KBLA 1580 AM

A broadcast radio station licensed to Santa Monica, California, serving the Greater Los Angeles area on 1580 AM. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting through Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Licensee, LLC, and operates a progressive talk format under the direction of broadcaster Tavis Smiley. The station's history spans more than seven decades, beginning in 1947 as KOWL, a 5,000-watt daytime-only station owned by Arthur H. Croghan. In its earliest years the station programmed middle-of-the-road music, with broadcaster and entertainer Gene Autry among its early investors. In 1956 the station adopted the call sign KDAY and moved through top 40, rock, and rhythm and blues formats over the following decades. A landmark moment in the station's history came in 1983, when KDAY became the first station in the Los Angeles market to broadcast hip hop music, a move that made it the most listened-to station among Black audiences in the region. The 1990s brought a series of ownership and format changes. Fred Sands purchased the station in 1990; the following year KDAY was renamed KBLA and shifted to a business news format. That format lasted approximately one year before the station adopted a Korean-language format. Keymarket Communications acquired KBLA in 1993, and subsequent corporate mergers transferred ownership to River City Broadcasting in 1995 and Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996. Radio Unica purchased the station in 1998 and incorporated it into a national Spanish-language radio network. Multicultural Broadcasting acquired KBLA in 2003 and converted the station to a Spanish Christian format. In 2020 Tavis Smiley completed a purchase of the station and launched a progressive talk format, which the station continues to operate.