KPPC On April 23, 1962, KPPC-FM signed-on on 106.7 MHz. It was owned by the
Pasadena Presbyterian Church as a companion to its
KPPC, a limited-hours AM radio station that had broadcast since 1924. In 1967, the Pasadena Presbyterian Church sold KPPC-AM-FM to Crosby-Avery Broadcasting for $310,000. The church had been attempting to sell the radio stations for a year; station manager Edgar Pierce said the church found commercial radio incompatible with the noncommercial nature of its other efforts. Crosby-Avery was owned by Leon Crosby, a general manager of San Francisco's
KMPX, a station that had just gone to a full-time
freeform progressive rock format, and Lewis Avery, former partner in a national ad sales firm. With KMPX soaring to success but KPPC, with its middle-of-the-road format, ailing, Crosby and Avery brought in the architects of KMPX,
Tom and
Raechel Donahue, to turn around their new station in Southern California. Hosts during KPPC's "underground" format included
B. Mitchel Reed,
Tom Donahue, Les Carter, Ed Mitchell, Steven Clean, Outrageous Nevada, novelty music historian
Dr. Demento,
Charles Laquidara,
Elliot Mintz, blues archivist
Johnny Otis,
Barbara Birdfeather, and more. In 1969, Crosby sold KPPC-AM-FM and KMPX to the National Science Network for $1.2 million. Crosby used the funds to buy a then-silent San Francisco television station,
KEMO-TV. National Science Network's management of the KPPC stations was turbulent, capped by an October 1971 mass firing of the air staff, but the period also included technical upgrades. NSN moved the studios out of the church basement and to 99 Chester Street in Pasadena and the transmitter to Flint Peak, with a slight power increase to 25,700 watts. In 1971, Ludwig Wolfgang Frohlich, founder of the National Science Network and previous owner of an ad agency, died. Upon his death, control of the estate was transferred to Ingrid and Thomas Burns.
KROQ AM and KROQ-FM Beginnings and brief closing (1972–1974) Country music station
KBBQ (1500
AM) in Burbank became KROQ in September 1972, changing its format to
Top 40 and hiring established disc jockeys from other stations. The new KROQ called itself "K-ROCK, the ROQ of Los Angeles". In 1973, with National Science Network's estate selling off its assets, KROQ's owners bought KPPC-AM-FM (immediately divesting the AM station to meet then-current ownership limits), changed the calls to KROQ-FM and hired
Shadoe Stevens to create a new rock format described as high-energy "all-cutting-edge-rock-all-the-time" and began simulcasting as "The ROQs of L.A.: Mother Rock!" Meanwhile, KPPC on 1240 AM was sold to Universal Broadcasting, a religious broadcaster, and remained on the air with its limited-schedule of Wednesday evening and Sunday operation until subsequent owners took the station off the air permanently in 1996. The two stations (KROQ-AM/FM) were wildly successful initially with the new format, but poor money management plagued the enterprise. When concert promoter
Ken Roberts booked
Sly and the Family Stone and
Sha Na Na for one KROQ-sponsored show at the
Los Angeles Coliseum and the station found itself unable to cover expenses, Roberts agreed to pay for the band to play the show in exchange for a small ownership stake in the station. Roberts joined a sprawling ownership group which included a doctor, two dairymen, a political lobbyist, a secretary, and several other minor investors. With barebones equipment, KROQ returned to the airwaves, broadcasting initially from the transmitter location, followed by a penthouse suite in the Pasadena
Hilton Hotel, then again across the street from the Hilton (117 S. Los Robles). Ken Roberts returned to the reborn station in a more forceful ownership role, buying out his partners one by one until he remained the sole owner of the station. By 1980, the station had fully committed to a post-new wave modern rock orientation. KROQ became an even greater success as the "Rock of the 80s" evolved. During that decade, the station mixed punk rock, such as
The Ramones,
The Clash,
The Weirdos,
Fear,
The Pandoras and
X, with
new wave, such as
U2,
Oingo Boingo,
Talking Heads,
The Police,
The Cars,
Devo,
Sparks,
Berlin,
Duran Duran,
Pet Shop Boys,
Blondie, The Go Go's, Squeeze, Culture Club, The Jam, Elvis Costello, The Bangles, Bananarama, The Cult, The Cure,
