KNX (AM)
- This article is about the AM radio station. For other uses see KNX
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
No issues specified. Please specify issues, or remove this template. |
| File:KNX-logo.gif | |
| Broadcast area | Los Angeles, California |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1070 (kHz) |
| Branding | KNX 1070 Newsradio |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Affiliations | CBS News The Weather Channel |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | CBS Corporation/CBS Radio |
| KCBS-FM, KFWB, KLSX, KROQ, KRTH, KTWV | |
| History | |
First air date | September 10, 1920 (as 6ADZ) |
Call sign meaning | None. Assigned sequentially, May 4, 1922 |
| Technical information | |
| Class | A |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.knx1070.com |
KNX (1070 kHz) is an all-news radio station in Los Angeles, California. The station operates on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio. KNX broadcasts from facilities shared with sister stations KFWB, KCBS-FM, KTVW, and KLSX on Los Angeles' Miracle Mile, and maintains a transmitter site in Torrance, California.
KNX has been the West Coast flagship station for the CBS Radio Network since 1937. It has been broadcasting an all-news format since 1968. In recent years however, since the arrival of David G. Hall as program director, the station has moved away from news and now devotes many hours each day to programs that are not "all news."
The station's daytime signal reaches from Mexico to Santa Barbara, California. At night, KNX can be heard throughout the Western United States - sometimes as far away as Amarillo, Texas - and many offshore regions along the Pacific Ocean. The station also broadcasts a high-definition HD Radio signal and streams online through its web site.
Born in a Hollywood Bedroom...
The precursor to KNX took to the airways as experimental station 6ADZ on September 10, 1920, built by a former Marconi shipboard wireless operator turned radio parts retailer. Fred Christian launched the station using his Hollywood bedroom as its studio. He played records borrowed from music stores over his 5-watt transmitter and urged listeners to visit the stores and buy the records. Christian's goal was to provide programming for his crystal set customers. Some claim he was LA’s first deejay.
Christian's radio station was not the first in Los Angeles. The Western Radio Electric Company had received a license for Special Land Station 6XD in April, five months before Christian took to the air. Station 6XD became KZC, then KOG, then vanished from the air in 1923.
In December 1921, Christian’s The Electric Lighting & Supply Company received a 50-watt permit and the call letters KGC from the U.S. Department of Commerce, five years before the Federal Radio Commission was created.
Call letters KNX followed in 1922 when the station moved to the California Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
“The government assigned the move of the transmitter a new three-letter call in sequential order,” says radio historian Jim Hilliker, “It was not chosen to stand for anything.”
The call letters had previously been used by the radio transmitter aboard the U.S. steamship Susanah.
Changes in Power and Ownership
By 1924, 583 radio stations were broadcasting across the United States and many jockeyed for power and dial positions. Until 1926, the Commerce Department was under orders to issue a broadcasting license to anyone who wanted one, and the evolution of the early radio spectrum, and government attempts to regulate it, seem chaotic in hindsight.
KNX's power was raised to 1,000 watts in 1924, then lowered to 500 watts in 1927. A year later the station was boosted to 5,000 watts, then 25,000 watts on October 20, 1932 and 50,000 watts in 1934. The station applied for a 500,000-watt permit in 1935 (with plans to emulate Powel Crosley's WLW, then the most powerful radio station in the world) but withdrew the application three years later.
KNX's dial position shifted as well, moving up the AM dial from 833 to 890, then to 1050 (under General Order 40). KNX's final reassignment to 1070 kHz, a shared clear channel, came at 3am on March 29, 1941 under the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement, a treaty among six North American nations to divide and manage the airways.
KNX's years as the radio voice of the Evening Express ended in January, 1928 when the newspaper sold the station to Western Broadcast Co., whose holdings included Portland, Oregon's KEX (AM).
KNX in the Thirties
On April 13, 1930, KNX became the first (and only) radio station to broadcast the Academy Awards, then in their second year, live from the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel. The Motion Picture Academy cancelled further radio broadcasts from then on. (There were actually two Oscar ceremonies that year. April's honored films released in 1928-1929. Another, on November 3, honored 1930s movies.)
