Remembering KNAC, the pure rock heavy metal radio station of the ’80s and ’90s

Often in radio, the smaller stations are the most interesting. Case in point is KNAC (now KBUE, 105.5 FM). Licensed to Long Beach, the little station set the standard for creative programming during its rock and roll tenure.

Even the history of KNAC is interesting. The construction permit was actually issued to Saul Levine — an early pioneer in FM broadcasting —  in 1957. Levine sold the permit to Long Beach FM Broadcasting and instead launched KBCA (now KKGO-FM, 105.1) from Mount Wilson in 1959 … a station he still owns and operates today.

Long Beach FM then sold the permit to Harriscope Music Corporation which built the transmitter for 105.5 on Signal Hill, using the call letters KLFM. The original format was top-40, making its debut on New Year’s Day of 1961. McCray Broadcasting took over in 1966 and changed the calls to KNAC, with a middle-of-the-road format that lasted only a few months before going off the air. Another sale in 1967 brought in Cities Broadcasting and a freeform rock format, similar to many other FM stations of the time.

You can imagine the problems a station such as this would have. AM was still dominant in radio and there were few FM radios in the hands of consumers. In addition, KNAC — in spite of a power increase to 2100 watts compared to the original 330 watts — had a very limited signal that barely reached outside of Long Beach. No wonder it struggled.

But by the 1970s, it was on its way. Jim Ladd, later moving to KLOS (95.5 FM), got his start locally on KNAC and is just one example of the station’s talent. The freeform/progressive music lasted until 1980 when the station went “new wave” and played a mix of new music, punk, and techno under the moniker “Rock and Rhythm” including music from the Flamin’ Groovies, The Jam, Lone Justice, The Blasters, Elvis Costello, UB40 and Dave Edmunds. If you heard them on similarly-formatted KROQ (106.7 FM), they were probably played on KNAC first.

But that signal still limited its popularity. Enter Fred Sands, who bought the station out of bankruptcy in 1984, moved the transmitter to nearby Dominguez Hills for better coverage and decided to go with an entirely new sound: Heavy Metal. Pure Rock KNAC launched on January 8, 1986.

The station was designed to attract a younger audience, and it did. I recall numerous kids wearing Pure Rock T-shirts or those of bands related to the station when I started teaching at Huntington Park High School. Kids were enamored with the station, as were fans from all over the city. Listeners were rabidly loyal … an example of what happens when you play music that is missing from other stations and you super-serve your audience.

KNAC was credited with exposing or launching bands that would go on to great success: Metallica, Megadeth, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Stryper, Pantera, White Zombie, and even Guns ‘N Roses were core KNAC artists. It lasted until February 15, 1995, when Metallica’s “Fade to Black” was played and KNAC signed off the air to become Ranchera music formatted KBUE.

On January 22nd, the station is being inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame at a celebration at the Grand Theater in Anaheim. In celebration of that, along with the memory of its launch and demise, Michael Stark — a one-time KNAC staffer  — will pay tribute to the station by running recordings of the station on his internet webstream

“On my LA Radio Studio stream, I’ve assembled around 6 full days of programming from the station’s run,” Stark told me. “Various shows, various events, various crazy (stuff) from thirty-plus years ago. Most of it un-scoped and just as it aired originally,” he said.

You can listen on TuneIn at:  https://bit.ly/LARadioStudio, now through February 15th.

No Fishing

Salem Media has sold KFSH/Anaheim (95.9 FM) along with six other similarly-formatted stations across the country. This will bring an end to the contemporary Christian format when EMF — owner of KKLQ (100.3 FM) — takes control in about a month.

Total for the seven stations? $80 million, plus a $10 million marketing agreement. How the mighty have fallen. There was a time when KFSH was worth that much alone.

The new format? It will probably be something similar … EMF says all of the new stations will run either their Contemporary Christian Air-1 or K-Love formats; the former targeting a slightly younger audience. In the case of The Fish, the likely format will thus be Air-1, since K-Love is already running on KKLQ.

However, there are rumors of a Spanish version of Air-1 coming to town soon, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

For now, Salem is planning to keep its Christian talk and conservative talk stations intact; locally this includes KKLA (99.5 FM) and KRLA (870 AM).

Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com