Early years On May 2, 1959, the station first signed on as KBBI owned by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Airing a
Christian radio format, it marked a re-entry to radio operations for the Bible Institute since selling off
KTBI (1300 AM) in 1931; now known as KWKW (1330 AM), that station remains the oldest surviving radio station in the United States to have been signed on by a religious institution. In 1970, the Bible Institute, then doing business as
Biola Schools and Colleges, sold KBBI and sister station
KBBW in
San Diego to PSA Broadcasting, a subsidiary of San Diego–based
Pacific Southwest Airlines, for $1.15 million. PSA changed KBBI's
call sign to KPSA in 1971, followed by KEZM in 1973. PSA operated four stations in California, all with
easy listening formats; KPSA was marketed primarily to women, complete with an in-house poet.
KLVE – "K-Love" On September 4, 1974, the station changed its call letters to KLVE and began airing a
soft rock format, using the slogans "Something to Love", and "Get Your Rock Soft". In September 1975, K-Love Broadcasting Inc. bought the station. By the late 1970s, the new ownership ushered in the first Spanish-language FM station in Los Angeles. KLVE has consistently been the market's leading Spanish-language station for decades. It has maintained that lead with the advent of
Arbitron's
Portable People Meter (PPM) electronic ratings measurement. With a weekly audience of nearly two million people, KLVE is among the most listened-to Spanish-language radio stations in the U.S., usually second to
WSKQ in New York City, according to
Nielsen Audio. The KLVE studio was located in
Hollywood from 1975 to 1999. In 2000, it moved to
Glendale, on Central Avenue south of the CA-134 Freeway. In 2013, as part of Univision Radio, KLVE joined sister radio stations KTNQ (1020 AM), KSCA (101.9 FM), KRCD (103.9 FM and KRCV (98.3 FM) at the Univision Los Angeles Broadcast Center west of the I-405 Freeway in Los Angeles. KLVE is unrelated to
K-Love, an English-language
Christian radio network owned by the non-profit
Educational Media Foundation (EMF) based in
Rocklin, California. Within California, the EMF's trademark for "K-Love" does not apply in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Inyo, western portions of San Bernardino, San Diego, eastern portions of Kern, and western portions of Riverside, where Univision holds exclusive rights to the name under its own trademark registration. When the EMF acquired Los Angeles's
KSWD as part of
Entercom's merger with
CBS Radio, the broadcaster was required to reach an agreement with Univision in order to use the "K-Love" brand within networked programming on the station; although details were not specified, the station is promoted locally under the name "Positive, Encouraging 100.3", with the positioning statement "the K-Love for Christian music". ==On-air personalities==