During the 1930s, a growing number of stations which had not affiliated with NBC or CBS began forming regional networks of their own, a way of increasing original, high-quality content in order to survive the onset of the network era. KNX became half of the Western Network in 1935, a two-station hookup which shared programs with San Francisco's KSFO.
Competition with newspapers also became fierce. By the mid-thirties, radio advertising revenues were a quarter those of newspapers', and radio was growing as a source of breaking news. To protect their newspaper clients, the Associated Press, International News Service and United Press combined to form the Press-Radio Bureau, a virtual cartel which banned radio stations from broadcasting wire service material until five to eight hours after the news items had hit the streets in newspapers.
KNX refused to abide by the pact and produced a satirical radio drama lampooning newspaper efforts to squelch broadcast news. In retaliation, the Los Angeles Times dropped KNX's program listings from its pages and bitter court battles ensued. KNX ultimately joined Transradio Press which emerged from the wire service war, transmitting news dispatches especially for radio stations via shortwave Morse code.
CBS and William Paley
In New York, CBS founder William S. Paley was fighting battles of his own. His relationship with Cadillac-LaSalle car dealer Don Lee, who owned a network of 12 stations across the West, had soured. Paley had been an enthusiastic partner in cofounding the Don Lee-Columbia Network in July, 1929 as an expeditious solution to the Columbia Broadcasting System's lack of western affiliates. Paley had become frustrated by his lack of control over the network's 12 affiliates long before Lee died in 1934. Control of the Lee network was assumed by Lee's son, Tommy.
Columbia shows were carried live on the Lee-Columbia hookup. As a result, the CBS schedule ended at 8pm when the East Coast feed signed off. Lee filled the nighttime hours with shows from his KHJ in Los Angeles and KFRC in San Francisco, but the shared network was not the showcase Paley sought for his programs.
On March 19, 1936, Paley purchased KNX for a record $1.2 million. Paley now had his own L.A. station, putting an end to the Don Lee-Columbia network and KHJ's affiliation as Columbia's Los Angeles flagship. CBS moved its programming to KNX on January 1, 1937; Lee's stations became the western backbone of fledgling Mutual Broadcasting System.
Paley was eager to feed the growing nationwide hunger for Hollywood movie stars on radio. Twenty network programs had originated from Hollywood over NBC and CBS during the 1934-35 season. Already on the drawing board by the time Paley acquired KNX were plans for a new facility that would draw top Hollywood talent to his network and compete with archrival NBC's Radio City, under construction at Sunset and Vine.
On April 30, 1938, Paley moved KNX from its most recent studios at 5926 Sunset Boulevard to CBS Columbia Square at 6121 Sunset, a $2 million facility, the most expensive radio broadcasting facility of its day and a location KNX would occupy for 67 years.
KNX and CBS were inextricably linked for the next 22 years. Their shared facilities produced network and local programs. Columbia Square was a magnet for Hollywood’s top stars, writers, musicians and producers. While news and soap operas continued to originate in New York, the CBS/KNX facility produced the bulk of Columbia’s classic old-time radio dramas and comedies.
The Forties and Fifties
In February, 1942, Time magazine reported, "KNX announced at 1:15am that instead of signing off it was inaugurating a regular four-hour program lasting to 5am for the benefit of 'swing shifters' in local war industries. Knocking off work and dining after midnight, accustomed to stay up until at least 6am, these men and their families now may listen to a full 'evening' of radio, including, by transcription, some of CBS's best sustaining shows." World War II had pushed KNX into a 24-hour schedule.
With "swing shifters" back on normal sleep schedules at war's end, the KNX overnight lineup changed to classical music from 1952 until 1970. The show emerged from a casual conversation between Paley and American Airlines president C. R. Smith who complained he was unable to find quality radio programming after midnight. Paley responded by creating Music 'Til Dawn, sponsored by the airline. The program originated from KNX and was fed to ten of Columbia's western affiliates. Mel Baldwin was the host of the LA-produced "Music Till Dawn" for many years (the program was produced locally at other CBS-owned stations and at some major affiliates with nighttime AM signals MTD broadcasts to be heard in almost the entire country). George Walsh, announcer on Gunsmoke and Suspense (later an all-news anchor and one of the voices of Smokey Bear) later hosted the L.A. program, and won a Peabody Award in 1966.
