Kmzt Radio Station

Classical music station KKGO-FM (105.1) will change its call letters--but not its music--to KMZT-FM, going by the moniker K-Mozart, starting March 31. Saul Levine, president and general manager of the station, said the change is being made "to identify more closely with its music format." Under its call letters since 1978, KKGO segued to classical music from jazz in 1990. Last week, Levine announced the transformation of pop-standards station KGIL-AM (1260) to a jazz format.

Saying there's too much bluster and not enough news on the airwaves, radio entrepreneur Saul Levine is launching a news/talk station Oct. 29, replacing classical outlet KMZT-AM (1260). The new KGIL will feature the return of Michael Jackson, the dean of Los Angeles talk-radio hosts, Levine said, and "the theme of the station is going to be the word 'balanced.'

Country KKGO-AM (1260) and classical KMZT-FM (105.1) switched frequencies and music formats Monday, but the advertising on the two stations wasn't as quick to follow. During the morning hours, an ad for an L.A. Philharmonic concert was heard amid the country tunes on what is now KKGO-FM, while the classical strains on the new KMZT-AM contained a commercial with Tanya Roberts hawking a Las Vegas promotion.

Saul Levine is bringing back a touch of the pop standards format to his radio station at 1260 AM. That's the format -- featuring singers such as Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand -- that was on the station a year ago, when it was KKGO-AM. Late in the year owner Levine switched it to a country format, and then in February the station went classical as KMZT-AM.

Unhappy about KMZT's switch from FM to AM on the radio dial, Pacific Symphony is moving its broadcast home to classical station KUSC-FM (91.5), beginning this weekend. The Orange County orchestra said the remaining five concerts in the current season of its Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation Classics Series would air live on Saturdays at 8 p.m. on KUSC. The series will resume there in the fall.

Describing the arrangement as the proverbial camel's nose under the tent, the owner of commercial classical station KMZT-FM (105.1) has petitioned the FCC to stop a partnership between classical rival KUSC-FM (91.5) and Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio chain. In July, KUSC-FM announced it was using the sales staff of a Clear Channel subsidiary to solicit underwriting sponsors for the public station, owned by USC.

Saul Levine is bringing back a touch of the pop standards format to his radio station at 1260 AM. That's the format -- featuring singers such as Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand -- that was on the station a year ago, when it was KKGO-AM. Late in the year owner Levine switched it to a country format, and then in February the station went classical as KMZT-AM.

KMZT-FM (105.1) calls itself K-Mozart, and now it is living up to its name. In addition to broadcasting Mozart programming from Austria today through Friday, the classical music station is planning to feature works by Mozart every weeknight at 7 for three months, beginning Monday with his first piano concerto. That will be followed on successive nights by the other 26 piano concertos, then his other concertos and symphonies.

L.A.'s new game of musical chairs began a few minutes before 6 a.m. Monday. That's when classical radio station 105.1 FM said adios to 18 years of cantatas and sonatas and bid hello to a new era with Brooks & Dunn singing "Believe," a folksy ode to keepin' the faith that heavenly rewards await those who persevere in a world of woe. The station's switch from KMZT, or "K-Mozart," to KKGO, "Go Country 105," brought the Nashville twang back to the L.A.

Saying there's too much bluster and not enough news on the airwaves, radio entrepreneur Saul Levine is launching a news/talk station Oct. 29, replacing classical outlet KMZT-AM (1260). The new KGIL will feature the return of Michael Jackson, the dean of Los Angeles talk-radio hosts, Levine said, and "the theme of the station is going to be the word 'balanced.'

Unhappy about KMZT's switch from FM to AM on the radio dial, Pacific Symphony is moving its broadcast home to classical station KUSC-FM (91.5), beginning this weekend. The Orange County orchestra said the remaining five concerts in the current season of its Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation Classics Series would air live on Saturdays at 8 p.m. on KUSC. The series will resume there in the fall.

L.A.'s new game of musical chairs began a few minutes before 6 a.m. Monday. That's when classical radio station 105.1 FM said adios to 18 years of cantatas and sonatas and bid hello to a new era with Brooks & Dunn singing "Believe," a folksy ode to keepin' the faith that heavenly rewards await those who persevere in a world of woe. The station's switch from KMZT, or "K-Mozart," to KKGO, "Go Country 105," brought the Nashville twang back to the L.A.

Country KKGO-AM (1260) and classical KMZT-FM (105.1) switched frequencies and music formats Monday, but the advertising on the two stations wasn't as quick to follow. During the morning hours, an ad for an L.A. Philharmonic concert was heard amid the country tunes on what is now KKGO-FM, while the classical strains on the new KMZT-AM contained a commercial with Tanya Roberts hawking a Las Vegas promotion.

Trading Bach and Beethoven for Brooks & Dunn, classical music station K-Mozart will switch to country at 6 a.m. Monday, bringing the genre back to FM radio in the Los Angeles-Orange County market. KMZT-FM (105.1) will swap names and formats with sister station KKGO-AM (1260), now billed as "Go Country," said owner Saul Levine, president of their parent company, Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters.

In 1958, atop Mt. Wilson overlooking Los Angeles, Saul Levine built a radio station almost solely with his own hands. He used a rented tractor to clear scrub brush from a patch of land so remote that the U.S. Forest Service leased it to him for $350 a year. With the help of a carpenter, he built a shack to house his broadcast equipment -- mostly secondhand -- and a bare-bones studio. The antenna was placed atop a flagpole.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is moving into the 21st century. In celebration of the composer's 250th birthday, KMZT-FM (105.1) is featuring a free download beginning today of Mozart's Serenade No. 6 in D major K.239 (Serenata Notturna) on its website at www.kmzt.com. Conducted by Harry Bicket, the 14-minute piece is performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and was recorded live at Royce Hall last year.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is moving into the 21st century. In celebration of the composer's 250th birthday, KMZT-FM (105.1) is featuring a free download beginning today of Mozart's Serenade No. 6 in D major K.239 (Serenata Notturna) on its website at www.kmzt.com. Conducted by Harry Bicket, the 14-minute piece is performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and was recorded live at Royce Hall last year.

In 1958, atop Mt. Wilson overlooking Los Angeles, Saul Levine built a radio station almost solely with his own hands. He used a rented tractor to clear scrub brush from a patch of land so remote that the U.S. Forest Service leased it to him for $350 a year. With the help of a carpenter, he built a shack to house his broadcast equipment -- mostly secondhand -- and a bare-bones studio. The antenna was placed atop a flagpole.

KMZT-FM (105.1) calls itself K-Mozart, and now it is living up to its name. In addition to broadcasting Mozart programming from Austria today through Friday, the classical music station is planning to feature works by Mozart every weeknight at 7 for three months, beginning Monday with his first piano concerto. That will be followed on successive nights by the other 26 piano concertos, then his other concertos and symphonies.

Describing the arrangement as the proverbial camel's nose under the tent, the owner of commercial classical station KMZT-FM (105.1) has petitioned the FCC to stop a partnership between classical rival KUSC-FM (91.5) and Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio chain. In July, KUSC-FM announced it was using the sales staff of a Clear Channel subsidiary to solicit underwriting sponsors for the public station, owned by USC.