KFOO (1440 AM) is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Riverside, California, and broadcasts to the Riverside—San Bernardino, California, area. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and airs an all-news radio format as an affiliate of Black Information Network. The KFOO studios are located in Riverside and the transmitter tower is in Colton along the Santa Ana River.
History
Early years The station first signed on November 15, 1941, owned by Broadcasting Corporation of America under the call sign KPRO. Operating at 1440 kHz,"Chino Program Over New Riverside Radio Heard Sunday," Chino Champion,November 21, 1941, page 1 it was headquartered at 3401 Russell Street in Riverside.Advertisement, The San Bernardino Daily Sun, November 14, 1942, page 7
In 1944, the station received Blue Network programming.Virginia Bell, "KPRO Dialites" (advertisement), San Bernardino Daily Sun, April 27, 1944, page 10 In 1945, KPRO's programs included Philco Hall of Fame, America's Town Meeting, Counterspy, Gangbusters, This Is Your F.B.I., Walter Winchell, Drew Pearson, Tom Breneman, The Breakfast Club, Glamour Manor, Ladies Be Seated, John B. Kennedy, Baukhage Talking, Ethel and Albert, Guy Lombardo, The Metropolitan Opera, Cavalcade of Sports and The Ford Sunday Evening Hour.Advertisement, San Bernardino Daily Sun, December 23, 1945, page 8
KPRO was founded by Willard E. (Bill) Gleeson."Radio Pioneer Willard Gleeson Dies at Age 92," The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, January 24, 1990, page A-5 In 1950, Gleeson, the company president, was sued by the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company of North Carolina, which claimed that payments on loans totaling $40,000 had not been made. The company said the firm, which also owned KREO in Indio, California, was "heavily in debt" for unpaid taxes and other liabilities."Riverside, Indio Radio Stations Sue[d] Over Debt," The San Bernardino Sun, October 25, 1950, page 22 Gleeson sold all the stations he owned, except for KICO in Calexico, California.Associated Press, "Willard Gleeson, Radio Pioneer, Dies in El Centro," The Sun, January 24, 1990, image 14 Albie Pearson, the 1958 American League Rookie of the Year, was a KPRO disc jockey in the winter of 1961–62.
In December 1964, KPRO was purchased by radio and television personality Dick Clark. The station was held under the name Progress Broadcasting, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dick Clark Productions. Clark bought KPRO from Foster Broadcasting for $435,000. Foster's principals were Tom S. Foster, Tolbert Foster, W.E. Dyche Jr., Edgar Younger and John Blake. Dave Taylor was to continue as general manager. Clark also bought the land and buildings (built in 1941) for an additional $150,000; the deals were completed on June 1, 1965."TV Star Clark Buys Inland Empire Station KPRO," San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, June 20, 1965 (with a photograph of Clark and Taylor)"Dick Clark to Purchase S.B. Radio Station," The San Bernardino Daily Sun, December 23, 1964, page B-3 In March 1978, Progress sold KPRO to Inland Empire Broadcasters, majority-owned by station vice president Howard N. Fisher, for $780,000.
The station was acquired by Shayle Ray and Milton Klein for about $2 million in March 1983."KPRO Will Stay Off Air Until Sold, Owner Says," The Sun, February 4, 1986, image 19 In the early 1980s, KPRO aired a news/talk format with some sports programming.Jackie Richard, "The Cowboy of the Air Is Too Busy Working to Ride Off Into the Sunset," The Sun, November 23, 1986, image 37 Before that it had a pop music format. Steve Julian and Larry Mantle co-hosted a show on this station during this period.Kevin Roderick, "Steve Julian, 57, KPCC's Morning Host Since 2000," LAOsbserved, April 24, 2016Jill Leovy, "Host of KPCC's 'Morning Edition,' Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2016, page B-7
Bankruptcy The 1,000-watt station in Riverside was losing some $40,000 a month in 1984, and by February 29 the 15-person staff had not been paid in two weeks. Milton Klein and Shayle Ray were trying to negotiate a sale of KPRO and its sisters, KPRD and KZNS of Barstow, California.Carl Yetzer, "KPRO Staff Hangs Tough Despite Getting No Paychecks in 2 Weeks," The Sun, February 29, 1984, pages B1 and B2 (images 13 and 29)Dennis McDougal, "KPRO Is Still on the Air, Thanks to 'Deep Pockets,'" Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1984, images 73 and 76Russ Stanton, "Company Files for Reorganization for KPRO-AM," The Sun, May 9, 1984, image 37 KZNS and KPRD left the airwaves in early March after more than 30 years of broadcasting, but KPRO was saved at the last minute by an unidentified San Bernardino businessman who bought into the partnership with enough cash to pay the employees and stay on the air. KPRO's Arbitron ratings were about one percent of all listeners in its market.
