page_title: KWKW
section_title: Classical evolution
hierarchical_section_title: KWKW / History / KFAC / Classical evolution
caption_attribution_description: English: Fred Crane publicity photo circa 1960s from the family collection - released for nonprofit and fair use - maintained on the IMDB Internet Movie Database since 2007
context_page_description: KWKW – branded Tu Liga Radio 1330 – is a commercial Spanish language sports radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California. Owned by Lotus Communications, the station serves Greater Los Angeles and much of surrounding Southern California, and is the Los Angeles affiliate of TUDN Radio. The KWKW studios are located in the Los Angeles Hollywood Hills neighborhood, while the station transmitter resides in the nearby Crenshaw District, shared with KABC and KFOX. Besides a standard analog transmission, the station also simulcasts over low-power FM translator K264CQ and streams online.
  Historically, this station is perhaps best known as KFAC, one of the most visible commercial fine arts/classical music stations in the United States, and one of the first to have adopted the format on a full-time basis. By the time of their sales and format changes in 1989, KFAC and FM adjunct KFAC-FM were two of only 41 stations—out of 9,000 commercial U.S. radio stations in operation—that played classical music.
context_section_description: KFAC's history playing classical music began on January 15, 1938; the station's "40th Anniversary" program guide published in 1978 would later regard that date as their "birthdate". Their first regularly-scheduled long-form classical music program, The Gas Company Evening Concert, debuted on October 1, 1940 and aired six nights a week, Sundays excluded. Having been encouraged by his wife to enter radio broadcasting, Thomas Cassidy joined the station from KIDO in Boise, Idaho on December 1943 as the host of Evening Concert, a role he would maintain for the next 43 years; Cassidy became so closely associated with the program that his obituary erroneously regarded his joining the station as when Evening Concert began. During this transitional period, in 1943, Steve Allen was hired as an overnight announcer on KFAC, having been recommended for the job by Madelyn Pugh Davis, who heard him perform on KOY (550 AM) in Phoenix. While he lasted at the station for only six months, in part due to not following directives and his humorous tone not fitting the station's classical selections, Allen soon landed at KHJ co-hosting Smile Time with Wendell Noble on the Don Lee Network; it and a future late-night variety program on the CBS Radio Network would be precursors to his tenure as the first host of NBC's The Tonight Show franchise.
  The success of Evening Concert, as well as Musical Masterpieces, another program hosted by Cassidy, facilitated the station's evolution into a full-time classical music outlet. Harry Mitchell, a former announcer at the Hollywood Palladium, was appointed as program director on July 6, 1944, and pledged to have the station place a greater emphasis on live programming. E.L. Cord allegedly toured the studios one day in 1945 and recognized the substantial investments KFAC had made in classical recordings, finalizing the evolution. While very much still a commercial station, Cord continued to operate KFAC mostly as a personal hobby despite not knowing much about the genre; his own personal tastes were eventually reflected in the station's presentation that persisted for decades.
  KFAC also was in the process of slowly assembling an airstaff that had an unprecedented level of continuity. Fred Crane, an actor most famous for his supporting role as Brent Tarleton in Gone with the Wind, was hired as a part-time announcer while still continuing to perform on film and television; Fred's position became full-time in the early 1960s. Tom Dixon and Dick Crawford notably were hired on the same date in 1947; Dixon—an Edmonton native who joined the station after simultaneous work at KHJ, KNX (1070 AM) and KMPC (710 AM) emceeing multiple programs, including The Billie Burke Show—served as afternoon announcer for nearly 39 years, while Crawford primarily worked on weekends. Carl Princi joined the station in 1953 after a short stint as a bilingual presenter at KWKW (1300 AM). Referring to himself as "the newest of the old timers", when Princi was interviewed by Hamilton Radio Quarterly in 1976 about his longevity, he replied that "he'd only been there 23 years." Princi hosted The World of Opera every weekday afternoon throughout his entire tenure with the station and conducted most of the station interviews with musicians. Bill Carlson also joined KFAC in 1953 as host of the Noontime Concert, which he presided over for the next 30 years. All told, this core group of Cassidy, Crane, Dixon, Crawford, Princi and Carlson was fundamentally unchanged between 1953 and 1983.
  Pacific Coast League baseball broadcasts, Lucky Lager Dance Time and Uncle Whoa Bill were among the last remaining non-classical programs to remain on the schedule; the baseball games at times wound up delaying the start time for Evening Concert by as much as two hours before being dropped at the end of the 1945 season. Ira Cook began working for both KFAC and KMPC, and even KSL in Salt Lake City, in similar capacities before Lucky Lager Dance Time was cancelled at the end of 1948, Cook would continue the show, itself later supervised by Bill Gavin, at KMPC. Meanw
caption: KFAC announcer Fred Crane. Perhaps best known for his role as Brent Tarleton in Gone with the Wind, Crane was hired by the station in 1946 and stayed until a controversial mass firing on December 31, 1986.
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