KNX won two Peabody Awards in the 1940s: in 1940, for Meritorious Service to a Localized Area, another in 1943, for Outstanding Community Service by a Regional Station for the program These Are Americans.
Steve Allen joined KNX in 1948 as a late-night disc jockey. His show was a hybrid: part deejay, part audience participation, and aired at midnight. Allen gained national attention when his program was booked as a summer replacement for the Our Miss Brooks radio show in 1950. It was so successful that CBS moved The Steve Allen Show to the CBS Television Network on Christmas Day, 1950. Allen was not the only KNX personality to make the leap to CBS TV.
Connecticut deejay Bob Crane arrived LA in 1956 to host the KNX morning show. "The King of the Los Angeles Airwaves" filled the second-story broadcast booth with his drum set, movie stars, and cunning humor. His show was a very highly-rated morning show in Los Angeles, drawing Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, among other top stars, but as popular as he was, Crane's ratings could never beat those of rival KMPC's Dick Whittinghill. Crane, however, dreamed of becoming a star himself and left his $150,000-a-year position in 1965 to take the lead in a new CBS series, Hogan's Heroes.
Bob Barker hosted his first audience participation show on KNX. Truth or Consequences producer (and former host) Ralph Edwards heard Barker on KNX and hired him to host a new daytime television version of Truth or Consequences on NBC-TV (and later in syndication]]. Barker returned to CBS in 1972 as host of The Price is Right for 35 years (although the program was broadcast from Television City, rather than Columbia Square.
The 1960s
The Golden Age of Radio came crashing down over the weekend of November 25-27, 1960, when the last of the CBS soap operas and most of its prime-time comedies and variety shows signed off forever. For the first time since 1937, when CBS began providing the bulk of KNX's air content, the station was forced to program its broadcast day largely on its own with deejay and talk shows.
KNX's lineup included talk show host Michael Jackson, Ralph Story, Regis Cordic (who took over Bob Crane's morning slot) and Bill Ballance (The Ballance of the Night). Journalist Ruth Ashton, who had worked with CBS' Ed Murrow and Bob Trout in New York (but was fired for the then-unforgivable career offense of becoming pregnant) hosted and co-hosted several KNX shows in the 1960s, often with Gene Autry's comic sidekick Pat Buttram. "This was not the highlight of my journalistic career,” she later said, “but it was a highlight."
In September, 1965, during Michael Jackson's show, vandals severed a wire supporting KNX's 500-foot tower in Torrance. The tower collapsed and engineers worked frantically to string a temporary antenna, putting KNX back on the air at reduced power. By coincidence, the signal was restored during Jackson's time slot days later. Nonplussed, Jackson began, "Now, before we were interrupted..." Jackson was later fired by KNX for being too forthcoming in commentaries on the Watts Riots.
In 1962, KNX won its third Peabody Award — for science coverage.
The All-News Era
The first all-news station to serve Los Angeles was Gordon McLendon's XETRA in Tijuana. McLendon targeted the LA market with XETRA's powerful signal though Ed Pyle, who anchored "Extra News" before joining KNX and later became its news director, has said, "When Extra News had been the only source of all-news radio in the city, there had been a team of anchors down in Tijuana pretending they were covering news in Los Angeles without a single field reporter in Southern California."
KNX, along with three other CBS-owned-and-operated AM stations -- WCBS in New York City, WBBM in Chicago, and KCBS in San Francisco -- began transitioning to all-news programming in 1968 at the direction of William Paley, who had been impressed with the performance of WINS in New York which had become an all-news station in 1965. The format change put KNX in direct competition with KFWB which also went all-news in 1968, along with other stations of the Westinghouse chain.
Reporter Jon Goodman was on the KNX all-news start-up team. “It was chaos at the time," he has said. "They brought in new people from all over the country. They had a format laid out and we hoped it all worked, but the catalyst for the KNX all-news format was the Robert Kennedy assassination. It happened six weeks after we went all-news.”
As 1968 drew to a close, Los Angeles had three hometown all-news stations: KABC-FM, (now KLOS) which later adopted a progressive rock format, had preceded KNX and KFWB relying heavily on network content. The KNX all-news format was given five years to prove its profitability. The experiment "took."
