KPCC (FM)

History

Pasadena City College has a history in radio back to when it was still Pasadena Junior College, a combined high school and college; in 1934 it began hosting a montly radio show on the Pasadena Presbyterian Church station KPPC (AM). Pasadena City College's 75th anniversary history book mentions "an experimental program every Monday night in 1942 on KPCS" named "Presenting Pasadena for Pasadena Preferred", produced by the PCC Radio Division and the Chronicle.

Pasadena City College opened a radio studio on December 14, 1947, with a studio classroom, engineering room, work room, and reception room, but no transmitter or broadcast license; the studio instead continued to broadcast its programs over other local radio stations, such as KPPC and KXLA (AM). The college was also active in television from September 1949, using the Pasadena Playhouse, which had its own television department.

The college began its own broadcasts on FM in April 1957 as KPCS, with a transmitter purchased from KWKW. One of the few two-year college stations with an FCC broadcast license, it was originally on the air from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., it went to "all day" broadcasting on October 1, 1962. The original callsign of KPCS stood for "Pasadena City Schools", so the callsign was changed to KPCC at the end of 1971.

During the 1970s and 1980s the station won numerous broadcasting awards. The radio station and television studio were flooded in the 12-day rainstorm that affected Pasadena in 1983.

KPCC's transmitter and radio tower moved from the C Building at PCC to a higher-powered facility on Mount Wilson in 1988. In 1993, the studios also moved out of the C Building, where they had been confined to a cramped basement, and into the newly built Shatford Library with the television production studios and Media Center, where the radio studios remained until 2010.

The station expansion, particularly in signal coverage area, led to years of controversy in the 1990s over the station's change in focus from Pasadena-area to Los Angeles regional interest. However, by the end of the 1990s, KPCC remained a small, student-operated National Public Radio station with various music programs and a budget of $300,000.

Southern California Public Radio

Around 1999 or 2000, Pasadena City College received an offer from Minnesota Public Radio for MPR to form a new branch, Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), to take over operation of KPCC, with PCC continuing to hold the official broadcast license. SCPR is a not-for-profit organization now controlled by American Public Media Group, parent organization of Minnesota Public Radio.

Under the operation of SCPR, the music and some of the local programming was replaced by network programming. Though there were still internship opportunities for students in technical roles, there were much fewer on-air voice opportunities. In response to this, PCC started an additional, 1 watt, radio station on 88.9 MHz in 1998, which became known as Lancer Radio, and had an Internet audio stream and a website by 2005.

In March 2010, KPCC moved from the Shatford Library to a 35000 sqft converted office building on Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, at a cost of $24.5 million, and named the new facilities the Mohn Broadcast Center and Crawford Family Forum.

LAist

In February 2018, SCPR, along with the operators of public radio stations WNYC in New York City and WAMU in Washington, D.C., acquired much of the assets of the blog Gothamist and its sister sites LAist and DCist, using donations from two anonymous donors, and with plans to merge LAist into SCPR's existing studio operations.

On January 31, 2023, SCPR announced that the radio stations would move away from using "KPCC" as a brand, and adopt the "LAist" name across all its platforms, including the radio stations. The official call letters for the Pasadena radio station remain KPCC after the re-brand.

Programming

Broadcast programming originating at KPCC includes the L.A.-centric AirTalk and film-focused FilmWeek with Larry Mantle, The Loh Down on Science with Sandra Tsing Loh, and pop culture trivia show Go Fact Yourself with J. Keith van Straaten and Helen Hong.

The stations also carry multiple public radio shows from National Public Radio (NPR), the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), and LAist/SCPR's sister organization American Public Media (APM).

In 2025, LAist began a news partnership with commercial television stations KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV. This allowed for resources to be shared between the two stations. This proved useful during the southern California wildfires that year, as the station simulcast KCBS-TV's audio of their wall-to-wall coverage.

HD broadcasting

• HD1 simulcasts the analog feed; and
• HD2 airs alternative rock via a simulcast of KCMP/Minneapolis (branded "The Current"). Both subchannels also stream live on the Internet.

Repeaters, translators, and boosters

KPCC extends its radio programming via full-power satellites KUOR-FM Redlands (89.1 FM), KVLA-FM Coachella (90.3 FM), and KJAI Ojai (89.5 FM), as well as low-power translators KPCC-FM2 West Los Angeles (89.3 FM), KPCC-FM3 West Los Angeles (89.3 FM), K210AD Santa Barbara (89.9 FM) and K227BX Palm Springs (93.3 FM). KUOR is licensed to the University of Redlands, while KVLA and KJAI are licensed to American Public Media Group's SCPR.

References

References

1. "About Us". Southern California Public Radio.
2. "All LAist Programs". Southern California Public Radio.
3. Southern California Public Radio. (2023-06-30). "IRS Form 990".
4. Mark Morrall Dodge. (2002). "Pasadena City College: A History Commissioned on the Occasion of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary". Pasadena City College.
5. "History". Pasadena City College.
6. Carney, Steve. (March 20, 2010). "Pasadena radio station KPCC embarks on new era". Los Angeles Times.
7. "KPCC Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.
8. Mullins, Chantal. (2005-03-05). "New Voice of Campus Radio". Pasadena City College.
9. Pearce, Matt. (2023-01-31). "KPCC is changing its name to LAist 89.3". Los Angeles Times.
10. (February 23, 2018). "WNYC, KPCC, and WAMU Acquire Gothamist Assets". New York Public Media.
11. "AirTalk". Southern California Public Radio.
12. "The Loh Down on Science". Southern California Public Radio.
13. "Go Fact Yourself". Southern California Public Radio.
14. "LAist expands news coverage through CBS Los Angeles partnership". Current.
15. link. (2017-08-08 HD Radio Guide for Los Angeles)
16. "KUOR-FM Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.