia". One lone cassette survives of KPRZ broadcasts.

At midnight the Mutual Radio affiliate transmitted the Larry King Show until 5am Monday thru Friday. At first on Saturdays and Sundays Mutual Radio transmitted The Best of King. Jim Bohannon was a popular guest host and eventually got his own show in the Saturday slot.

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