"KNX used to have what we called 'an army of field reporters'" said Pyle. They included Pete Moraga, Jerry Laird, Barry Rhode, Bud Kraft, John D. O'Connell, Boyd Harvey, Walt Hoffman, Alex Sullivan, Larry Atteberry, Beach Rogers, Ron Hedley and Mike Landa who remains as KNX's Orange County, California Bureau Chief.
Since 1968, KNX has covered virtually every major Los Angeles news event or disaster including the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, 1994 Northridge Earthquake and O.J. Simpson trial. KNX was the only radio station to cover the entire Simpson trial gavel-to-gavel.
From the late 1980s until 2005, KNX used its most familiar news jingles with the slogan All You Need To Know, provided by Dallas-based Axcess Broadcasting. This package was also used with its sister affiliate KRLD in Dallas until the mid-1990s.
Ironically, as of Monday, August 13, 2007, KNX has brought back a jingle formerly used at :30 past the hour. This same jingle was previously used for many years at :30 past the hour and was produced by Axcess Broadcasting.
Traffic Reports
Traffic reporting has long been a mainstay of KNX, not surprising in a city where the term Sig Alert was invented (1955), an area cris-crossed by a dozen major Southern California freeways.
Prior to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake traffic reports were given every ten minutes. In the aftermath of the earthquake the traffic situation in Los Angeles became severe and KNX began giving traffic reports every six minutes to help the situation. Presently, traffic reports are now given in "extended" format every ten minutes on the "5s," identified by the distinctive KNX traffic "sounder," composed in about an hour's time in 1969 by former KNX Promotions Director Fred Bergendorf. "I wanted it to sound like a car horn," Bergendorf told the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the Moog-generated ID has played, by conservative estimates, over two million times over nearly four decades — once for every traffic report.
Tommy Jaxson is the morning traffic anchor from 5am to 10am, a position once held by Chuck Rowe, Jim Thornton and the legendary Bill Keene (1927-2000). A consummate traffic reporter who began his KNX years in as the weatherman in 1957, "The Sultan of Sig Alerts" laced his updates with colorful epithets. He is credited with naming the "El Toro Y" and "Orange Crush." In 1992, Keene received a star of Hollywood's Walk of Fame. CalTrans, on what would have been Keene's 80th birthday, named the interchange of the 101 and 110 freeways (known as the Four-Level Interchange, but which Keene often called "The Stacks" or "The 4-H Interchange") in his honor. He is also famous for the terms "Poop-out Pass" (referring to the Sepulveda Pass) and "Malfunction Junction" (referring to the East L.A. Interchange).
Jaxson became the new morning traffic anchor on September 17, 2007; replacing Chuck Rowe, who left KNX and moved to the midwest after a decade in Southern California.
Donna Page, senior traffic anchor who has been with KNX since 1998, handles 10am to 3pm reports, and Meghan Reyes covers the 3pm to 7pm traffic scene. Reyes is also one of the morning airborne traffic reporters. KNX has many other very well know traffic reporters in the Los Angeles area including Doug Dunlap, Randy Keith, Wendy Sinclair, David Dean and Heather Lawrence.
California Highway Patrol officer Jill Angel, Christina Griego, Pat Haslam and Dona Dower were among the earlier voices of KNX Traffic in recent years. Haslam, best known in Orange County as "Dr. Drive," is famous for using dialects and Bill Keene-esque sayings during his tenure as the overnight traffic anchor. David Courtney, public address announcer for Angel Stadium of Anaheim, is also a former KNX traffic alumnus.
KNX uses the resources of Westwood One's Metro Traffic and its aircraft during morning and afternoon commutes. The primary airborne reporters (who are not employed by KNX ) are Mike O'Brien (not to be confused with the Las Vegas radio DJ of the same name), Tommy Jaxson, Larry Barajas and Scott Burt.
Major Changes: New Location, Lower Ratings = KNX Lite
In 2003, longtime Vice President and General Manager George Nicolaw, a community fixture who gave daily editorials, was forced out. Programming duties for KNX were assumed by David G. Hall, who was previously in charge of KFI during some of its most successful years. KRTH's Pat Duffy became Vice President and General Manager for KNX and sister station KFWB.
At KFI Hall inherited a very successful station. And while the station did maintain its success with Hall at the helm, after he left KFI it became an even more dominant station under Robin Bertolucci. When Hall was given a chance to start up a station on his own, (KLAC which Hall took over when it became all-talk), it turned out to be a ratings failure and the all-talk format was dropped.
