KFSH-FM

KFSH-FM
City La Mirada, California
Broadcast area Orange County, California
Branding 95.9 The Fish
Slogan "Safe For The Whole Family"
Frequency 95.9 (MHz)
First air date 1960
Format Contemporary Christian Music
ERP 6,000 watts
HAAT 100 meters
Class A
Facility ID 2195
Callsign meaning K FiS H
Owner Salem Media Group
(New Inspiration Broadcasting Company)
Webcast Listen Live
Website thefishla.com

KFSH-FM is a radio station in the far southern Los Angeles & Orange County, California metropolitan area broadcasting on the FM dial at 95.9 mHz with a contemporary Christian music format full-time. It is owned by the Salem Media Group and is known as "The Fish". The branding is a reference to the ichthys, the ancient fish icon used by the Christian church from its birth during the Roman Empire to the present, and the icon itself is part of the station logo. The station has studios in Glendale with the transmitter based in Orange.

Station history

KEZY went on the air on 1190 (first with only 1,000 watts), with studios at the Disneyland Hotel. The first voice heard on KEZY when it signed on in 1959 was that of K-9 TV star, Lassie. Lassie's owner, Rudd Weatherwax was an investor in the station and the hotel. It was first known as K-EZY, or K-easy, likely due to an easy listening music type of format in Anaheim, California serving the Orange County listening area. Sometime around 1968-'69, KEZY moved to a larger complex for its studios and offices, located (coincidentally) at 1190 East Ball Road in Anaheim, near the intersection of Ball Road and East Street. It was around this time that KEZY turned to a top-40/pop/rock format, and became the station Orange County teens tuned to in the late-'60s and early-'70s.

96 FM KEZY and close-spaced with class-B KLOS, Los Angeles was a class-A FM licensed in Anaheim with transmitter in Villa Park. KEZY FM had a number of formats, including their highly successful run as a CHR format throughout the '80's and as a AC format throughout the '90's. From 1993 to 1996, it was the flagship station for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (now Anaheim Ducks) National Hockey League team. In the mid 1990s KEZY advertised itself with the slogan "Hits of the 80's and 90's with no rap or hard rock, 95.9 The All New KEZY" as an alternative to the rise in popularity of hip-hop music during that decade. Air staff during this time included John Fox (previously at B-100, San Diego) and Liz Pennington in the morning, April Whitney - later, Carolyn Hogenrad middays, and music director Scott Free in the afternoons.

In 1999, the station went through the first of two ownership changes, first to Jacor Communications, which itself was purchased in 1999 by Clear Channel Communications, the largest U.S. radio broadcasting group. Jacor/CC changed the call letters to KXMX, completed the construction permit for a power increase, and branded the station with its corporate "Mix" format; Angel and Randy "Ranman" DeWitt, formerly of KHTS-FM Channel 933 in San Diego, were two of the first DJ's to appear on the rechristened station. The Mix briefly maintained a remote studio in the Block at Orange shopping center. KEZY AM's call letters changed to KGBN.

The Mix only lasted about a year. In 2000, as part of conditions set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to approve its merger with AMFM Inc., Clear Channel sold KXMX to Salem Communications.

Salem changed the call letters to KFSH and introduced "The Fish" format of contemporary Christian music, which has since been replicated at other Salem radio stations nationwide. The studios were moved to the Salem Los Angeles broadcasting studios in Glendale, about ten miles north of downtown Los Angeles, in shared facilities with then sister stations KXMX-AM, KKLA-FM, KRLA-AM and KTIE-AM.

The Ball Road studios of the former KEZY at the intersection of Ball Road & East, often referred to as "the dumpy little building on Ball Road" by morning DJ John Fox, were demolished in 2008 and the land absorbed into the neighboring Ganahl Lumber Yard.

In November 2008, KFSH's city of license changed from Anaheim to La Mirada, approximately five to six miles northwest, on the border between Los Angeles and Orange counties.

In March 2012, KFSH began airing the nationally syndicated Delilah show each weeknight.

Reception issues

Though classified as a Los Angeles radio station in its slogan (The Fish LA) and in Los Angeles radio listings, KFSH's 6,000-watt signal can only be heard clearly throughout Orange County, its primary listening area for most of its history. The stereo signal reaches as far as Norwalk, Whittier and Long Beach in Los Angeles County but is weaker in the Santa Monica area to the west and the Riverside-San Bernardino area to the east. KFSH cannot be clearly received in the north Los Angeles area [1] and to the north-west in the San Fernando & San Gabriel valleys as a result of KCAQ interference and poor signal strength. This leaves the Los Angeles metro largely without a local contemporary Christian radio station. The low coverage micro repeaters of KYLA and KTLW which rebroadcast the nationally syndicated Christian rock station Air 1 reaches only small portions of the LA metro area at a time.

FishFest

Since 2002 KFSH has hosted a contemporary Christian music festival, FishFest,[2] currently held at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, California in early summer.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KFSH&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
  2. ↑ "FishFest 2011", information page at KFSH website, ; retrieved 29 May 2011.

Coordinates: 33°49′52″N 117°48′36″W / 33.831°N 117.810°W / 33.831; -117.810

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