KTYM (1460 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting a

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

radio format from

ESNE Radio ESNE Radio is a Spanish-language Catholic radio network based in the United States, owned by El Sembrador Ministries. Headquartered in Chatsworth, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, ESNE broadcasts on 14 stations in the United States, Mexico and ...

. Licensed to

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

, United States, the station serves the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

area. KTYM is owned by El Sembrador Ministries of Chatsworth, California.

History

Early years

Albert John Williams obtained the construction permit for a new daytime-only radio station on 1460 kHz in Inglewood on August 1, 1957. The station signed on February 14, 1958, airing a format of popular and semi-classical music; the same day, KTYM-FM 103.9 debuted as a simulcast. It had a policy of no back-to-back commercials. The FM was known for its programming for the Black community in southern California at night; by 1964, KTYM-AM-FM was just one of five racially integrated radio stations in the region. Meanwhile, the AM added several foreign-language programs. The station increased its power to 5,000 watts directional in 1962, having been approved for the upgrade the year before. At the end of 1963, Williams transferred the KTYM stations to the Trans America Broadcasting Corporation, wholly owned by Williams.

Anti-Semitism inquiry

In June 1966, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

renewed the license of KTYM by a 5–1 vote. The decision was contentious because of a program that the station aired, "Richard Cotten's Conservative Viewpoint". The

Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...

(ADL) took umbrage with two airings of this program in October 1964 and May 1965, claiming that they linked Jews to communism and included personal attacks on the league. However, the commissioners said that, despite their "strongest personal feelings" against the content of the programs, they could not intervene in the matter without becoming "the censor of broadcasting" and cited that KTYM had offered the group air time under the

Fairness Doctrine The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a mann ...

. The decision was decried by local labor groups and Jewish organizations. The ADL would appeal the case to the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, which declined to take it up in 1969. That same year, Williams bought Fresno television station KAIL-TV for $236,500.

Later years and sale to ESNE

Williams reached a deal in 1971 to sell KTYM-FM to the Black-owned Avant Garde Broadcasting, headed by

Clarence Avant Clarence Alexander Avant (born February 25, 1931) is an American music executive, entrepreneur, and film producer, who also went by the name of "The Black Godfather". Avant's 75th birthday was celebrated by ''Billboard'' in its February 2006 i ...

. He spent much of the decade starting up

KDWN KDWN (720 AM) is a commercial radio station in Las Vegas, Nevada, owned and operated by Audacy, Inc.. The station pronounces its call letters as "K-Dawn." The station's studios are located in the unincorporated Clark County area of Spring Vall ...

, a 50,000-watt AM station in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

. The station was approved for 500 watts at night in 1979. Personalities that hosted programs on KTYM included Stewart Alexander and Earl Ofari Hutchinson. Williams died in 2005. KTYM primarily aired a mix of religious talk shows and paid programming. On March 17, 2014, Trans America reached a deal to sell KTYM to IHR Educational Broadcasting, operator of the Immaculate Heart Radio network. However, the KTYM purchase was put on hold. On July 22,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

, Immaculate Heart Radio announced the purchase of Spanish-language KHJ, which switched formats to Catholic religious programming. In March 2015, the sale of KTYM to Immaculate Heart Radio was approved by the FCC; six months later, KTYM was instead sold to El Sembrador Ministries, which operates six other radio stations in California and Mexico and one station in Chicago.

References

External links

{{Los Angeles Radio TYM TYM 1958 establishments in California Radio stations established in 1958