Hall made many controversial and unpopular changes at KNX that were designed to improve ratings -- but ended up putting the station on continual downward trend which has seen a more than 25 per cent drop in listenership.
On July 24, 2007, KNX reached a new low for ratings -- 1.5 which ranked it tied for 22nd place. Even more depressing was that for one of the few times in recent years, KNX was tied by its traditionally lowered ranked rival KFWB. By comparison in the summer of 2003, just as Hall took over, KNX had a solid if not spectacular rating of 2.1.
The most controversial early move at KNX was the bringing in of a traffic reporter, Jim Thorton, with no previous news experience, to be the main afternoon news anchor.
To make room for Thornton, Hall ousted Dave Zorn, a news veteran whose calming presence behind the microphone during riots, fires and other crisis situations, had made him a trusted voice to Los Angeles listeners. Zorn did stay on with KNX until health issues forced his retirement in 2006.
Many staffers at KNX were appalled that Hall would bring in someone with no news experience to be a main anchor at the most prestigious news station in the nation's second largest market. Gail Eichenthal, one of KNX's most popular reporters resigned in protest over Thornton's appointment.
This was the beginning of what many call the era of "KNX Lite." KNX was still a news station but not the sophisticated, reliable and dependable station it once was.
One of Hall's mantra's was "this is not the old KNX" and, to the regret of many, he made that come true. Hall seemed determined to show that he could do it better.
The anchors Hall brought in for his morning and afternoon news cycles (he did not keep any of the KNX anchors) were viewed as lightweight by many in the news business.
In addition to Thornton, Hall brought in Dave Williams to anchor the morning news even though Williams had been an utter failure in his previous attempt to lead a morning news show at KABC.
Hall made many changes including dropping its most famed jingle All You Need To Know and changing the KNX "clock."
Sports -- Listeners who for decades knew that they could reliably listen to sports updates at :15 and :45 past the hour, suddenly found sports being "floated" -- being presented a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later. This of course went against the whole reason behind having a "clock" -- let listeners know exactly when they can hear certain types of news. Sports, which was at 10 and 40 past, is now heard at 20 and 50 past each hour.
Business -- Listeners who used to know that they could hear business at :20 and :50 were suddenly surprised to find that their desired reports were floating as well. They might be on at :20 and :50, but they might also be on at :23 or :48. Hall decided to put business news on at :10 and :40. Until recently, these reports were at :15 and :45 past the hour before returning to the :10 and :40 slots in August 2007.
Headlines -- Hall decided headlines after the CBS Hourly newscast and at the bottom of the hour were a distraction.
Perhaps worst of all, Hall also eliminated many field reporting shifts (especially in the evening and on weekends) meaning that KNX often does not even have a reporter to send to breaking stories. The night of the MacArthur Park riots KNX did not have any reporters out in the field after 8pm.
KNX is sometimes no longer an "all-news station." From 9 am to noon each weekday Hall has replaced news with "Money 101." Despite being hosted by the very talented Bob McCormick, "Money 101" means that news is once again taking the back seat. On August 1, KNX announced that the "Money 101" show would be eliminated and replaced by news. In a news release, Hall said he was "streamlining our programming towards all-news." Of course, he failed to mention that HE was the one who moved the station AWAY FROM ALL-NEWS.
In a turn back to the highly-desired hard news format of previous years, long-time anchors Tom Haule, who most recently was "Operations Manager" after being removed from the morning drive-time slot and his long-time partner, Linda Nunez now anchor the 9am-1pm slot. Previously, Nunez could be heard delivering news updates during McCormick's show, while Haule could be heard throughout the broadcast day providing his talented voice for paid commercials. From time-to-time, Bob McCormick would have Haule on as a guest to discuss various topics of interest on the now former Money 101 show. The change to Haule and Nunez as anchors was effective Monday, August 13, 2007.
Many of the KNX "field reporters" now simply sit in the studio and do taped interviews or in-studio reports instead of going out and covering news.
