The History of KKTO FM Thousand Oaks
A Pioneering Underground Radio Station
KKTO FM, began operation in September of 1984 on 99.3 FM in the back of a house on Old Farm Rd. in the heart of Thousand Oaks, California. In 1984 computers in a radio station were unheard of, instead KKTO FM, programmed the old fashion way; with live DJ's that used cassette decks, reel to reel and turntables as the primary programming sources. KKTO FM, had broadcast 24/7, with live DJ's 18 hours a day and recorded programs overnight.
When KKTO FM, signed on the air back in 1984, quality FM transmitters in the USA was limited to just one from Panaxis, with its FME 500 PLL exciter and state of the art stereo generator. The KKTO FM, transmitter case also contained a Panaxis 10 watt RF amp; which used a pair of Motorola RTF133 mosfets. The KKTO FM, broadcast antenna was a large custom made 5/8 wave colinear. the antenna produced a gain of 4db and was mounted 40 feet above ground.
With its antenna in the heart of Thousand Oaks, KKTO FM was able to cover all of Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, and parts of Moorpark, Santa Rosa Valley and Westlake Village, serving a population of well over 100,000. KKTO FM, in 1985 added a two watt translator to better serve Westlake Village, and fill in some areas shadowed from KKTO's main transmitter. The translator fed a single dipole mounted inside the attic of a single story condo located at the busy intersection of Westlake Blvd and Hampshire Rd. From its location, the translator could be herd five miles deep into the canyons of North Ranch with a portable radio, and west to the Hwy 101 & 23 interchange. The translator also covered Westlake High School. KKTO FM, also added a second 1 watt FM signal to duplicate the AM (sometimes jammed by KDNF).
In 1986, a power increase at 99.5 in Los Angeles, forced KKTO FM to move from 99.3, up to 102.3. KKTO FM also relocated its studio in 1986, to an office behind the Thousand Oaks Masonic lodge on Crescent Way , a distance of about five miles from the original site. Since the transmitter was in an ideal location, it was left behind using telco lines to feed the Old Farm site. One our staffers parents, both worked for GTE's broadcast division, giving KKTO priority service, we ended up with better lines than the two legal stations; Our telco lines were tested ruler flat from 15hz-15khz. The only draw back to the relocation besides the cost of the phone lines ($550 a month per an audio channel), was that it exposed our transmitter to theft, more on that latter on.
With the KKTO FM, original studios sandwiched between two High Schools and just down the street from the Park Oaks shopping center, a popular teen hang out at the time. With its New Wave/Dance format, KKTO FM, became an instant hit in the Conejo Valley, the station became so popular that it was played in many stores, including two grocery stores, and a movie theater during intermission. If you stood at the intersection of Janss & Moorpark Road, you would here KKTO FM, coming out of most of the cars stopped or passing through the intersection. And the icing on the cake, was when we found out the late Rick Carroll of KROQ fame listened to KKTO FM, out of KROQ van when it was parked in front of his house, even the KNJO office radio was tuned to KKTO FM, which really ticked off some of the DJ's, case in point; KNJO's Harvey Kern's daughter stop by the KKTO studios for a visit and then went on the air telling listeners how much she loved KKTO; Harvey blew a fuse, and till this day holds a grudge. KKTO FM, had the rich and famous listening too, many calling in or stopping by the studios, including: the Dr. from Little House On The Prairie, Olivia Newton-John, Michael Jackson, Belinda Carlisle, of the Go Go's, The Bangles and Heather Locklear just to name a few.
KKTO FM, was talent driven, with all the DJ's coming from local high schools and colleges. The station also covered high school sports and community events, including help start a food bank, safe rides, and a suicide hotline run by other teens. KKTO staffers enjoyed great success with never having to buy anything; you name it and it was delivered to the studios. The word "Pizza" on the air would net no less than three large Piping hot pizzas including soda and a 12 pack of beer in our studio in thirty minutes or less! The record stores knew giving us records meant increased sales, clothing stores knew to dress our jocks in the latest fashion, and a car without gas, was not going to get the DJ to the station. We even had listeners spend their cocaine allowance on buying us more records and furnishings for the station, one guy bought us two Tascam 32-2 reel to reels just to say thanks! Another teen produced a thousand KKTO FM Tee-shirts just because he had nothing else to do with his money.
