The Mighty Eleven-Ninety KLIF

If you’ve looked at my profile you’ll know that one of my interests is radio. There are many facets to that interest. One of them is vintage broadcasting. Vintage as in when I was a lot younger! Growing up, I lived not too far from one of America’s classic Top 40 AM radio stations, KLIF, 1190 on the “dial”.  Well, even the “dial” no longer applies for most of today’s listeners.


My fascination with broadcasting led me to visit KLIF and they were kind enough to allow me to take some pictures. It’s pretty interesting to look at these pictures today and see that just about everything has changed. In those days everything was analog. The clock on wall, the 45-rpm vinyl records, the tape cartridges. The top 40 songs of the day were stored right there in a record holder on the DJ’s console.



I wish I remembered the DJ’s name. I think it was Charlie. Things are so different now in broadcasting. Programming is all digitized right down to the time announcements and everything can be recorded days, months or even years in advance. I often wonder if there is actually a living person at most stations. Of course there is, for talk radio, which is so prolific
today, but otherwise I’m not sure. In the time since these photos were taken, KLIF has changed frequencies and format. Read about the station and its history here 

People are always asking me, What are you going to do with all those pictures? Here’s a good example. Fun to go back and relive that visit through pictures.