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KNOB (Now KLAX)
97.9 MHz Long Beach, CA |
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I Was There:
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KNOB was a grandfathered Class-B Superpower station transmitting 79,000 watts from a tower on Signal Hill, CA. I was their Contract Engineer from 1986 to 1990. | ||
 KNOB SMC DP-2 Automation System with 6 ITC Reel Players, 5 SMC Cart Carousels, 3 ITC Delta Cart machines were added after this picture.  KNOB Control Room Used for Live Assist on morning show and production work at other times.  KNOB Production Studio 1 The main Production Studio.  KNOB Production Studio 2 Teeny, in some space at the end of the hallway. Used mostly for laying down voice tracks.  KNOB Harris FM-35K Marked Serial #0003, this was the first FM-35K that went on the air in the world. Harris sent out their own engineers to noodle with it when we turned it on. It worked fine as it turned out.  KNOB Collins 831G-2 20kW Backup Transmitter Somewhat unstable, the boxes on the left and right were each 10kW power amplifiers and the unit in the middle was 831D (1kW) that drove the power amps through a divider and trombone delay line. The grid on the left unit had to be retuned after about 12 hours from a cold startup. I was told it always did that.  Harris Engineers checking out the new FM-35K We brought it up delicately, checking all readings as we went. It made it up to full power without incident. It was very computerized and measured inlet and stack temperatures digitally. I suggested that they have excessive stack or inlet temperature shut down the rig a few months later after the air conditioning died and the room got up to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. It melted the phone, but the transmitter was fine... |
KNOB had been the Jazz station
for the Los Angeles market for many years, but struggled financially.
Eventually its format was changed to a soft Adult Contemporary when it
was purchased by Pennino Music Co. It was a family operation until it
was sold in the early 1990s to Raul Alarcon and Spanish Broadcasting System. ---More coming--- |
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