KKTO FM, became so popular that we started to show up in the ratings big time with 4+ share according to a Birch/Arbitron staffer we met; he told us a side note in the book noted that the station was not a subscriber. With KKTO FM, on top in late 87 early 88, you know what happens next! A lunch time trip to the transmitter turned unpleasant when a unmarked beiges Ford Granada with two Asian men sitting inside was parked out front, after going inside we were greeted at the door by those same Asian men, we first thought they were Jehovah Witnesses paying us a visit again. No such luck! It was the FCC paying us a special visit, they did some test and gave us the spiel about the rules and some paperwork. Couple days later, we got a nice letter saying we owed them $750. One note of interest: The agents told us they knew we had been on the air for years, but ignored it because their kids listened too. The reason for the visit, was that someone kept filing complaints, thirty in total. We asked if it was KNJO? NO! Was it KGOE, NO! we were then told it was not a station that was filing the complaints, but the agents would not tell us who. After taking a station break for a couple months, the itch and demand was growing for KKTO FM to return to the air which we did from a new location, KKTO FM was back on top almost instantly, keeping four phone lines ringing 24/7; to make the phone ring, all we had to do was hang it up and it would light up or ring. We thought things were going great, until we got a call, and a certified letter in the mail. The call came from one of agents children "GET THE TRANSMITTER OUT!" "You are going to be raided!". Because we were tipped off about the raid, the transmitter was gotten out of the house a couple of hours earlier, since we were off the air at the time of the raid, and had no transmitter seized, all of our equipment was returned and charges dropped.
Who turned us in? Belive it or not! It was not a legal radio station, according to court documents and through discovery, it was learned that it was a couple of DJ's from another pirate radio station in Thousand Oaks (KDNF) that turned us in, Beat That! But wait there is more! KDNF was on the air at the time of our raid, broadcasting on our frequency and on AM too with 100 watts. We thought for sure the FCC agents, would head over to their studios next; after it was pointed out to the FCC agents (Not the same agents from the first visit) by upset listeners who happen to be visiting our studios during the raid. To our amazement, to this day the FCC never did anything to the other station, in fact the other pirate radio station stayed on the air for 15 years after our bust, talk about selective law enforcement! In fact that pirate operator is now part of a legal radio station in Grants, New Mexico. Prior to the raid, KKTO FM, was suffering extensive and expensive vandalism by staffers of KDNF. You name it! They did it! Including destroying several cars, cutting antenna & phone lines, stealing mail, breaking in and stealing our transmitter. Then there was the endless prank phone calls (they finally got busted after two years when the phone company installed a trap). Our listeners and staffers caught KDNF DJ's red handed multiple times, even turned them over to the cops a few times. We think they were upset that KKTO FM ended up with almost all of their listeners! Spoiled Sports!
All those who were caught vandalizing, turned out to be all members of the LDS, with a few fathers being well ranked Bishops. Later it was learned the same vandals were also stealing records from their dads offices and using the information to blackmail other LDS members, before they were caught. These same fools also vandalized the vehicles of two of our DJ's parents cars. Big Mistake! Our DJ'S parents(also LDS) were the nicest people you would ever want to meet, but were not to be crossed like that. It was payback time! We herd that they messed with the wrong DJ's Parents and paid a very hefty price, word is they served their mission in a pretty nasty place!.
The KKTO call letters are now used by an NPR station in Tahoe City, California, and KKTO-TV, is in New Mexico. Some members of KKTO FM, are the original founders of the Radio Brandy Broadcast Workshop and XRQK Media Group, spawning a new generation of broadcasters. Side note: The call letters were originally assigned to the new Thousand Oaks AM station, but were changed to KGOE before the station signed on the air in September of 1972.