ska and similar genres with artists such as
English Beat,
Fine Young Cannibals and 1960s underground rocker
Iggy Pop, and huge mainstream artists such as
The Beach Boys and
The Rolling Stones. It was also not uncommon for certain KROQ dee-jays to play then-current
hip hop and
soul/
funk artists such as
Arrested Development,
Prince and
Parliament/Funkadelic. By 1982, Billboard Magazine reported that KROQ Arbitron numbers of 3.7 were closing in on AOR leaders
KMET at 4.0 and
KLOS at 3.9. Carroll, as a consultant, took the "Rock of the 80s" format to other stations, including
91X in
San Diego, KOEU in
Palm Springs, California,
KMGN FM in
Bakersfield, California,
The Quake in San Francisco and
KYYX in
Seattle, among a few others on the US West Coast in the 1980s. In 1986, KROQ was purchased at a then-record $45 million by
Infinity Broadcasting. By the late 1980s, the station had started dipping in the ratings. New wave had declined in popularity and electronic dance bands, such as
Depeche Mode and
New Order, started getting more airplay on the station. Also during this period, KROQ began focusing on
college rock (or so-called
alternative rock) by adding bands into their playlist such as
R.E.M., the
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
The Psychedelic Furs,
ABC,
The Smiths,
Frankie Goes to Hollywood,
Bronski Beat,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Replacements,
Camper Van Beethoven,
Jane's Addiction, the
Pixies,
The Alarm,
The Cult,
Violent Femmes,
Love and Rockets,
Dramarama, and
Social Distortion, as well as heavier acts like
Faith No More and
Living Colour and guitar-oriented
hip-hop groups like
Run-DMC and the
Beastie Boys.
KROQ in the 1990s and continued popularity (1990–1999) Throughout the 1990s, KROQ's format focused on mainly alternative rock (or
alternative metal),
grunge,
pop-punk,
Britpop,
industrial music and
nu metal, giving up-and-coming bands their first exposure on the station or in Southern California, including
Nirvana,
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
The Smashing Pumpkins,
Pearl Jam,
Nine Inch Nails,
Oasis, The Gin Blossoms,
Foo Fighters,
Green Day,
The Offspring,
Sublime,
No Doubt,
Rage Against the Machine,
Korn,
Bad Religion,
Weezer,
Blink-182,
Jimmy Eat World,
Hole,
Garbage,
Lenny Kravitz and
System of a Down. They also began adding heavier acts to their playlists such as
Metallica,
Soundgarden,
Alice in Chains and
Tool, all of whom were staples on the Long Beach heavy metal radio station
KNAC, formerly an alternative/new wave/punk rock radio station. These helped the station surge back to number one in the ratings, at which it remained until the mid-2000s, when it slipped to the middle-of-the-pack, ratings-wise, for Los Angeles area radio stations. The 1990s also saw a continuation of the weekday morning
Kevin & Bean Show, as well as "Rodney on the Roq," hosted by
Rodney Bingenheimer, on Sunday nights. In late nights, the station aired
Loveline, hosted by "
The Poorman"
Jim Trenton and Dr. Drew Pinsky. The show's purpose was to bring correct information regarding human sexuality and relationships to those 13 to 25 years of age. KROQ also began its own festivals
Almost Acoustic Christmas and
Weenie Roast, which had taken place every year since 1990 and 1993 respectively; due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, there were no lineups for Almost Acoustic Christmas in 2020 and 2021, while there have been no editions of the Weenie Roast since 2019. In June 1990, Kevin and Bean secretly arranged for a friend to pretend to confess to killing his girlfriend during their "Confess Your Crime" segment. The hoax resulted in investigations by the Sheriff's Department, the
FCC,
NBC's "
Unsolved Mysteries" and other news media. The hoax was exposed 10 months later after KROQ had unknowingly hired the caller, Doug "the Slug" Roberts, as a DJ and the three were heard talking about the hoax on a monitored phone line at KROQ. Kevin and Bean paid the Sheriff's Department $12,170 for the cost of the investigation, and performed 149 hours of community service to compensate for the 149 hours the homicide detective spent on the case. KROQ received a letter of reprimand from the FCC for the incident; the lightest punishment the FCC could give. In 1997, KROQ/Infinity merged with
CBS, later changing its name to
CBS Radio.
