A Legendary Name for a Legendary Talk Station
The History of News Talk 870
  See our KRLA Staff pictures and info here 

News Talk 870, KRLA Established by Reed Callister and David Cannon, News Talk 870, KRLA (formerly KIEV) began broadcasting in February of 1933 on 100 watts of power at 850kc after Callister, an attorney from Utah, purchased a set of steel broadcasting towers from KNX radio in Hollywood. With the help of a blacksmith, he erected the towers behind the Glendale Hotel, and made arrangements with the hotel for free rent in exchange for advertisements. By 1934, KIEV was granted a power upgrade to 250watts at 850kc. Finally in 1941, under NARBA, KIEV found it's home on 870AM as a 250 watt broadcast station.

Attracting energetic and colorful on-air personalities became KIEV's trademark, and many of Southern California's biggest names in radio history found a home there through the years, including Dick Whittinghill of KMPC, Don Rickles of NBC, Sam Benson of KLAC, and Dick Sinclair of KFI and KTLA, who returned after 26 years to become the program director.

In 1961, KIEV was sold to William Beaton and his sons Fred and Ron. Mr. Beaton remained president and chairman of the board until his death in 1985 at the age of eighty. At that time, Fred and Ron took control of the station. The offices of KIEV had occupied the basement of the historic Glendale Hotel for the first thirty years and then moved to the first floor. In 1989, KIEV management, realizing the need for additional space, moved its offices to 5900 San Fernando Road. With the purchase of its new headquarters, KIEV also boosted its power from 5,000 to 10,000 watts. In 2007, the station increased its power to 50,000 watts and can now be heard from Santa Barbara to San Diego and east to Barstow.

In September of 1998, Salem Communications, Corp., the nation's tenth largest radio conglomerate purchased the station. During the next two years KIEV evolved into a major talk radio force in the Los Angeles market, adding personalities Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, and Larry Marino, to broadcasting legend Ray Briem. On January 1st, 2001, the KIEV call letters were retired, and AM 870 was relaunched as News Talk 870 KRLA. The change identifies that the station's transformation into a 24 hour, 7 days a week news, talk and information-format station with on-air talent deserving of the legendary KRLA call letters.

Townhall.com was launched in 1995 as the first conservative web community. At that time, only a handful of political sites existed and Townhall.com was the first major investment in online activism made by either side. In 2005, Townhall.com split off from The Heritage Foundation in order to expand the scope of Townhall.com's mission to inform, empower and mobilize citizens for political change. Today, Townhall.com is a web site that pulls together news and information from its 120 different "partner organizations," political commentary and analysis from over 100 different columnists, and activism tools developed to empower an active citizenry.

Townhall.com is designed to amplify conservative voices in America’s political debates just as the 2006 and 2008 election cycles begin to heat up.

By uniting the nations’ top conservative radio hosts with their millions of listeners, Townhall.com breaks down the barriers between news and opinion, journalism and political participation -- and enables conservatives to participate in the political process with unprecedented ease.

As a part of Salem Communications Corporation, Townhall.com features Salem’s News/Talk radio hosts, Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, and Dennis Prager, who are heard on over 300 stations nationwide. Of our five hosts, three are among the top 10 radio talk shows in the nation!

For the first time, the grassroots media of talk radio, the internet, blogging and podcasting will be brought together in one place to activate conservative political participation.

By providing daily news and opinion articles, sophisticated activism tools, a vibrant blog community, online radio shows and more, Townhall.com will arm conservatives with the tools and information necessary to have an impact in shaping the news.