KHJ (AM) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
93 KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California was one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s.KHJ went on the air in 1922 with a frequency of 930 kHz. This was at a time when several stations shared one frequency for short periods of time each day.
Originally owned by the Los Angeles Times newspaper, it was purchased by Don Lee, a well-known local automobile dealer. Eventually the entire broadcasting company, including KHJ and other stations, was merged into RKO General. The call letters were said to stand for "Kindness, Happiness, and Joy". Famous entertainers of the period, such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, appeared on KHJ. At one point the station employed its own 50-piece orchestra to back up musical guests. In fact, in an historic 1931 broadcast (which partially survives today), KHJ introduced the world to an up-and-coming singer named Bing Crosby. Pat Weaver (the father of Sigourney Weaver, president of NBC, and creator of The Today Show and The Tonight Show) worked there as an announcer.
During the 1960s, programmer Bill Drake was brought in as a consultant. He created a very tight sound built on a restrictive playlist, and tight controls on what was said by the announcers (although a few superstar announcers, such as Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele were allowed to develop their own on-air personalities). Also part of the format, which came to be known as "Boss Radio", was a package of memorable jingles performed by the Johnny Mann Singers.
The format brought high ratings to the station through the late 1970s until FM radio became the dominant way to broadcast popular music. RKO General encountered difficult challenges to their radio and television licenses and was ultimately forced by the FCC to sell off their broadcast properties. KHJ signed off the air as such in January 31, 1986. That evening, on what turned out to be KHJ's final-to-date English-language broadcast, many disc jockeys from throughout KHJ's heyday of Boss Radio (including Robert W. Morgan, M.G. Kelly, Bobby Ocean, and Boss Radio founder Ron Jacobs) reunited for a farewell broadcast, playing the records that had made KHJ a popular AM station in the 1960s and 1970s. At the stroke of midnight, the station flipped its call letters to that of its FM sister station, KRTH, which it retained until RKO sold off its properties.
In the late 1980s, the 93 AM frequency became a full-time Spanish-language station, adopting the call sign KKHJ. But to some sensitive English-speaking listeners, pronouncing the call letters in Spanish would have also meant mentioning a word that would be too offensive. So in 2000 (in an era where new or newly-owned/managed stations would be granted four-letter call signs), the FCC granted a rare return to the original three-letter call sign, KHJ.
Today, KHJ continues airing as a Spanish-language station.
Note in passing: The KHJ call letters were also used for an FM station KHJ-FM (now KRTH-FM, aka "K-Earth 101" at 101.1 MHz) and a television station KHJ-TV (now KCAL-TV channel 9).
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