Many have complained that Hall has replaced substance with sizzle. He has his station constantly doing promos. Some critics have complained that Jim Thorton on the afternoon news sounds like a carnival barker -- "You got to hear this story coming up!" -- "You won't want to miss what we are going to tell you next!" -- "We are all over it!." Vicki Cox who was brought over from KFWB as an achor after Eichenthal left the station is now a field reporter. Replacing Cox is long-time reporter Diane Thompson who was placed in the anchor chair next to Thronton during the afternoon drive-time slot.
Hall gave some of his reporters titles. Dick Helton was named KNX's Chief Political Correspondent implying that KNX has several political reporters -- it does not.
Despite all the problems there have been some bright spots. KNX has had some excellent moments in 2007, covering several fires including the Griffith Park fire and the Catalina Fire.
Recently, longtime KNX anchor Chris Stanley was removed from KNX after a verbal confrontation with others who work at the station.
On August 12, 2005 moved its studios. KNX ceased broadcasting from its historic at CBS Columbia Square on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood after 67 years, moving to its new facilities a few miles away on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles. Dave Zorn was the last person to broadcast on KNX from Columbia Square studios. For the first time in over 80 years, the station was no longer "The Voice of Hollywood."
Broadcast Schedule
Weekdays
- Dave Williams / Vicky Moore: 5:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
- Tom Haule / Linda Nunez: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
- Frank Mottek (KNX Business Hour): 1:00 p.m.
- Tom Haule: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
- Jim Thornton / Diane Thompson: 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
- Larry Van Nuys: 7:00 p.m. - 12:00 midnight
- Jack Salvatore: 12:00 midnight - 5:00 a.m.
Weekends
- Bob Brill: 5:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
- Melinda Lee: 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
- Jeff Levy: 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Saturdays only)
- Mark Austin Thomas: 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. (Saturdays only) and 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. (Sundays only)
- Kim Marriner: 6:00 p.m. - 12:00 midnight
- Pat Haslam: 12:00 midnight - 5:00 a.m.
Miscellany
- Western music was a staple of KNX in the Twenties. The Range Riders and Arizona Wranglers were among the most popular performers.
- The Signal Oil Company's wildly popular Tarzan of the Apes radio serial premiered on KNX in 1932 with a three-hour remote broadcast from the Pantages Theater, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Johnny Weissmuller in attendance.
- 1934 Sunday evening fare included the KNX Radio Revival Hour with evangelist Rev. Charles Fuller who enlisted "prayer warriors" on the air and later taught the Radio Bible Class on KNX weekday afternoons.
- The 1970s saw the premiere of the original KNX Food News Hour hosted by Chef Mike Roy and newscaster Dennis Bracken. A young caterer, Melinda Lee, inherited the slot in 1985, co-hosting it with Chris Lane until 1994.
- KNX was the first station in Southern California to announce the Northridge Earthquake on January 17, 1994. At 4:31am, Beach Rogers was on the air when the quake struck. The KNX signal remained on the air, however normal broadcasting halted and the chaos occurring in the studio, including a woman yelling in Spanish was audible over the air. Once the mainshock and first aftershock were over, Rogers calmly notified listeners that a major earthquake had occurred and began giving emergency safety instructions. Non-stop coverage of the 6.7-magnitude quake, which killed 57 and injured 1,500 people (the costliest earthquake in U.S. history), followed with six-minute traffic reports, a staple for the next 10 years.
- For many years, until 1995, KNX was the football and basketball flagship station for the University of Southern California. Chick Hearn, Tom Kelly and Pete Arbogast were the voices of Trojans football during that time. *Bill Seward, Rory Markas and longtime Los Angeles sportscaster Gil Stratton provided sports reports at 15- and 45-minutes past the hour along with Arbogast, Steve Grad and Fred Gallagher.
- KNX was also the home to CBS Radio and Westwood One sports, broadcasting the National Football League and Major League Baseball, including the World Series and the Super Bowl.
- In 2002, the year before David G. Hall took over, KNX had revenues of $36.9 million making it the No. 2 revenue-generating station in the market among AM outlets according to industry tracker BIA Financial Networks Inc.
- KNX program director David G. Hall has been memoralized as a character of the same name on The Phil Hendrie Show, which was formerly based on KFI. It was inspired by Hall when he was KFI's program director and Phil worked for him. When the show was eventually syndicated, Hall was later identified as "vice president of syndication for the Phil Hendrie show."