In May 1984, KPRO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Regular programming at the station went off the air on May 15, 1984;Associated Press, "Riverside's KPRO Goes Bankrupt," Los Angeles Times, May 17, 1984, image 67 it listed $2.5 million of debt.Russ Stanton, "KPRO Lists Debts of $2.5 Million," The Sun, May 23, 1984, image 23 KPRO continued to broadcast California Angels baseball and Los Angeles Lakers basketball games to fulfill contractual obligations, and it went back on the air with other programing in mid-June, then in February again went on a sports-only schedule,"KPRO and Sports," The Sun, May 27, 1984, image 67 with Pat Hasland hosting a call-in show, "Pro SportsTalk"."KPRO's Hasland Hopes to Be Talk of the Town Again," The Sun, June 22, 1984, image 41 Because the station's programming dropped to under 12 hours daily, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considered KPRO to have gone silent.
In June 1986, Klein/Ray Broadcasting sold KPRO to Lincoln Dellar-owned Inland Wireless Co. for $710,000. The new owner changed its call sign to KDIF on September 23; the KPRO call sign was then picked up by a station at 1570 AM.Dan Hawkins, "New KPRO Will Broadcast Angels," The Sun, March 6, 1987, image 43 KDIF changed hands only three years later on October 24, 1989, when Hispanic Radio Broadcasters, headed by Gilberto Esquivel, bought the station.
Jacor/Clear Channel/iHeartMedia era (1998–present) KDIF, which was airing a regional Mexican format, was purchased by Jacor Communications in May 1998 for $2.65 million. The station immediately added Los Angeles Dodgers game broadcasts in English, though it otherwise retained its Spanish-language programming. Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications later that year.
On September 27, 2010, KDIF flipped from Spanish oldies to an all-comedy format branded "24/7 Comedy" and began using new call letters KFNY (meaning "funny"). On August 4, 2014, following the demise of the 24/7 Comedy radio network, the station flipped to news/talk as "NewsTalk AM 1440". Clear Channel changed its name to iHeartMedia a month later.
On May 15, 2017, KFNY exchanged formats with KKDD in San Bernardino, flipping to Spanish adult hits and sending the news/talk format to 1290 AM. KFNY was rebranded as "La Preciosa 1440". On November 14, the station swapped call signs with KFOO in Tacoma, Washington, as part of an impending sale of the latter station.
On June 29, 2020, 15 iHeartMedia stations in markets with large African American populations, including KFOO, began stunting with speeches by prominent African Americans, interspersed with messages such as "our voices will be heard" and "our side of the story is about to be told", with a new format slated to launch the following day. On June 30 at 9:00 a.m., KFOO began broadcasting as a charter affiliate of Black Information Network (BIN), an all-news radio format targeted to the African American community.
References
Further reading Willard R. Hillary, "Cathedral City," The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, California, September 19, 1941 "High School Debaters Will Attend Tourney," San Bernardino Daily Sun, November 13, 1941, page 10 "Staff of High School Newspaper Enlarged," San Bernardino Sun, February 3, 1942, page 7 "Rambling Through the Studios of KPRO," advertisement, San Bernardino Daily Sun, April 7, 1944, page 6
External links
FCC History Cards for KFOO