Fiktiv USA - KABC 790

KABC (790 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California and serving the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by ABC Radio and broadcasts a talk radio format. It is co-located with its sister station KLOS in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City, while the station transmitter resides in the Crenshaw District, shared with KWKW (1330 AM) and KFOX (1650 AM).

In August 1925, the station first signed on as KFXB, licensed to Big Bear Lake, California and broadcasting at 1430 kilocycles. KFXB moved to Los Angeles in 1927, changing its call sign to KPLA in the process.

On November 15, 1929, KPLA was sold to Earle C. Anthony, a Packard automobile dealer and owner of rival radio station KFI; Anthony changed KPLA's call letters to KECA, representing Anthony's initials. KECA and KFI were located in studios at 1000 Hope Street. KFI, then and now, transmits with 50,000 watts, while KECA broadcast at 1,000 watts.

In August 1939, Anthony purchased KEHE (780 AM, formerly KTM) and took that station off the air so he could relocate KECA to that station's dial position. In 1941, KECA moved one step up the dial to 790 kHz as part of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), which shifted the frequencies of many radio stations. The power was increased to 5,000 watts, with a directional antenna used at night.

In 1944, new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules went into effect prohibiting any person or company from owning more than one radio station in the same media market. Anthony decided to keep KFI, and divested KECA to the Blue Network for $800,000 in July 1944; The studios and offices were then moved to 1440 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood. (A Chick-fil-A restaurant now stands on the site.)

KECA became the West Coast flagship station of the ABC network. Some of the programs broadcast nationally by ABC originated in the KABC studios. In 1947, an FM station was added at 95.5 MHz. At first, KECA-FM transmitted with 4,500 watts and it largely simulcast the AM station; in 1971, it became album rock station KLOS.

In 1949, ABC put KECA-TV (channel 7) on the air. It was the last of Los Angeles' six original VHF television stations to sign on and the last of ABC's five original owned-and-operated stations to go on the air. To reflect their corporate ownership, in 1954, the call letters for the three ABC stations were changed to KABC, KABC-FM, and KABC-TV, after that call sign was released by a station in San Antonio. The studios for KABC-AM-FM-TV were at 1539 North Vine Street in Hollywood. The radio stations later moved to 3321 La Cienega Boulevard.

KABC became a pioneer of the talk radio format, going "all-talk" around the clock, in September 1960. It was the second radio station to make a 24-hour commitment to the format, a few months after CBS-owned KMOX in St. Louis. Through the 1970s, KABC was frequently Los Angeles' top radio station, and among the most listened-to radio stations in America. In the 1961–1962 edition of Broadcasting Yearbook, an advertisement shows a KABC microphone, the headline reading "Here's Los Angeles' Conversation Piece" and stating KABC's talk programming is "newsworthy, stimulating and provocative."

Along with co-owned KGO in San Francisco, ABC built a nationally syndicated radio network around the personalities of the two top-rated West Coast talk outlets. The network was heard on scores of radio stations around the country, including co-owned WABC in New York City. The station has also served as the home of psychiatrist David Viscott and early talk radio pioneers Joe Pyne and Louis Lomax. In 1992, KABC hired its first African American woman news anchor, Yolanda L. Gaskins.

The talk radio duo John and Ken (John Chester Kobylt and Kenneth Robertson Chiampou) came over to KABC to host mornings after they were released from the afternoon show on KFI. Their KABC stint lasted from July 1, 1999 to October 20, 2000. They later returned to afternoons on KFI.

On March 31, 2016, KABC was granted an FCC construction permit to move to the same transmitter site as the one used by KWKW; the daytime power would increase to 6,600 watts and nighttime power would be raised to 6,800 watts. An application to modify this construction permit the following February increased the night power to 7,900 watts.

KABC's weekday lineup is predominantly local in origin. Doug McIntyre and Jillian Barberie co-host the morning drive time program, while Larry O’Connor hosts late mornings. John Phillips, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Peter Tilden host early afternoons, afternoon drive and early evenings, respectively. Nationally syndicated talk show host Michael Savage is heard in late night, while Red Eye Radio is aired during the overnight hours. Weekends feature shows on money, health, technology and home repairs, some of which are paid brokered programming.

KABC is the flagship station of the USC Trojans football and men's basketball radio networks. The station is an affiliate of ABC News Radio network and carries its hourly newscasts. It also has a news department that prepares and broadcasts local news updates every half-hour.