Later history (2000–2016) Originally located at 117 S. Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena, the station moved to 3500 W. Olive Avenue in
Burbank in 1987 as part of the purchase agreement and to be closer to the music industry. In 2002, the station was moved to a facility at 5901
Venice Boulevard in the
Crestview neighborhood in
West Los Angeles. Unlike most other (Class B, but with grandfathered greater than B facilities) FM stations in Los Angeles whose transmitters are atop
Mount Wilson, KROQ's (Class B) transmitter is located on Tongva Peak in
Glendale at an altitude of 2,650 ft., which results in somewhat weaker signal coverage. KROQ's format had varied throughout the 2000s and 2010s. The radio station's format had repeated much of the same formula as the 1990s, mixing heavier acts like
Linkin Park,
Staind,
P.O.D.,
Seether,
Velvet Revolver,
Cold and
Saliva, with punk rock like
Rise Against,
Sum 41,
AFI,
Fall Out Boy,
My Chemical Romance,
Jimmy Eat World,
Panic! at the Disco and
Thrice, and with alternative/indie/garage rock acts such as
Muse,
Queens of the Stone Age,
The Strokes,
The Bravery,
Arcade Fire and
The Killers. This new crop of rock acts found considerable popularity on the radio station while sharing airspace with many KROQ veterans such as
Nirvana,
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Metallica,
Foo Fighters,
Weezer,
Green Day,
The Offspring,
Blink-182,
No Doubt,
System of a Down,
Korn,
Jane's Addiction, the
Beastie Boys,
Sublime,
Bad Religion,
Stone Temple Pilots,
Incubus,
Nine Inch Nails,
Social Distortion and
Cypress Hill. In February 2015, KROQ severed ties with Boyd "Doc on the Roq" Britton and Lisa May after deciding to drop news and traffic. The news came as a shock for longtime listeners as Doc on the Roq had been reporting news for the station for 27 years while Lisa May had been reporting traffic for the past 24 years. Fans took to Facebook to boycott the station for not renewing their contracts.
Management and audience changes, ratings decline (2017–2022) On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with
Entercom. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17. After a 28-year run at the station, Senior VP of Programming Kevin Weatherly exited the station to start a new role as
Spotify's new Head of North American Programming. Mike Kaplan replaced Weatherly at KROQ in February 2020. On March 18, 2020, Kevin Ryder announced on Twitter that he, Allie MacKay, Jensen Karp, and producer Dave Sanchez had all been let go from the morning show. The show would be replaced by afternoon hosts Ted Stryker and Kevin Klein. In September 2020, the show would be added on sister stations
KVIL in Dallas,
KITS in San Francisco, and
KRBZ in Kansas City via syndication as part of a company initiative to expand networked programming among the company's alternative stations due to
COVID-19 pandemic-related cutbacks and layoffs. The firing of Ryder marked a new chapter for KROQ under the leadership of brand manager Mike Kaplan. Kaplan previously served as program director of
iHeartMedia's
KYSR from 2013 to 2018. By the end of the Weatherly era, KROQ had essentially shifted to a
classic alternative format that leaned heavily on heritage acts. Weatherly added new titles to the playlist very conservatively. Kaplan's strategy differed from Weatherly's; he immediately shifted the playlist to focus on
alternative pop, with heavy airplay of artists including
Billie Eilish,
Machine Gun Kelly,
Post Malone,
Powfu,
24kGoldn,
Beabadoobee and
Dominic Fike. The station also decreased airplay of most 1990s and 2000s alternative titles and artists that defined the station during its heyday, including
System of a Down and
Muse. The changes drew ire from cultural critics and former KROQ on-air talent, followed by a steep ratings decline. In 2021, Stryker left KROQ (later landing at rival KYSR) and the morning show was renamed "Klein.Ally.Show." Around this time, the show stopped being syndicated to focus solely on its KROQ audience. Also in 2021, longtime DJ Kat Corbett left the station, having joined in 1999.
Return to form (2022–present) Weatherly would return to KROQ as Senior Vice President of Programming in May 2022, replacing Kaplan. Since then, the station has greatly reduced its focus on alternative rock and has increased airplay of classic alternative tracks from the 1990s and 2000s. On October 5, 2024, KROQ introduced a new
electronic dance music show,
KROQ EQ, on Saturday nights, with
Justice performing a guest DJ set for its premiere edition. For a short period in 2024-25, the station resurrected Loveline as a local, Sunday night show hosted by Kevan Kenney and Dr. Tara Suwinyattichaiporn. Kevin Ryder returned to KROQ on April 1, 2025, after five years, this time as an afternoon host. Current afternoon host Megan Holliday shifted to the night shift, replacing Kevan Kenney. In July 2025, longtime DJ Nicole Alvarez left the station and later penned a farewell message that lamented the state of the radio industry. In November 2025,
Variety reported that the station was experiencing its highest ratings in 15 years thanks to the return of Weatherly, Ryder, and a rock-heavy playlist. ==Awards==